Browser Timeout: "This Screen will be closed."

VGMoose

I know, the timeout is awful! I usually have a phone or computer around, but SOMETIMES I just have my Switch and don't want to go to the other devices. For looking stuff up quickly it's fine, but the way it just pops up and everything you're doing disappears is adding insult to injury.

Our petition to Nintendo now has over 25,000 signatures! We want them to add:

Cookies (no entering passwords every time / remembering logins and history)
Video playback (the social applet has it, and the switch already has Youtube and a few others)
Remove the timeout! (Pretty unlikely, as they likely added it just to make the DNS browser harder to use...)

And these would be great, but are obviously more development effort:

An actual browser app instead of using a DNS redirect
Tabs and bookmarks! Like on the 3DS, and Wii U browsers!

You can read other comments made by users that signed it here: https://www.change.org/p/nintendo-nintendo-expose-the-fully-functional-internet-browser-built-into-the-switch/c

I do think it's increasingly unlikely that anything will change on Nintendo's end, especially with rumors of a Switch 2 coming out in the future. The very least that they could do is unlock the DNS browser a little, or add an "Open web browser" area to settings (w/ their own landing page that links to Google).

For more info on the actual browser, see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NetFront . The browser itself is licensed to Nintendo from another company, so it's possible part of the deal is that they don't allow the user to use it as a fully fledged browser, and that could be one motive for the timeout. Just baselessly speculating, though.

ㅤㅤㅤ

does the eshop also close after 20 mins? cuz from what ive known is the eshop browser based (which explains why it runs so poorly) when it doesnt close then there must be someway to disable the timer

VGMoose

@Dan see this post for the different browser types: https://browsedns.net/topic/359/browser-applets-and-why-videos-don-t-work

In short, the WifiWebAuthApplet (Captive-portal / DNS) is the only one is allowed to load any website, but doesn't support video, and has the timeout.

The eShop uses ShopN, which is hardcoded to only display the shop. You're right though about it running poorly due to being unoptimized css and browser-based.

sakujapan384

yea fr theyre basically acting like our parents... and some of us are even adults who DONT need parenting!

also wtf isnt nintendo part of japan, and if so then why do we have the japanese internet guidelines? the censoring of sites is just like it is in japan...

Nared

But let me get this straight. On a hacked switch. When i go to the browser via the homebrew launcher. There is no timer. How does this work?.

Nared

For it to work though. You have to do an app takeover

VGMoose

@Jared Yeeeeep! That's because BrowseNX can manually use a different applet that doesn't have a timeout, and can enable video playback too. Only the WifiWebAuth Applet (which is what the DNS uses) has those limitations (times out, no video), likely to discourage usage.

3STAR

wait you can put videos on apptakeover

ㅤㅤㅤ

@Jared now i wanna hack my switch too but im too stupid to do so i probably just get my switch disabled (i have an oled switch)

VGMoose

Edited the original post to include a summary of information about the timeout, tips, the browser, and BrowseNX. This thread has a lot of views so I'm assuming people are coming in here from Google.

I can't really recommend installing homebrew just to access the browser, it's a pretty technical task and needs access to a computer or Android phone anyway to reliably use. It also comes with brick or ban risk. I mean, it's not that bad, but I don't think it's for most users.

Nared

@dan yea its pretty cool.

TNAnimating

i think i found a work around- if you use the youtube app, and press the x button when close to 20 minutes, it goes back to the main screen ad the timer refreshes. just what i found :p

? Offline

Youtube the app on switch doesn't pause-

Austin 83789

it can pause

presley

can you please change it to a hour

melomelo06

@presley OP cannot change the browser timeout. If you're asking how to change the timeout, you can open youtube instead of testing your network connection. If you're talking about the timer on this website, the timer is for security reasons

joemyson

change the time to an hour

melomelo06

@joemyson OP cannot change the timer, I already said this

VGMoose

The 20 minute timer on this website is just for your own information on how long it's been. The actual 20 minutes for the browser to close and kick you out is enforced by the Switch OS.

We started a petition to Nintendo asking them to remove these limitations, although it seems unlikely at this point in the Switch's lifecycle that they'd do this.

pusheen

in 2017 in the browser it didn't close