How to set and clear default applications in Android

One of the best parts about Android is the ability to swap out default applications for ones that are more tailored to your needs. What if you don’t like your home screen launcher? What about your music player? If you’re not too fond of any of your stock apps and have a replacement in mind, go ahead and download it from the Google Play Store, and we’ll show you how to set it as a default.

When viewing this tutorial, just remember that not all Android devices are the same. Yours may look a bit different from mine, but many of the steps are very similar on most Android devices.

To begin, you’ll first need to download a third party application (an app that doesn’t come pre-installed on your device) from the Google Play Store. For this example, I’m using Chris Lacy’s Link Bubble browser as a replacement for Chrome. When you download the app from the Play Store, you won’t be prompted to set it as a default app automatically. Once you run into a situation in which you need to decide which app to use, Android will present a popup window, as shown below.

As you can see when I click on this link, my phone asks me which browser I’d like to use and how often I’d like to use it. For right now, I’m going to press the “Just once” button under the Link Bubble option. This will allow the link to open in my preferred app just one time, which gives me the ability to easily choose a different app the next time I click on a link. In contrast, to set Link Bubble as the default app, click on “Always” instead of the “Just once” button.

If for some reason you don’t want Link Bubble as your default application for opening links, there’s an easy way to change that. Like in the image below, you’ll first need to head to your Settings menu, then select the Apps tab. Scroll down in the big list of apps until you find the one you’re looking for, then click on it.

After you bring up the App Info page, scroll down until you see a button that reads “Clear defaults”. Once you choose this option, all of your default launch settings will be cleared. To test it out, try clicking on a link again, and you should be prompted to choose which browser you’d like to use.

So there you have it, a quick tutorial on how to set and clear default applications in Android. Like I said previously, if you’re having any issues whatsoever, be sure to let us know in the comment section below and we’ll do our best to help you out.