Cannot open more than one link from external app (second one replaces the first)

Description:
It seems to be impossible to open more than one link from external application (e.g. communicator like Signal) in Brave on Android. First link clicked creates new tab and opens in it, but afterwards every next click opens in this same tab, replacing previous one. Is there an option to change that? Is it an insanely stupid behavior…

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Set Brave as default browser
  2. Click on a link in some other app, for it to be opened in Brave (it should create a new tab and open in it).
  3. Click on another link - it does not create another new tab, but rather opens in the one created in point 2., replacing its content.

Actual Result:
Impossible to show on a screenshot…

Expected result:
Opening new tab for each link opened via external applications.

Reproduces how often:
Every time.

Operating System and Brave Version:
Android 13
Brave 1.68.128

Is any of Brave employees ever taking a look at the topics opened here? Or will this be another one among hundreds or maybe thousands of support topic which I saw being closed with 0 answers? Why Brave even bothers keeping this ‘community’ when all it brings if frustration when you find a topic perfectly describing your issue, only to learn it was closed with completely_zero_interest from the makers? This is really a shame, I shouldn’t have wasted my time on this…

Hello?! Dear Brave developers! Any idea on how can your creation be so broken?

@bajczyk you described that things work. You choose to open a link from another app and have it open in Brave. It opens Brave and goes to it. You want it in another tab, but just because it doesn’t do that doesn’t mean it’s broken. It just means you have different expectations than reality.

Yes, and they respond to quite a number of them. However, they are only human and can do so much. They don’t work 24/7 and have lives outside of work. They focus on the topics where people have real issues. Your topic is just more of a feature request and isn’t reporting anything broken.

That said, have you ever tried to press and hold down on a link? Often a context menu appears and you can choose to open in a new tab. Or you could just open a new tab by default so it is the one redirected.

Hey Saoiray, thank you for your answer, however disregarding and negligent it may be. It’s still more than what happened to majority of topics I happened to find when looking for solution to issues I encounter with Brave (on Android - desktop version works perfectly fine and I happy with it).

I described behaviour that’s different than the behaviour of all the other mobile browsers. They all open each link in a new tab. Separate tab. They are not limited to only the first tab created this way, overwriting it over and over. Brave is the only one with such bug. It is a bug. Being incapable of opening more than one tab from external application is a severe functionality limitation. It is broken.

Being incapable of opening more than one link at a time seems like a real issue to me. Comparing to any of your competitors I’d describe your current behaviour as broken. The only ‘feature’ I see here is: stop breaking established usage patterns.

No such context menu (I just checked to be sure) - I’m describing opening links passed to default Android browser from external applications…

I tried (after closing all tabs):

  1. Opening first link from external app: it creates new tab.
  2. Opening second link from external app: first one gets overwritten.
  3. Opening new empty tab.
  4. Opening third link from external app: still, the first one gets overwritten, empty tab from point 3. is ignored.

And a few more experiments (with order and number of tabs) - none of the combinations would allow to open more than one link at once. If that’s not broken then I have no fucking clue what broken means anymore - after all it works everywhere else.

I’m not sure what’s more infuriating:

  • the fact that browser with such potential decided to be different than all the others in such messed up way
  • the fact that Brave Community looks almost abandoned (judging by the proportions of topics with answer to those left to be automatically closed after 30 days) - here I understand that you are apparently understaffed, and I feel sorry for you, but this is something you as an organization need to fix
  • passive-aggressive way to respond to customers describing a usability defect of your product (admittedly in a rude way - I’m pissed, my apologies for that)

@bajczyk let me start off by making sure you realize I’m not employed by Brave. In fact, I’m not employed by anyone. I’m disabled and time here is just something I do voluntarily in attempts to help people. If you’re not familiar with Community Ninja or you aren’t quite sure how to tell who is from Brave, I invite you to check two different posts at What is a Community Ninja? and How can I tell who is from Brave compared to regular Users?

Second is I did tone down what I wanted to say quite a bit, but I probably should have run it through ChatGPT or something as I often do as of late. I actually have a prompt where I’ll have ChatGPT evaluate a reply I’m about to give and tell me if it’s rude or condescending, then ask it to revise to a better response. As I was in a hurry, I went with my instincts and thought I was good. However, here’s what ChatGPT is saying in regards to my reply:

Evaluation:

  • Rude or Condescending?
    • The tone is somewhat blunt and dismissive, particularly with phrases like “just because it doesn’t do that doesn’t mean it’s broken” and “they are only human and can do so much.”

Suggested Revision:


@bajczyk, it sounds like Brave is functioning as intended by opening links in the same tab. This might not match your preference, but it doesn’t indicate a malfunction.

Brave employees do review and respond to many topics here, but they focus on addressing critical issues first. Your request seems more like a feature request rather than reporting a bug.

In the meantime, have you tried pressing and holding on a link? This often brings up a context menu where you can choose to open the link in a new tab. Alternatively, you could open a new tab first and then use it for the link.

Had I done that, you likely would have received things better.

Lastly, I want to make sure you know that I’m still not finished with the topic. My plans were still to try to look into things myself and ask people at Brave if this is intended behavior or what options exist. I just first focused on trying to address the “elephant in the room.”

And not using the suggested revision, but assuming should be okay as:

image

@Mattches Two main questions for this topic:

  1. When opening a link from an external app on Android, should it be opening as a new tab in Brave or is expected behavior for it to open it in the existing tab?
  2. Regardless of intended behavior, is there a way to get it to open in new tabs if it isn’t?

@bajczyk,
Can you please confirm that these links are actually opening in the browser and not a Brave webview? There is an option in Settings --> General called Open external links in Brave. This option makes it so that external links open “in-app” via Brave webview and if you were to click one link, then another, it would “replace” the webview with a new one (note that I’m using the external YouTube app on my phone):

However, if I disable this option, every external link I open opens in a new tab in the browser as expected:

1 Like

Hi Mattches, thank you for checking out on this! Yes, I can confirm those malfuctioning links are being opened fully in a browser, not just webview. With Signal no matter whether this Open external links in Brave option is set or not, the links are always opened in the browser and always the next one replaces the previous one. However, this option works as you describe e.g. in Mastodon client. Also links opened from Proton Mail works fine, it is only Signal (among those few apps I’ve checked) that replaces only contents of one tab. But Signal itself also works fine if I set Firefox as default browser in Android settings, there every links creates a new tab. Is it in any way helpful? I don’t know enough about internals of Android browsers (or the way they’re receiving links from external apps) to make any suggestions, I just know there is definitely some difference in behavior.

This appears to actually be a Signal issue that they’ve been dealing with for a while now:

But still, they cannot do it completely wrong, since it works as expected on Firefox? Is there a chance you can figure out what is done differently on Chrome-based browsers and mitigate it? I cannot imagine external apps having this much power to completely break usage of a browser.

Again, this appears to be a Signal issue, not a Brave issue. I would recommend reaching out to Signal support for assistance.

There are two reasons for me to believe the issue is on Brave side, not Signal:

  1. problem started after a change on Chrome side, Signal did not change their behavior (judging from those Issues linked above)
  2. Signal is working without a problem with Firefox, so their way of sending tabs seems to be ok

@bajczyk, as Mattches mentioned, this has been a known complaint from Signal users since 2015.

If it were a Brave issue, you would likely see it happening with other apps as well. Since you’re only experiencing it with Signal, it might indicate an issue within that specific app.

Just to clarify, are you saying this issue doesn’t happen with any other apps you’re using, only with Signal?

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