Products · Pattern or everyday thing
In-app browsers
Raised as a usability problem by 17 people on Hacker News over 10 years (2017–2026), in 11 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 17 complaints
- Can't copy visible text, forcing a screenshot and manual selection instead2026-07-14
- The setting to turn off in-app browsers is buried deep in menus2024-07-17
- Must open each app's settings to stop it using its embedded browser2023-06-27
- Content blockers don't work inside in-app browsers, so users can't block tracking there2023-05-18
- Links open in browser instead of installed native app, forcing manual copy-pasting2022-08-11
- Extensions and content blockers don't load in WKWebView-based in-app browsers, forcing workarounds2022-08-11
- Session cookies are lost when users switch out of in-app browser, emptying shopping carts2022-08-11
- In-app browser logs users out of habitual websites, degrading their browsing experience2022-08-11
- Can't find or return to tabs; must close browser to continue using the app2022-08-10
- Users can't tell an in-app browser apart from a normal browser, so they don't know tracking applies2022-08-10
- In-app browsers leave old tabs cluttering the browser and make returning to the app a hassle2022-08-10
- Visited pages missing from history and user logins not kept, so articles can't be found again2022-08-10
- Links open in an in-app browser that lacks the user's login session, causing confusing 404s and paywalls2022-04-07
- Can't tell what the scope of cookies and tokens is2020-06-26
- Opening links in-app adds taps, since the user must reopen the page in Chrome or Safari anyway2020-04-09
- Links open in a half-functional in-app browser, forcing users to dig through menus2017-03-14
- Links open in an in-app view where users can't open new tabs, copy the URL, or switch tabs2017-02-05