Another I'm pretty sure there's nothing I can do about this but I'm asking anyway question.

[Susan Calvin]

But hope springs eternal, I guess.

I got a new phone recently, which I'm actually fairly fond of in most respects. It's a Samsung Galaxy A16. My issue probably has nothing directly to do with the particular phone though, but with Samsung in general, I'm guessing.

I've always had no default browser. I do it this way because when I click a link from an email I open it in a different browser depending on if it's a payment I need to make, something political, or just something interesting, etc. My old phone did not make it easy to have no default browser, but I could do it by installing Firefox Focus, making it my default browser, and then uninstalling it and installing it again without making it my default browser.

Well that doesn't work anymore. As soon as I uninstall my default browser the Samsung browser makes itself my default. So far there seems to be nothing I can do about it. It seems to indicate you can disable it, but not really, at least not enough to keep it from continuing to grab default. Of course you can then set another browser to default, but that's not what I want; I want no default.

You cannot uninstall the Samsung browser. I've already done lots of web searches that indicate you can disable it, that indicate you can uninstall it, but on my phone you cannot.

I just tried stopping the Samsung browser as a last ditch effort, but it did not stop it from grabbing back default when I uninstalled the current default browser. There was a setting somewhere buried way deep that I found it said do you or don't you want to let it make system level settings changes, which at the moment I can't find again, but I also tried turning that off, and that didn't help either. The damn thing is determined that you shall have a default, whether you want one or not.

I tried asking the question in the Play Store, and it simply lied to me about how I could fix it. I did post a one star review detailing my complaint as much as I could in 500 characters. I doubt anybody on the development team will reply to it

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Well, I would Google to ask Gemini: "how to disable samsung browser on samsung A16"

and there is also a video and surely many others, everyone hates Samsung browsers.

[Susan Calvin]

3. I do not use AI.

Google AI has been shown to generate incorrect answers to one degree or another 10% of the time. That's an awful lot of misinformation considering how many times a day it's used. Not to mention the environmental cost.

Thanks for the video. I'll have a look at it, but if anybody wanted to take the bet I would bet that it will direct me to do things that cannot be done, as everything I've searched has so far. I'm sure they're not actually incorrect at the time they were posted, just out of date. But hope springs eternal.

[Susan Calvin]

5. Video is either out of date, or my phone does not function the same way as the one it is using.

I suspect the former.

The steps to disable it are correct. But in my opinion disable is kind of a misnomer. It does not prevent it from grabbing default as I have described.

The steps to uninstall it, which are the standard steps to uninstall anything, do not work on my phone. There is no uninstall option. It's good and stuck on my phone, whether I want it or not, which I don't.

Thanks, though.

[UpInArms]

2. I use different browsers for different things

And when I want to do those particular things, I go to that browser to do it.

If you are traveling by link, it will go to a default … so when I get those messages, i just go to the browser without using the link and open my account and handle my business.

Don’t know if that helps

[Susan Calvin]

4. That's what I'm going to have to do, I guess, but obviously I'm annoyed about it.

The way I used to be able to get it to work was that when I clicked on a link in the email it would present me with a group of icons for the browsers I have installed, and I could double tap the one I wanted to use for that link. Much simpler than copying the link, going to the browser, and pasting it. But this is, of course, a first world problem.

[canetoad]

6. Can't offer much practical advice

But there is quite a lot on the web about Samsung, their accounts etc.

I have a Samsung tablet, given to me by a friend who hated it so it still has her Samsung account active. She's going on 80 and can't find or remember the password. I only use the tablet as a reader but when it's within earshot it drives me mad.

I hope you find a solution - I know many people are asking something similar.

Edit to add: I'm another one who uses different browsers for different things. Two, not three - general browsing stuff and another for anything to do with money.

[Susan Calvin]

7. Everything's just getting more and more intrusive.

And more and more inclined not to let you do things your way. Sometimes I wonder why I bothered to fight it, and yet I do.

[anciano]

8. Personally, I value efficiency and utility....

so I use Chrome as my default browser on both my phone and tablet because of the enhanced protection it provides for safe browsing. And I have found Google AI to be an indispensable and reliable tool that I use daily.
Good luck and best wishes.