How To Open Webview Links In Safari

You have a web view in your application but would like any links clicked to open in Safari. Here’s the solution.

Open WKWebView Links In Safari

For WKWebView, first ensure your view controller conforms to WKNavigationDelegate

class MyViewController: UIViewController, WKNavigationDelegate {
  // TODO: code here
}

I like to put it in an extension to keep things neat:

extension MyViewController: WKNavigationDelegate {
  // TODO: code here
}

Next you need to implement the decidePolicyFor navigationAction function:

extension MyViewController: WKNavigationDelegate {
    func webView(_ webView: WKWebView, decidePolicyFor navigationAction: WKNavigationAction, decisionHandler: @escaping (WKNavigationActionPolicy) -> Void) {
        if navigationAction.navigationType == .linkActivated  {
            if let url = navigationAction.request.url,
                UIApplication.shared.canOpenURL(url) {
                    UIApplication.shared.open(url)
                    decisionHandler(.cancel)
            } else {
                // Open in web view
                decisionHandler(.allow)
            }
        } else {
            // other navigation type, such as reload, back or forward buttons
            decisionHandler(.allow)
        }
    }
}

Lastly, you’ll need to set the navigation delegate in viewDidLoad() or in the storyboard:

 override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()
    webView.navigationDelegate = self
}

Open UIWebView Links In Safari

For UIWebView (which is a deprecated by the way), use the below code:

First, you must ensure that your view controller conforms to UIWebViewDelegate.

class MyViewController: UIViewController, UIWebViewDelegate {
  // TODO: code here
}

You could also do this in an extension to keep things neat:

extension MyViewController: UIWebViewDelegate {
  // TODO: code here
}

Then you need to implement the webViewShouldStartLoadingWithRequest:navigationType: function:

extension MyViewController: UIWebViewDelegate {
    func webView(_ webView: UIWebView, shouldStartLoadWith request: URLRequest, navigationType: UIWebView.NavigationType) -> Bool {
        switch navigationType {
        case .linkClicked:
            guard let url = request.url else { return true }
            if #available(iOS 10.0, *) {
                UIApplication.shared.open(url, options: [:], completionHandler: nil)
            } else {
                UIApplication.shared.openURL(url)
            }
            return false
        default:
            // TODO: handle other navigation types such reload, back or forward...
            return true
        }
    }
}

Lastly, you’ll need to set the delegate of your webview in your viewDidLoad() or in your storyboard/XIB.

override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()
    webview.delegate = self
}

Only Open Links From Certain Domains In Safari

If you only want to open certain domains in Safari, perform a check on the URL string in the delegate method.

WKWebView

For example, if we’re using a WKWebView and we only want to open google.com links in Safari, we would add this check:

if let host = url.host, host.hasPrefix("www.google.com") {
  // TODO: redirect to browser
}

Full code example for WKWebView:

extension MyViewController: WKNavigationDelegate {
    func webView(_ webView: WKWebView, decidePolicyFor navigationAction: WKNavigationAction, decisionHandler: @escaping (WKNavigationActionPolicy) -> Void) {
        if navigationAction.navigationType == .linkActivated  {
            if let url = navigationAction.request.url,
                let host = url.host, host.hasPrefix("www.google.com") &&
                UIApplication.shared.canOpenURL(url) {
                    UIApplication.shared.open(url)
                    decisionHandler(.cancel)
            } else {
                // Open in web view
                decisionHandler(.allow)
            }
        } else {
            // other navigation type, such as reload, back or forward buttons
            decisionHandler(.allow)
        }
    }
}

UIWebView

We can perform a URL host check for the UIWebView:

if let host = url.host, host.hasPrefix("www.google.com") {
   // TODO: Open url in Safari
}

Full code example:

extension MyViewController: UIWebViewDelegate {
    func webView(_ webView: UIWebView, shouldStartLoadWith request: URLRequest, navigationType: UIWebView.NavigationType) -> Bool {
        switch navigationType {
        case .linkClicked:
            guard let url = request.url, let host = url.host, host.hasPrefix("www.google.com") else { return true }
            if #available(iOS 10.0, *) {
                UIApplication.shared.open(url, options: [:], completionHandler: nil)
            } else {
                UIApplication.shared.openURL(url)
            }
            return false
        default:
            // TODO: handle other navigation types such reload, back or forward...
            return true
        }
    }
}

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Eddy Chung

I teach iOS development on ZeroToAppStore.com.