How to change the default apps on your phones, tablets and computers - The Washi...

If you’re concerned about being tracked across the Internet, for example, you might want a browser like Brave or Firefox to open links on your Android phone instead of Chrome. Or maybe Apple’s Mail app doesn’t have the features you need, so you want to switch to Outlook. That’s because not all of the apps your phones and computers want you to use by default make sense for you and your life. Problem is — changing those defaults isn’t always as easy it should be. At the Help Desk, we’re here to help.

For years, Apple steadfastly prevented us from using other apps to automatically open webpages and emails. And, more recently, Microsoft infuriated some users with the way Windows 11 handled default apps. You couldn’t just say “I want to use Firefox for all my Web stuff” the way you could with Windows 10; instead, you had to set Firefox as the default app for a bunch of different file types, which starts to feel confusing and tedious pretty quickly.

In a way, these companies are exerting a degree of control over the way we use their products, and to that, we say, “No thanks.” Apple and Microsoft eventually eased up on both of those issues, but changing the default apps can still take some work on our part. Here’s how to do it for the phones, tablets and computers you rely on every day.

Starting with the release of iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 in 2020, Apple has started to change its mind about letting you change your default apps — to an extent, anyway. Right now, if you’re using that software or newer, you can easily change the apps that automatically launch when you click on a link or an email address.

On an iPhone or iPad

The process works much the same way on phones and tablets running Android 10 or newer, but with a twist: Google lets you change a lot more than just your browser and email apps. If you wanted to, you could swap the stock Messages app for a more secure option like Signal and even trade Google Assistant for Alexa.

On an Android phone or tablet

Apple’s computers offer more flexibility about what apps launch automatically than their phones and tablets do. The catch? Depending on what kind of app we’re talking about, the way you change your default option can vary.

Changing your default Web browser on a Mac

Changing your default email app on a Mac

But what about your collection of MP3s? You might not want them to open in Apple Music all the time. Or your PDFs — Apple’s built in Preview software is pretty good, but maybe you want to automatically open them in Adobe Acrobat so you can quickly e-sign them. Changing the app that opens by default for different kinds of files requires a little more fuss, but it’s well worth figuring out.

Changing the default app for everything else on a Mac

With Windows 10, I’d argue that Microsoft got its approach just right. You can very easily change what apps you’d like to use for email, maps, music and more. If you really need to, you can do the same for other kinds of files, too — it just takes a little extra work, but thankfully, it looks more daunting than it really is.

Changing your default Web, email, music and video apps in Windows 10

Changing the default app for everything else in Windows 10

Unfortunately, if you want to change your default apps in Windows 11, the process is much less straightforward. For one, instead of just showing you what apps are assigned to handle tasks like opening emails or playing your music, Windows 11 shows you every app installed on your computer and forces you to click through all of them to see what kinds of files you can assign them to.

Compared to Windows 10, this approach feels absolutely ludicrous, and we hope Microsoft fixes it fast. Until then, here’s the easiest way to change your default apps in Windows 11.

Changing your default Web browser in Windows 11

Note: Some browsers, like Firefox and Brave, have an option in their respective settings to set them as the default app for opening webpages with one click. Use them if you can! For now, if you want to use a browser like Chrome, this is the process you’ll have to follow.

Changing the default app for everything else in Windows 11

Know of a faster, easier way to change default apps? Do you have suggestions for the best apps to use for certain kinds of files? Let us know. We’ll continue updating this guide as we find cleaner ways of doing things and as companies (we hope) make this process easier.