The power of Android is choice. Unlike the iPhone, using Android means you can pick from a wide variety of hardware form factors and software experiences. On a more granular level, you can even customize how Android handles certain links within the system, letting you dial in which apps you want to use with specific links.
LinkSheet is an open source Android app that gives you back control over how links are handled on your device. Starting with Android 12, Google made it much more difficult to specify link behavior in most cases, forcing only verified apps (like YouTube and Gmail for their respective links) to open.
Previously, Android was good at presenting the Open with dialog box that let you specify link behavior. In newer Android versions, that’s mostly gone. But what if you want to customize the behavior yourself so that you can use third-party apps that offer a better experience? With LinkSheet, you can have full control over which apps launch when you open a variety of links.
Setting up LinkSheet
Set the utility as your default browser to intercept links
For it to work properly, you must allow LinkSheet to “intercept” any links you tap. Here is what to do:
1. Download the app (which you can do by viewing LinkSheet on GitHub — just look for the most recent APK; as of the publishing of this article, version 2025112702 (apk download).
2. Set LinkSheet as your default browser by going to Settings -> Apps -> Default Apps -> Browser -> Select LinkSheet.
3. To configure LinkSheet, go into the LinkSheet settings, click Link Handlers, then granularly determine specifically which links open which apps. In my case, I wanted all Reddit links to open in RedReader, which is a lightweight and fast Reddit client.
The power of picking your own default apps
Customize your experience
Brandon Miniman / MakeUseOfBrandon Miniman / MakeUseOf
Whether you want an ad-light YouTube experience, you like to read Wikipedia but the browser is a far worse reading experience than the first-party Wikipedia app, or you have a very specific Reddit client you like to use (and make sure use Reddit like a pro), LinkSheet lets you specify all of this behavior down to each type of URL for a given website. You can even specify that Gmail links should open in the browser if you’re tired of using the heavy and RAM-intensive Gmail app. The possibilities are endless.
Ad-free browsing
I personally don’t block ads and don’t mind “paying” for free content on the internet with my attention and ad views (but some prefer to make their phone feel ad-free). But it’s your right to block ads, and the associated data that comes from your browsing, and there are ad-free third-party versions of pretty much every app under the sun, and you can do your own research. But whether on YouTube, Twitter, or Instagram, there are alternate versions of almost every major content platform that do not track you and block ads, and you can use LinkSheet to have your phone open those apps instead of the default first-party ones.
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Is it secure?
Using this app requires you to let it intercept all links you click on in order to route the request properly, which might seem like a security concern. LinkSheet is fully open source on GitHub. But I have to be honest: I do not recommend installing this on your main phone unless you’re able to review the source code and do a security review, because the app requires that it be set as your default browser to intercept links, which is important for it to function.
At the same time, I’d be a bit worried about the security implications of this. Again, this app overall looks kosher, the code is fully open source and public (which is the gold standard in terms of ensuring apps are safe), and there are dozens of contributors, but again when it comes to personal privacy and security, I don’t think you can be too careful.
Control your Android with LinkSheet
Overall, this app is easy to use and works exactly as expected, and more importantly, it restores a key capability Android once had — giving users greater control over how links are handled across the system. Android has always been about choice and customization, and part of that philosophy is tailoring the OS to how you actually use your device.
Being able to specify which apps open when you tap certain links may seem like a small detail, but it can make a noticeable difference in daily use. It’s a simple, practical way to make Android feel more personal and aligned with your preferences so that the system behaves as you want.
