A programmer named matan-h has discovered a way to display a browser window via Android’s Contacts app to open. The Chrome window runs regardless of the version used on the Android device, so users are not logged in. Web pages visited are not recorded in the main version of Chrome.
According to Matan-h, the browser should be able to be opened even if the smartphone is blocked via the parental controls because it runs through Google’s Play Services. The normal device lock cannot be bypassed.
The Play Services are responsible, among other things, for displaying notifications and are not blocked in the parental controls. Accordingly, opening the browser window is not prevented.
The trick is to enter a specific website address in a contact’s information. If you enter a conventional website, such as Golem.de, it will automatically open in the system version of Chrome.
Deeplink opens the web for us
However, if you enter the address https://gds.google.com/gmsdrops, when you click on it in the Contacts app, a deep link to the new Android functions opens in a pop-up window. We will then go with one “Your Android device just got better” welcomed. If we tap on Show and in the subsequent continuous text on More information, a help menu opens.
We can bring this into full screen mode with a swipe up. A tap on the menu icon in the top left corner and a subsequent tap on the large Google Help lettering takes us to another help page. If we now tap on the menu icon again and then on the smaller text Google, the Google search homepage opens. We can use this to easily search for websites and navigate to them.
Matan-h used a similar trick to overcome the so-called screen fixation. This allows you to fix an app on the screen, but other applications cannot actually be accessed.
The developer reported both cases to Google; the company decided not to treat the behavior as a bug and not to take action against it. Matan-h already found another in mid-2023 hidden browser in Android.