Last modified: 2014-05-01 15:32:18 UTC
Now that bug 62639 is resolved, if a link (or a search result) is tapped and the app doesn't know how to handle the page (such as with most Special: pages, among others), then the link will immediately be opened in a browser. There is no way for the user to tell beforehand whether a link will toss to browser or not. One solution to this might be to indicate, with an external link icon or similar, that a given link or search result will be tossed to the browser. A more generic solution (although one that may be less preferable in cases where users already know that a link will be opened in the browser, and this is what they want) would be to put up a placeholder page (or a small popup overlay?) within the app, with the target url in readable form so that the user can decide whether they want to leave the app to visit that page. This is the solution I would prefer, as it gives me a chance to see what the actual url is before opening in the browser.
I think an interstitial is too drastic, but displaying an icon or somesuch might not be a bad idea, provided we can make that determination very fast.
