Getting started

Sebastian Benz

The first step for a Custom Tabs integration is adding the AndroidX Browser Library to your project. Open the app/build.gradle file and add the browser library to the dependencies section.

dependencies {
   …
   implementation 'androidx.browser:browser:1.5.0'
}

Open a link in a Custom Tab

With the androidx.browser/browser library installed, you can use the CustomTabsIntent.Builder to create a CustomTabsIntent and launch the Custom Tab by calling launchUrl() and passing an Uri:

String url = "https://developers.android.com";
CustomTabsIntent intent = new CustomTabsIntent.Builder()
        .build();
intent.launchUrl(MainActivity.this, Uri.parse(url));

This will open a fullscreen Custom Tab activity as seen on the following screenshot.

The default Custom Tabs experience.

Key point: What happens if the user's default browser does not support Custom Tabs? Custom Tabs are supported by most Android browsers, but if no browser that supports Custom Tabs is installed, the CustomTabIntent will open the user's default browser instead. This works, as the CustomTabsIntent uses the ACTION\_VIEW Intent with Extras key to customize the UI.

Supporting Android App Links

By default, Custom Tabs support Android App Links. This means, if the YouTube app is installed, launching a CustomTabsIntent with a YouTube video URL will open the YouTube app instead of the browser.

However, passing a CustomTabsSession to a CustomTabIntent will force open the link in a Custom Tab, even if the corresponding native app is installed. If you want to keep the default behavior of opening web links in native apps, you need to additionally follow our guide on how to check if a link can be handled by an installed native app.

Next up: learn how to customize the look and feel of your Custom Tab..