A curious mistake in the ARD Mediathek Android app is causing confusion among users: since the latest update, the media application has felt called to open URLs. Because the app mistakenly pretends to be a web browser, all of the links clicked on the smartphone suddenly open the ARD media library for numerous users – instead of a browser that can actually handle such URLs.

The annoying bug occurs in version 8.5.0 of the Android app, which was released on 18. December was uploaded to the Google Play Store. Since then, there have been negative reviews there, and affected users have also spoken in support forums. Heise online was also able to reproduce the problem on several editorial devices. The good news: You can drive out the browser ambitions of the ARD media library comparatively easily in the Android settings.

The internet is full of hot IT news and stale pr0n. In between there are always pearls that are too good for / dev / null.

Fix in the Android settings In the Android Settings can be used to prevent the ARD Mediathek from attempting to open URLs.

(Image: heise online)

The public broadcaster itself has published instructions for this on the support page for the app. In the app settings you can prohibit the application from calling up URLs. To do this, depending on the mobile phone manufacturer, users have to navigate to “Apps & Notifications”, “Apps” or “App Info” via “Settings”.

There you select the ARD Mediathek app and type on the subitem “Open by default” or “Set as default”. Now a pop-up menu opens where the selection “App must not open any links” or “In another app” should be made.

This workaround could lead to the fact that links that should actually open the ARD Mediathek no longer work properly. Such scenarios are likely to be rare. If you don’t want to dig through the Android settings, you can alternatively simply uninstall the app – at least until a new, more down-to-earth Android version of the ARD media library is available for download.

(dahe)