Please Don't Be Like Google!

[madra]

Today, I clicked on a link in an email on my tablet and, instead of opening in my browser, it opened in Aqua Mail, rather than my browser [as I'd always set up an email client to do].  As I don't check email on my tablet that often, I thought maybe I'd missed setting a preference somewhere, when I installed Aqua Mail. So, I trawled through the myriad options until I eventually found:

Settings > Message View > Open web links in Aqua Mail  --which was ticked.

At this stage I'm still thinking it's an oversight on my part. 

Later, as I mostly do, I'm checking mail on my phone. Again I click on a link and again it opens in Aqua Mail instead of my browser. So I dive into the settings again and find the same option ticked again.

Now, given I use Aqua Mail a lot on my phone, I know for a fact that links in emails have always opened in my browser before. So I'm left to conclude that this "Open web links in Aqua Mail" is a new 'feature' added during one of the recent updates and which has been enabled by default.

Apart from the usual privacy concerns, one of the other reasons I loathe Google's software and seek out alternatives wherever possible, is that Google have this infuriating habit of adding 'features' I don't want to Android and enabling them by default. Leaving me to trawl through screens full of settings to try and find out why, all of a sudden, [to give one recent example] my keyboard is now trying to stick moronic emojis into what I'm trying to type.

Adding new features to apps is all fine and dandy but please ask the user if they want to enable them first.  Doing something that changes the behaviour of an app, without asking first is really annoying --especially for the kind of people who like to set up their software "just right", which pretty much defines Aqua Mail's user demographic. Forcing the user to trawl through pages full of preferences [of which there are a lot in Aqua Mail!] to try and find the one that's suddenly causing the app to behave differently, so as to restore it to its former functionality, is not very user-friendly.

Please don't be like Google!

[pyler]

I think you are right, apps now introduce new features, leave them on by default and users don't know whether is possible to disable or adjust them.

If there is a new release with new features, app should ask via dialog whether to turn on it, I believe.

New build with feature X -> user installs it -> in the right situation (in this case when opening links), app should ask if turn feature X (till that, off by default).

[mikeone]

Yes, very good point. I support your suggestion.

[Kostya Vasilyev]

Re: apps now introduce new features, leave them on by default

Right, because if a new feature is off by default - very few users will know it's there.

Re: app should ask via dialog whether to turn on it, I believe

For this one, it just did't occur to any one of us that - anyone would object to this, and in any case we did add a setting to turn this off.

Anyway, noted, thanks.

[AnJam313]

I agree with the original poster's suggestion.

It was disconcerting to suddenly find myself in your unfamiliar browser after clicking a link, and it was not at a time that was convenient for me to dig for a solution.

Since many of us have tweaked settings to our liking, it would be courteous to offer changes rather than to arbitrarily impose them without warning.

Having said that, thank you for a generally wonderful experience with AquaMail..

[el.jeffe58]

I agree with OP suggestion too. Announce it in the update somehow that a new feature is available. Thanks.

[wcapital]

I completely agree with other voices on this forum; introduction of new features is great, but enabling them by default, ESPECIALLY without obvious explanation of how to disable them or how they work --- JUST SUCKS!

I have been a loyal user of Aquamail Pro for many years and have turned many others on to it - but if new ownership means behavior like Google, Microsoft and Apple - shoving not fully thought-out feature changes down our throats with no consideration for the wasted time  (about 30 mins and counting this morning) and aggravation it causes users ---then that loyalty will disappear as quickly as unwanted updates install!

With respect to this feature - links opening in an internal version of Chrome (as I understand it) - all that need have been done to avoid aggravation and inconvenience (besides more detail in the what's new in this version note) would have been to include a menu option accessed by a long-press - which either turns it off or - better still - allows one to select, for that link, whether to open it in the app or in another browser.

I DO like the feature - to be able to open links within the Aquamail app -just don't want it automatic.  I use 3 different browsers on my phone, and like to choose which one to use for different types of links / content.  This is simple by not having a default browser selected in android, but seems not possible with the automatic opening of links within the new internal version of Chrome in Aquamail.

I often like to toggle between Aquamail and a browser to open several links (like stories of interest from newsletter summaries)  in multiple tabs, and then read them all (now or later) once I've reviewed (& deleted) the email - but the internal version doesn’t seem to have multiple tab functionality; going back to the email message just seems to close the page.  I did discover that the history of pages opened in the internal browser does appear in the external version of Chrome - a good thing.....but not good enough to make me want to use the new internal browser......until/unless the option of how/where to open each link is conveniently available for EACH link (or at least all links within each email).

I WOULD like and use the new feature if such functionality is added.   Here's hoping another new update will do so in the near future.

Kevin

[StR]

In Web browsers, a tap on the link opens it in the same window, but a long touch opens a menu, offering to open the link in another windows, as well as copy the link, etc. That might be a good idea.