If you use Android, you have seen the pop-up which asks you if you want to open a certain file using a certain app ‘Always’ or ‘Just Once’. Or you have wished to always open Chrome for web pages but the browser that came installed on your device won’t allow you to. This is where ‘Default Apps’ come into the picture.
In this post, we will try you understand everything you need to know about Default Apps. We will also see the easier way to set/clear defaults and the default Android way. And we will try to dig deeper into how does it actually work.
What are default apps?
One of the best things about Android is that is open in nature. Meaning, you can have a varied number of applications doing the same thing. For example, if you want to play an audio file (.mp3), you can install any number of third-party applications that will let you do that. You get to choose. You are in control. And that is the beauty of Android.
You could have default apps for either Categories or file types. Categories include Home Launcher, Browser, Email, etc. While, file types include any file your phone can handle – .mp3, .jpg, .txt, .xls (to name a few) and so on.
Unfortunately though, for the less tech-savvy, this blessing could also become a curse when you struggle to figure out how does it actually work. I have seen people using bad applications even though they have a good alternative installed on the phone. Reason? They accidentally set a default and now can’t figure how to clear it.
1. The Easier Way
The easier way to set or clear defaults on your phone is to use a third-party application – Default Apps (Free) or Default Apps Pro (Paid). These apps allow you to easily identify the default apps set for a category or file type and then let you reset them to an application of your choice. In addition, it also lists down all the applications that are set as default.
How to clear defaults using this app –
Let’s take an example of file-type Images (.png). After navigating to the details screen of that file type in the application I can see that the ‘Photos’ app was the default for this category. So we click on the ‘Clear Default’ button.
This takes us to the Android native information screen for this particular application. From this step forward, you are out of the application and are now looking at the default Android screens. So it will vary from device to device. But the basics remain the same.
Then you click on the ‘Defaults’ section and are navigated to the next page. Here, click on the ‘clear defaults’ button and voila, your default has been cleared for that file-type.
How to set a default using the app –
Following the same example as above, let’s set a default app for the file type Image (.png). Now, when I navigate to the file type detail screen in the app for Image (.png), I can see that no application has been set as default for it. So, we click on the ‘Set Default’ button in the application.
This will trigger the native Android pop-up that will show you a list of all the applications you have installed that can handle that file-type. Note that this pop-up is also system level and will look different from device to device. In this case, I can see ‘Photos’, ‘Gallery’ and ‘ES File Explorer Pro’ as the options. I select the ‘Photos’ app in the pop-up and then select ‘Always’. After selecting ‘Always’, you will be shown a sample file or an error (which is fine too). Click back and navigate back to the app. You will now see that the ‘Photos’ app is set as default!
The App currently offers setting and clearing of defaults for the following categories – Browser, Calendar, Camera, Email, Geolocation, Home Launcher, Messaging, Phone Dialer
Supported File-types – Audio (.mp3), Ebook (.epub), Ebook (.mobi), GPX Files (.gpx), Images (.jpg), Images (.png), Images (.gif), Images (.svg), Images (.webp), Video (.mp4), PDF (.pdf), Excel (.xls), Excel (.xlsx), Powerpoint (.ppt), Powerpoint (.pptx), Word Document (.doc), Word Document (.docx), RTF Files (.rtf), Text Files (.txt)
Along with this, the app also offers a varied feature set. Do check if out!
And if you want to buy the developer a coffee with an ad-free experience and early feature access, consider getting the paid version –
2. The Difficult way –
The Native Android way to set/clear defaults are buried deep in the settings and are complicated and confusing to understand. The steps more or less remain the same as shared above for the app except that while clearing a default, you have to remember which app was set as default in the first place. And for setting a default you will have to find a way to trigger the native pop-up. Let’s see how we can do it –
How to clear defaults –
Let’s continue with the example above where we want to clear the default for Image (.png) file type. You will need to identify on your own which app is set as default for this. The easiest way to do that is to open that file type from a File Manager application. And it is safe to say that the app that opened the file is the default.
Now you need to navigate to Settings > Apps > (Specific App). In this case it is the ‘Photos’ app. Then the steps remain the same. Click on ‘Defaults’ section in the app info screen. And then click ‘Clear Defaults’
There is another way to identify the set defaults. But it has 2 problems – it only works on Android 10+ and it is limited to a very few categories like SMS, browser, etc. It doesn’t even show the defaults for file types. To view this screen you can navigate to Settings > Apps > Default apps. The screen looks like this –
How to set a default –
To set a default the native way, you will have to ‘trigger’ the Android ‘Open with’ pop-up for that particular file type or category. Consider the file is a .png file that you want to set a default for. In this case, open a Files Manager application and click on the file (make sure there is no default for it already). When you click on the file you will see the ‘Open with’ pop-up that shows you a list of apps that can handle that file. Click on the app of your choice and then click ‘Always’. Clicking ‘Just Once’ will open that file in that app for one time but you will see the pop-up again the second time you try to open it.
3. How do default apps work?
If you are an Android developer or a technology enthusiast, then you would be curious to understand what goes beyond this. To understand how Android handles defaults we need to understand 2 important concepts –
MIME Type or Media Type is not a concept that is unique to Android. It is an industry-wide accepted format that helps in identifying a file type. This is maintained by IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority). Some examples of MIME types are – application/pdf, image/png, video/mp4, etc
Intent Filters is an Android concept. It provides extra information about your ‘Activity’. It opens the component to receiving intents of the types advertised. And for setting an application as default for a particular intent, it has to define the intent-filter – CATEGORY_DEFAULT and you can read more about it on the Android Developers documentation.
That is all there is to understand the working on default apps on Android. It is a combination of MIME Type and Intent Filters that helps the OS identify a default app.
