iOS does not allow you to change the
default browser, which has been one of the reasons why third-party
browsers are not widely used. But if you've jailbroken your iOS device,
then it is possible to change the default browser.
An aptly named jailbreak tweak called
Browser Changer allows you to change your iPhone's default browser from
mobile Safari to a third-party browser.
All you have to do is follow these simple steps to change your iPhone's default browser using he jailbreak tweak:
- Launch Cydia
- Tap on the Search tab
- Search for Browser Changer and select Browser Changer from the search results
- Then tap on the Install button, followed by the Confirm button
- After the jailbreak tweak is installed, it will prompt you to Restart SpringBoard
- Tap on the Restart SpringBoard button and wait for your iPhone to respring
- Then launch the Settings app
- And browse to Browser Changer and tap on it
- Then tap on Selected Browser option under General and select the third-party browser from the list that you want to use as the default browser.
That's it, now when you open links
from the Mail app, Twitter apps etc. will open the links in the third
party browser that you had selected rather than mobile Safari.
You can also install the Browser
Changer SBSettings toggle, so that you can enable or disable this
feature to switch between mobile Safari and the third-party browser.
If your device is not Jailbroken -
For the devices which are not jailbroken, that means if your device has a stock OS, then here is a trick developed by Jon Abram that comes in the form of a bookmarklet you can stick in Safari’s address bar and tap anytime you want to open the URL in Chrome.
- Open this page (yes this page you are currently reading!) in your iOS device, obviously in Safari
- Copy the following code
- Add the current page to your bookmarks by clicking arrow and ‘Add Bookmark’ in Safari
- Name the bookmark something like ‘Open in Chrome’ and click Save
- Now, go to your bookmarks by clicking the little book in the Safari browser. Click Edit and edit ‘Open in Chrome’ which is set in the previous step
- Delete the URL that’s there in it (obviously, it should be the URL
that was added in Step 1) and paste the copied code (from Step 2)
- That’s it! Now, every time when Safari your desired URL by default, just click the bookmarklet ‘Open in Chrome’ which will launch the URL in Chrome directly. Its not the exact workaround, but this tweak eliminates the pain to copy manually the desired URL every time and paste in Chrome multitasking fashion.
javascript:location.href="googlechrome"+location.href.substring(4);
