# Keep SoundCloud player from forcing an app install?
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/keep-soundcloud-player-from-forcing-an-app-install/64953
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [22 Junho , 2017 12:23 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/keep-soundcloud-player-from-forcing-an-app-install/64953 "2017-06-22T12:23:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 17
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@lenberg](https://meta.discourse.org/u/lenberg)
#### Post date: [22 Junho , 2017 12:23 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/keep-soundcloud-player-from-forcing-an-app-install/64953/1 "2017-06-22T12:23:16Z")
Is there a way to prevent media links (YouTube, SoundCloud, etc.) from resolving into a player when posted on a separate row? When running a forum with mainly mobile users, it’s better to keep the links so that they can open the content in the respective app from each service.
---
### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [22 Junho , 2017 12:25 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/keep-soundcloud-player-from-forcing-an-app-install/64953/2 "2017-06-22T12:25:38Z")
Simplest thing is to add a space before the link … EG:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28KobNbbI2s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28KobNbbI2s)
space`https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28KobNbbI2s`
---
### Author:  [@JagWaugh](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JagWaugh)
#### Post date: [22 Junho , 2017 12:37 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/keep-soundcloud-player-from-forcing-an-app-install/64953/3 "2017-06-22T12:37:30Z")
> [@sam](#):
>
> Simplest thing is to add a space before the link … EG:
Which messes things up for anyone who isn’t on a mobile.
Could this be an option in a mobile theme? “Don’t use embedded players”
---
### Author:  [@lenberg](https://meta.discourse.org/u/lenberg)
#### Post date: [22 Junho , 2017 12:44 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/keep-soundcloud-player-from-forcing-an-app-install/64953/4 "2017-06-22T12:44:44Z")
That works but the problem is then we have to teach everyone in the community to “always use a space before links to avoid posting players” and it would be nicer to simply turn off embed in the whole forum.
---
### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [22 Junho , 2017 12:49 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/keep-soundcloud-player-from-forcing-an-app-install/64953/5 "2017-06-22T12:49:35Z")
It’s just an odd request, I can get behind: “Make the soundcloud mobile onebox less obtrusive”, but completely disabling the feature and relying on users downloading a soundcloud and youtube etc app it not something I like.
Can you post 3 or 4 examples here with screenshots showing why you consider this such a problem.
---
### Author:  [@lenberg](https://meta.discourse.org/u/lenberg)
#### Post date: [22 Junho , 2017 12:57 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/keep-soundcloud-player-from-forcing-an-app-install/64953/6 "2017-06-22T12:57:34Z")
I’ve just “cleaned” this thread up but perhaps you get a feel for it: [http://disco.auxy.co/t/introduce-yourself/62/15](http://disco.auxy.co/t/introduce-yourself/62/15)
When everyone is posting SoundCloud links it will be bloated with players. And frankly the SoundCloud players are quite bad on mobile. Plus it sucks for overall readability and performance.
I respect that you shouldn’t add random features requested by just one user, but in our community “everyone” is using SoundCloud and it’s much better to play tracks with the logged in app experience where you can save and like tracks etc. instead of fiddling around with widgets.
---
### Author:  [@lenberg](https://meta.discourse.org/u/lenberg)
#### Post date: [22 Junho , 2017 12:59 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/keep-soundcloud-player-from-forcing-an-app-install/64953/7 "2017-06-22T12:59:57Z")
And actually SoundCloud just destroyed their mobile widgets and turned them into banner ads for installing their apps in either way. Here’s a screenshot from within our app…
---
### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [22 Junho , 2017 13:02 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/keep-soundcloud-player-from-forcing-an-app-install/64953/8 "2017-06-22T13:02:42Z")
I am totally for sorting out “soundcloud onebox is terrible on mobile”, from my own use YouTube is actually very nice on mobile and does not cost anything except for an image till you start playing.
---
### Author:  [@lenberg](https://meta.discourse.org/u/lenberg)
#### Post date: [22 Junho , 2017 13:15 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/keep-soundcloud-player-from-forcing-an-app-install/64953/9 "2017-06-22T13:15:56Z")
The initial question was about whether there was already a setting for this, but in practice I’m happy to keep anything except the SoundCloud players.
---
### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [22 Junho , 2017 13:58 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/keep-soundcloud-player-from-forcing-an-app-install/64953/10 "2017-06-22T13:58:35Z")
@techAPJ can you have a look to see if anything can be done to make SoundCloud embed less horrible on mobile?
---
### Author:  [@lenberg](https://meta.discourse.org/u/lenberg)
#### Post date: [22 Junho , 2017 14:31 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/keep-soundcloud-player-from-forcing-an-app-install/64953/11 "2017-06-22T14:31:34Z")
I used to run platform at SoundCloud and my feeling is that they’re moving away from supporting third-party streaming and try to move everything into their own apps, so not worth investing in custom streaming solutions or widget customizations imho.
---
### Author:  [@lenberg](https://meta.discourse.org/u/lenberg)
#### Post date: [22 Junho , 2017 16:31 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/keep-soundcloud-player-from-forcing-an-app-install/64953/12 "2017-06-22T16:31:32Z")
Here’s how it looks on mobile.
---
### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [22 Junho , 2017 20:17 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/keep-soundcloud-player-from-forcing-an-app-install/64953/13 "2017-06-22T20:17:07Z")
Shouldn’t the existing onebox blacklisting site setting work for this already, `onebox domains blacklist`?
I agree that SoundCloud is really forcing the app down people’s throat versus having a clean simple player, and that is kind of a bummer, but I disagree that this is our problem to deal with and spend engineering time on.
---
### Author:  [@lenberg](https://meta.discourse.org/u/lenberg)
#### Post date: [26 Junho , 2017 08:52 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/keep-soundcloud-player-from-forcing-an-app-install/64953/14 "2017-06-26T08:52:40Z")
The blacklisting seems to work just as I was hoping for. I.e. that was the answer I was looking for in my initial question. Great!
---
### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [21 Junho , 2019 22:39 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/keep-soundcloud-player-from-forcing-an-app-install/64953/15 "2019-06-21T22:39:48Z")
---
### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [4 Dezembro , 2022 23:52 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/keep-soundcloud-player-from-forcing-an-app-install/64953/16 "2022-12-04T23:52:32Z")
---
### Author:  [@Stephen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Stephen)
#### Post date: [5 Dezembro , 2022 03:05 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/keep-soundcloud-player-from-forcing-an-app-install/64953/17 "2022-12-05T03:05:05Z")