Even if you arent playing around with iOS 14 or macOS Big Sur yet, theres one setting you want to know if youre an Apple News+ subscriber. Thats because starting with iOS 14 and macOS Big Sur, web links to news stories that you tap or click will pull up said stories in Apple News+, rather than the publishers site.
This feature only applies to publishers participating in Apple News+, but its a bit of a jarring takeover by Apples app. While its not uncommon for various websites to reroute links to their apps whenever possible, or at least ask you if youd like to launch the associated app instead of the web-based content youre trying to access, Apples implementation in iOS 14 and macOS Big Sur sends you right to the News app. And, as far as I can tell, this behavior is enabled by default.
To disable it in iOS 14because youd rather continue visiting a publishers website than launch that same content in Apples appyoull want to visit Settings > News. In there, look for the Open Web Links in News option and turn it off:
And if you dont want to deal with that same treatment on macOS Big Sur, youll want to launch the News app and pull up its preferences via the News menu in your menu bar. Youll see this screen:
Uncheck that box if youd prefer to keep your web browsing distanced from your News reading.
Apples implementation of this redirection isnt perfect. As Dieter Bohn writes for The Verge:
I do find the behavior a little weird. If you click a link in Safari, it opens Apple News. If you click a link in Chrome, it stays in Chrome. If you click a link in some other app like Slack, it opens in Apple Newseven if your default browser is Chrome. Thats odd simply because its not clear how Big Sur knows that it should redirect some websites but not others. Is it checking in with a pre-approved list of participating publisher sites (if so, at least its offline)? Is that list stored locally or is it checking in with Apple? Whatever the answer, the point is that what happens when you click a link is inconsistent. Maybe it opens a browser, maybe it opens Apple News.
Of course, theres also one big benefit to keeping these options enabled. If you subscribe to Apple News+, but not news websites individually, then clicking on stories hosted on sites that use a paywall should instead pull up the full article in Apples apps, rather than send you to a log in here! or sorry, subscribers only prompt.
Still, is this a bit of an overreach by Apple? Ill be curious to see what people think once the final versions iOS 14 and macOS Big Sur launch for everyone.read more
Stop Apple News+ from Taking Over Your iOS or macOS
