Here’s How To Stop Your Android Opening The Wrong Apps By Default

Android’s ability to open up apps by default when certain links are selected or certain pages visited in Chrome or another browser is a powerful feature. But that doesn’t always mean it’s a desirable one.

If, for example, you’re trying to visit Twitter.com to adjust a web-specific setting, you’ll automatically be redirected to the app. And that holds for just about any app that has a web presence, too. Potentially causing significant problems for those few that do have different online and offline features.

Fortunately, with Android, you do also have the option to put a stop to that for any individual application. And, of course, if you make a mistake in setting those features to your liking, it’s easy enough to set all of the apps back to their default settings on Android too. That is, in fact, exactly what this guide sets out to help you accomplish.

Like nearly all of our how-to guides for Android, this walkthrough will work for both Android tablets and phones. So let’s dig in.

Here’s how you can reset your default apps on Android

Now, the problem with accidentally or unknowingly setting default apps in Android is that it’s not always easy to know which app was set. And while it’s easy enough — and this guide will show you how — to reset a single app, going through all of your apps can be a hassle. Especially if you have dozens of apps installed. Or hundreds.

Fortunately, there’s a solution for that too. Although it does require that all defaults are reset. So you’ll need to set up the defaults you do want all over again, afterward.

Remove default settings for a specific app

1. Swipe down — twice on some Android devices — from the notification shade to reveal the gear-shaped Settings icon
2. Select the gear-shaped settings icon
3. Scroll to select the “Apps” option, within the Settings application
4. Select “See All Apps,” if needed, to reveal all apps installed on your smartphone or tablet
5. Scroll through the available apps to discover the app you’d like to reset defaults for and then select it. In our sample images, we’ve selected the stock calculator since there are plenty of other great calculators to choose from
6. Within the app-specific menu, select the “Open By Default” option. You may need to scroll down to see the correct option
7. Turn the toggle that reads “Open Supported Links” off
8. Repeat for any remaining apps you’d like to turn defaults off for

Reset all of your apps’ settings back to default.

1. This portion of the guide actually starts out exactly like the previous segment. Namely, you’ll start with a swipe down — or twice on some Android devices — from the notification shade to reveal the gear-shaped Settings icon. And then you’ll select that icon.
2. Scroll to select the “Apps” option, within the Settings application
3. Rather than scrolling through your apps this time around, however, you’ll need to select the three-dot overflow menu at the top right-hand side of the UI. As shown in our sample images below
4. Next, in the overflow menu that reveals, select “Reset App Preferences”
5. Your device will throw a warning, which we’ll discuss momentarily. But be sure to read it, to ensure you’re okay with the changes it will make. Then select the “Reset Apps” button.

Be aware of what really happens when you reset all of your app preferences

Now, as hinted above, resetting all of your app preferences does far more than just resetting which apps open what by default. So it’s important to understand what, exactly, is being reset.

To begin with, the setting will, in fact, reset all of your apps back to default settings. That means that apps you’ve previously set up not to open by default will again. And a whole lot more.

The setting also resets any app notifications changes that you’ve made. So if you’ve set apps not to notify you, you’ll need to do so again. And the same goes for permissions restrictions, background data use restrictions, and more. That will potentially leave you with a lot of settings to set up all over again, depending on how in-depth you’ve gone with your device set-up, to begin with.

All of which is to say that you should probably not reset all of your app preferences to their default settings unless you absolutely need to. Resolving any issues you may be having within the settings of a single app, as shown in the first segment here, is the more viable option for most circumstances.