Tuesday, 16 September 2014
Whether through messages, status updates, tweets or some group message on Whatsapp, there are times when we receive some external links that we need to open in the default browser on our droids. While we do that, we need to leave the current app we are working with. The scenario only gets worse when some data needs to be fed from the receiving app to the browser page (a discount code maybe).
Flynx is a nifty app for Android that can help you in situations like these. Using the app you can click and open any external web links that will load in a floating browser in the background. You can stay on your current app while the site loads and then view the page quickly on a floating browser and return to the same app in no time. Sounds interesting… right?
But before we dive into the features of the app, let’s first install Flynx from the Play Store.
Having done that, open any app from which you can load an external link and click on the link.
Using Flynx to Open and Manage Web Links on Android
When you click on any external link, the app will give you the option to select it as a default viewer. This is a one-time process (unless you install an additional browser) where you need to select Flynx as the default browser. Once that’s done, you will see a small floating bubble that will open at the edge of your screen, similar to your typical Facebook Messenger chathead.
Yes… just like your average Facebook Messenger chatheads.
Back to using Flynx, the app’s bubble will have a blue color progress bar around its edges. The bar tells you when the link is loaded and you can simply tap on the bubble to open up the page.
You can place the floating bubble anywhere on the screen and a simple tap will collapse or expand the browser page. If you wish to read the entire article, you can tap on the small eye sign on the top bar and turn on the reading mode. Here you can also control the font size to best match with word-wrap. To close the browser, you can tap and drag it to the disposal icon at the bottom of the screen; again, just like the Facebook Messenger chatheads.
The app can manage multiple links (up to 4 at max) and each link will have an individual chat bubble. In its collapsed state, multiple bubbles will be stacked with a number against it to indicate the number of links opened. When you tap to expand them, you can easily navigate from one tab to another by tapping the floating icon.
The link has the favicon of the respective webpage which helps you in find the correct website while multiple tabs are opened. All the links that you open using the app are recorded and you can open the app history to have a look at all of them.
Conclusion
Flynx is a useful app and saves a lot of time wasted while navigating between apps due to opening the external links. The app gives you the freedom to open links without thinking about loading time or losing the app data. So try it out and let us know what you think about it.
