How to use LinkSheet to fix Android’s broken link handling

I get plenty of WhatsApp messages from friends and family every day, many of which are links to other websites, Reddit threads, Instagram Reels, or YouTube videos. Tapping these links opens them directly in their native apps — except for Instagram Reels links, which open in the default browser because I don’t have the Instagram app on my phone.

Although I’m fine with this most of the time, it’s not a perfect system. I don’t always want to open links in the native app, since that can influence my algorithm and surface similar content I may not want to see. For the longest time, I relied on a workaround to navigate this problem. It involved copying the link I received in WhatsApp and opening it in a browser. It was just as clunky as it sounds.

​That’s when I decided to give LinkSheet a shot. LinkSheet is a free, open-source app that fixes Android’s broken link-handling. Instead of deciding which app to open a link for me, it lets me choose one. And now, it’s become one of the first few open-source Android apps I install on every phone.

In previous versions of Android — Android 12 or earlier — tapping a link would bring up the Open with dialog, where you could select an app to open that link in. For example, if you had the official Reddit app and a third-party Reddit client installed on your phone, every time you tapped a Reddit link, it’d surface the dialog with both apps, so you could choose the one preferred.

However, with Android 12, Google introduced a new system that automatically opens links in an app if it’s verified for that specific domain — unless you don’t have a compatible app on your device, in which case it opens it in the default browser. Although Google did this to improve speed and security, for some people, including me, the missing “Open with” prompt is a dealbreaker.

LinkSheet fixes that by bringing back the Open with dialog box. The way it works is simple: you set the LinkSheet app as your phone’s default browser. Then, whenever you tap a link, it intercepts it and shows the Open with dialog (with a bunch of compatible apps) on your screen, giving you the flexibility to pick an app to open it in.

Another reason I use LinkSheet — and why I prefer it over other link-handling apps — is that it lets me open links directly in my browser’s incognito mode. Thanks to this, I can open links to Reddit threads and YouTube videos I don’t want to view in their native apps. All I have to do is tap the link and select the incognito mode option next to the browser.

LinkSheet isn’t available to download on the Google Play Store. To get it, head to LinkSheet’s nightly repository on GitHub and download the latest APK file. Although it’s generally recommended to avoid nightly builds, in this case, LinkSheet recommends them because they’re updated more frequently. You can download the stable APK file from the Releases page if you want to try it for yourself.
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Tap the file you just downloaded. You’ll now be prompted to allow the app to install the APK file. Tap Settings and flip the Allow from this source toggle on. ​Once installed, open LinkSheet. At the top of the screen, you’ll see an action card asking you to set the app as the default browser. Tap the Set as default button, then select LinkSheet or LinkSheet Nightly in the prompt, and hit Set as default.

Now, since I’m dealing with YouTube and Reddit links, I need to prevent both apps from opening verified links to their respective websites. It’s easy to do this. For example, to configure Reddit, you’d go to Settings > Apps and select Reddit. Then tap Open by default and select In your browser on the following screen.

Doing this tells the Reddit app to open all Reddit links in the browser. Since we’ve already set LinkSheet as the default browser, we’ll see the desired Open with dialog with the option to select our preferred app. Repeat these steps to configure all the apps you want to prevent from opening their verified links.

That’s about it. LinkSheet is now ready to use. However, you can change a few settings for the best experience. Keep in mind, though, that the steps listed below have been tested on the latest nightly version at the time of writing, so the menu labels and locations may vary if you’re on a later version of the app.

The first thing I do is change the layout style to grid. This shrinks the Open with dialog’s size so it doesn’t take up much screen space. It works in my case because I have very few apps on the list. In the LinkSheet app, tap the gear icon in the top-left corner, select Bottom sheet under Customization, and toggle on the Grid layout option.

Next, I turn on the private browsing option, so I can directly open links in Firefox’s private browsing mode. (As of writing, this feature is only available for Firefox.) On the Bottom sheet screen, toggle on the Enable private browsing option under the Additional configuration section. While here, I also turn off the Don’t show last picked app section for a cleaner experience and disable the Hide choice buttons option, which hides the Once and Always buttons in the dialog box since I never use them.

With LinkSheet configured, using it is easy. Just tap a link like you normally do, and LinkSheet will open the Open with dialog on your screen. Tap the app in which you want to open the link, and LinkSheet will redirect you to that app.

If you use Firefox like me, you can tap the shield icon next to Firefox (in list view) or the Firefox icon with the shield (in grid view) to open that link directly in private browsing mode.

LinkSheet can also help with a few other things

Aside from reinstating the Open with dialog and letting you choose which app to open links in, LinkSheet can do a few other things, too. For example, it offers the Use ClearURLs option, which uses the ClearURLs service to remove tracking parameters from URLs, ensuring the links you tap don’t track you as you browse the internet. Do note that it’s currently an experimental feature, so it may not always be effective at clearing URLs.

​Then, there’s the Enable downloader option. Turning it on adds a Download button to the Open with dialog when a URL contains a direct download link, which you can tap to download files on that page. Both of these features are available under the Links menu in LinkSheet settings. You’ll also find a few other features here. Explore them and others to get the most out of LinkSheet.