Android

I have an app from the F-Droid store called URLCheck. I set it as my default "web browser" and then it intercepts every URL I click with a pop-up menu.

The menu lets me see the URL and breaks it down into various parts, which I can selectively remove if I desire. I primarily use it to remove all tracking tags from links people share. But at the bottom of the menu, there's a drop-down list with all the detected web browsers on your device. You can select a specific web browser before opening the link.

Sure, you may have to manually select the browser every time, but you can guarantee that every Tumblr link opens in Waterfox instead of a default browser. And it gives you a chance to review your URLs before opening them.

Most people have no idea what kind of parameters are attached to links nowadays. I basically just remove the entire "parameters" section of the URL so it takes me straight to the webpage. No tracking, no data collection on where I clicked from, no custom attributes to load on the page. Just take me straight to the link with no extra BS.

Oh, I just noticed it's on the Google Play store now. That's good; with Google threatening to lock down Android to only install from their store later this year, I was worried I wouldn't be able to update URLCheck anymore.

I think there are apps that you can set as an intermediary - so you set this middleman app (let's call it ABC) as your default browser, but within that app you can set detailed rules for what links/domains open in what specific browser. Do you click your link, it tries to open in ABC, but then ABC reroutes it.

I can't recall the names of any such apps off the top of my head, but I think they do exist.

With linksheet as your default browser itll show a list of browsers when you open a link and asks you which one youd like. Defaults can be set on a website basis so itll open your prefered browser without asking.