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From: VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH>
Newsgroups: comp.mobile.android
Subject: Re: Slashdot on Samsung browser
Date: Wed, 21 May 2025 11:26:31 -0500
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David Higton <dave@davehigton.me.uk> wrote:

> Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> wrote:
> 
>>David Higton <dave@davehigton.me.uk> wrote:
>>
>>> Can some of you with access to a Samsung browser please try
>>> https://slashdot.org on a Samsung browser and some other browsers?
>>> 
>>> I use a Samsung S24 and a Galaxy Tab.  Until a few weeks ago, the
>>> Samsung browsers used to render Slashdot like other browsers do.
>>> Something changed; I don't know whether it's a Samsung browser update
>>> or a site update, but it looks radically differnet now - and rather
>>> harder to read, with tiny text.  Pinch to zoom allows the text to be
>>> magnified, of course, but then the page has to be scrolled sideways
>>> to read entire lines of text.
>>
>> Looks fine to me, both in (Samsung) 'Internet' and (Google) Chrome.
>>
>> Note however that <https://slashdot.org> is redirected to the mobile
>> site <https://m.slashdot.org>.
> 
> Aha - that's it, thank you, Frank.  For some reason my devices had
> switched over to the mobile site.  Once they're back to non-mobile,
> I can read the site on my mobiles.

Does Samsung's Internet web browser have an option to switch to or ask
for a desktop version of a web site?  In Firefox Android, a menu entry
of "Desktop site" as a slider (to enable/disable) shows me different
views of the same web site (if they have a desktop and mobile version).
When a web site has different views, the mobile view is often less busy
in that less is displayed within the confines of the phone's screen, and
often the text is bigger.  For Firefox, this option is not sticky.  I
may select desktop view, but after quitting Firefox (it has a real exit
option, not left sitting in background), and reloading it, the "Desktop
site" option is off, so I'd have to reenable it.  I don't know if
Samsung's Internet web browser has a similar option, but if it does then
I'd check if it is sticky, or not, between web sessions.

For me, and when a site offers multiple views, the mobile version is
bigger for text, not smaller.  The setting has no effect if a web site
doesn't deliver different views of the same content.

https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/13514529?hl=en

Since Samsung's Internet web browser is a Chromium variant, maybe it has
a similar setting.

When I visit whatmyuseragent.com using Firefox on Android with its
default mobile version, it sends a User-Agent header of:

Mozilla/5.0 (Android 10; Mobile; rv:138.0) Gecko/138.0 Firefox/138.0

When I switch Firefox to request a desktop version of the web site:

Mozilla/5.0 (X11, Linux x86_64; rv:138.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/138.0

Perhaps the web site triggers on the UA header to determine if the web
client is on Android, Linux, Windows, iOS, etc.  Although the UA header
got deprecated long ago, it is still often used to detect which web
client is visiting a web site.  Some users will alter the UA header
their web client sends to the site trying to pretend they have a
different web browser.

As I recall, Samsung's Internet web browser supports extensions.  If so,
are you using any that alter the UA header sent by that web client?