How can I open a URL in Android's web browser from my application?

Question

How to open an URL from code in the built-in web browser rather than within my application?

I tried this:

try {
    Intent myIntent = new Intent(Int         


        

Answer 1

Just like the solutions other have written (that work fine), I would like to answer the same thing, but with a tip that I think most would prefer to use.

In case you wish the app you start to open in a new task, indepandant of your own, instead of staying on the same stack, you can use this code:

final Intent intent=new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW,Uri.parse(url));
intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NO_HISTORY|Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_WHEN_TASK_RESET|Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK|Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_MULTIPLE_TASK);
startActivity(intent);

There is also a way to open the URL in Chrome Custom Tabs . Example in Kotlin :

@JvmStatic
fun openWebsite(activity: Activity, websiteUrl: String, useWebBrowserAppAsFallbackIfPossible: Boolean) {
    var websiteUrl = websiteUrl
    if (TextUtils.isEmpty(websiteUrl))
        return
    if (websiteUrl.startsWith("www"))
        websiteUrl = "http://$websiteUrl"
    else if (!websiteUrl.startsWith("http"))
        websiteUrl = "http://www.$websiteUrl"
    val finalWebsiteUrl = websiteUrl
    //https://github.com/GoogleChrome/custom-tabs-client
    val webviewFallback = object : CustomTabActivityHelper.CustomTabFallback {
        override fun openUri(activity: Activity, uri: Uri?) {
            var intent: Intent
            if (useWebBrowserAppAsFallbackIfPossible) {
                intent = Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse(finalWebsiteUrl))
                intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK or Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NO_HISTORY
                        or Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_WHEN_TASK_RESET or Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_MULTIPLE_TASK)
                if (!CollectionUtil.isEmpty(activity.packageManager.queryIntentActivities(intent, 0))) {
                    activity.startActivity(intent)
                    return
                }
            }
            // open our own Activity to show the URL
            intent = Intent(activity, WebViewActivity::class.java)
            WebViewActivity.prepareIntent(intent, finalWebsiteUrl)
            activity.startActivity(intent)
        }
    }
    val uri = Uri.parse(finalWebsiteUrl)
    val intentBuilder = CustomTabsIntent.Builder()
    val customTabsIntent = intentBuilder.build()
    customTabsIntent.intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK or Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NO_HISTORY
            or Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_WHEN_TASK_RESET or Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_MULTIPLE_TASK)
    CustomTabActivityHelper.openCustomTab(activity, customTabsIntent, uri, webviewFallback)
}