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When I open an URL (say https://www.google.com) in a SMS in Samsung's built-in Messages app, it's opened in the in-app browser, where a blank page is immediately displayed, and stays blank instead of displaying the website.

  1. Is this a known Samsung/Android bug?
  2. Is there a known workaround?

To reproduce:

  1. Receive (or send) an URL in a SMS in Samsung's built-in Messages app.
  2. Tap on the URL in the SMS:
    1. The app opens the webpage in its in-app browser instead of opening it in Chrome.
    2. Observe a blank page is immediately displayed, and stays blank.

To work around:

  1. Rotate the device orientation (e.g. portrait -> landscape).
  2. Observe the page finally appear in front of your puzzled eyes!

What kind of page works?

None. Even this one fails to be shown:

<html>
  <body>How I wish you'd show me immediately!</body>
</html>

A few more surprises:

  • alert('ah, ha!') works immediately!
  • The CSS style background-color works immediately!
    That is, the blank page uses the color defined in this rule.
  • document.body.innerHtml('Show this, at least!') doesn't help.

Known affected devices

  • Samsung Galaxy S6
  • Samsung Galaxy S7
  • Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge

Looks like you shouldn't buy Samsung's newer devices!?

Messages in-app browser version: 51

Daniel Jomphe
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dincan
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  • If I send myself a SMS on a S7 with the following URL, the issue you raised is also reproduced: https://www.google.com ...!!! – Daniel Jomphe Aug 24 '16 at 13:48
  • Maybe there is an overlay showing up. Maybe get a way to refresh the page on after load once if some div is not immediately visible using jquery? We have the same issue. iOS, LG, BlackBerry, SGS4Active works fine. – Pierre Sep 01 '16 at 16:16
  • I think this question is ontopic, it just has to be refactored and part of it extracted into an answer. The question is "How to display a webpage in built in sms app?". The answer are your provided workarounds. – HopefullyHelpful Jan 24 '17 at 13:01

0 Answers0