How to make iOS web clips open in Edge or Chrome (with Intune)

Two weeks ago, I went to my first, ever Midwest Management Summit (MMS) conference and had a great time. As a Microsoft PM, I spent a lot of time talking to IT admins about a broad range of Microsoft Endpoint Manager topics. Some had questions about product and roadmap and others served me with kindly-put feedback.

I had a few “How do I do xyz in MEM?” questions too which were fun and kept me on my toes.

Here is one of the curveball questions I got from Sam Monroe…. which we found a solution for and is worth sharing for others.

“We have a scenario that requires that our iOS web clips to open in Google Chrome, instead of Safari… Can we do that with MEM?”

Of course, my first response was “why the heck would you want to do that?” Once we got past that, and that this functionality isn't natively in the MEM UI, I reached out to my Microsoft Product Manager/ mate and Apple guru Andy for help. To my excitement.. he pointed me to this very important part of Apple’s Web Clip documentation.

TargetApplicationBundleIdentifier from Apple MDM documentation on WebClips.

Solution — Deploy a web clip that opens in Chrome (or Edge)

So the answer is yes. You can do it using an Intune Custom Policy. Here’s how:

1. Create a new Custom configuration profile for iOS/iPadOS

2. You’ll need to upload an .XML or .MobileConfig file for the custom policy body. You can copy and paste from Apple’s sample or mine below into a text editor and update the bolded parts to change the Name, URL and browser to open in.

<plist>
<dict>
 <key>PayloadContent</key>
 <array>
 <dict>
 <key>FullScreen</key>
 <true/>
 <key>IgnoreManifestScope</key>
 <false/>
 <key>IsRemovable</key>
 <true/>
 <key>Label</key>
 <string>Example</string>
 <key>Precomposed</key>
 <false/>
 <key>URL</key>
 <string>example.com</string>
 <key>TargetApplicationBundleIdentifier</key>
 <string>com.google.chrome</string>
 <key>PayloadIdentifier</key>
 <string>com.example.mywebclippayload</string>
 <key>PayloadType</key>
 <string>com.apple.webClip.managed</string>
 <key>PayloadUUID</key>
 <string>1d6d6912–708e-441a-9272–526ef05bbe3c</string>
 <key>PayloadVersion</key>
 <integer>1</integer>
 </dict>
 </array>
 <key>PayloadDisplayName</key>
 <string>Web Clip</string>
 <key>PayloadIdentifier</key>
 <string>com.example.myprofile</string>
 <key>PayloadType</key>
 <string>Configuration</string>
 <key>PayloadUUID</key>
 <string>289fc7fc-2870–479d-b30f-8d0592b7ef04</string>
 <key>PayloadVersion</key>
 <integer>1</integer>
</dict>
</plist>

Tip: If you want to open links in Microsoft Edge instead, use the edge bundle id: com.microsoft.msedge

(You might find the bundle ID’s for other browsers on Bundle ID Finder)

When you are done, the policy will look something like this -

3. Next, assign the policy to a group of users or devices. On MDM sync, users will see the Web Clip appear! One nuance with this deployment seems to be that users are unable to long-press the web clip and move it around.. but hey it works!

Tip — Don’ t forget to also use Intune to deploy the browser (Edge, Chrome or other) so that the web clip has something to open the link with

Conclusion

Yes. You can deploy a Web Clip in Intune that forces it to open in a browser other than safari… It’s not perfect but it might be just the workaround you need in a pickle! Let me know if it helps!

Big thanks to Sam Monroe (@Sam_Rlg) for being the inspiration (and tester) for this solution and blog post!