(Updated) Android Project Quick Tip: How to Set Your Android Browser to View Full Web Sites (as opposed to mobile sites)

Update:  I just realized that phones running stock Android 2.2 or prior versions most likely don't have the same menu settings as those described below. I was running a custom ROM at the time I wrote this. However, thanks to Lifehacker, I have discovered a way for stock users to access the menu settings they need to change your Browser to view full websites as opposed to the mobile only. So here you go:


Open your browser, enter about:debug into the address bar, then hit the "Go" button on your keyboard—don't tap the search/URL suggestion that comes up. You'll notice that the browser now does, well, nothing. But hit your Menu key, choose the "More" option, then select Settings. Scroll down some, and you'll see a new collection of advanced options there, including a "UAString" option. Click that, then choose between Android, desktop, or iPhone user strings to change what browser web sites think you're visiting with.

If you are running CyanogenMod 6, here's a set of instructions for you:

We all know how nice it is when websites have a mobile version for those of us on mobile devices. Mobile sites are optimized for viewing on a device with a smaller screen and usually have less advertisements and pictures that slow down viewing and rendering of these sites on your phone.

However, there are often times when you want to see the full version of the website. Most websites are set up to recognize whether you are trying to view the site with a mobile browser. The website then automatically redirects you to the mobile site without asking.

The stock Android 2.2 browser has an option that will "trick" websites into thinking you are using a desktop browser, thereby avoiding the redirect to the mobile version of the website. I'm not aware of whether the stock Android browser had this feature before Android 2.2 (Froyo) was released, but it's there now. Since Android doesn't come with a user manual, we're here to help you out.

So here are the steps to force your browser to view full websites:

1. Open up the stock Android 2.2 browser;
2. Press the "Menu" button;
3. Select the "More" option;
4. Select the "Settings" option;
5. Select the "User Agent" option (shown below):

6. Select the "Desktop" button (shown below):

And that should do it. You can always change the setting back to "Android" if you want to go back to viewing mobile sites. There are also selections for "iPhone" and "Internet Explorer 6" but I haven't played around with those settings enough to figure out what they do. If anybody knows, leave us a tip in the comments!

Froyo 101: Adjusting Flash Settings in Stock Browser

Now that many of us are running Android 2.2 (Froyo) on our phones, I thought it might be good to share some tips and tricks that I've learned during my short time using it. Unfortunately, Froyo doesn't come with a user manual (Google probably has one somewhere, but I haven't found it). So I'll do my best to share with you the options that Froyo gives you that you might not discover on your own.

The first tip I'd like to share is how to change the Flash settings in Android's stock browser. The first thing that impressed me about Froyo wasn't its ability to handle Flash, but the speed improvements in the stock browser. Unfortunately, I've found that running Flash all the time decreases web site load times significantly, especially on media-heavy sites. Hopefully this will improve once Flash 10.1 moves out of beta, but until then, I can't have it slowing me down.

To fix this problem, the stock browser gives you the option to completely disable Flash, or to pick and choose which Flash objects to enable when you want it. So here's how you do it:

1. Open up the stock Android browser
2. Hit the Menu button
3. Select "More" in the Menu
4. Select "Settings"
5. Scroll down to "Enable plug-ins" and select it

6. Select "On demand" if you want to pick and choose which Flash objects to use OR
    Select "Off" if you want to completely disable Flash

There you have it, a fairly simple fix, although not that obvious if you don't know where to find it.

Do you have any tips for using Froyo that you'd like to share? Leave them in the comments.