The following should work and not require any permissions in the manifest (basically override shouldOverrideUrlLoading and handle links separately from tel, mailto, etc.):
mWebView = (WebView) findViewById(R.id.web_view);
WebSettings webSettings = mWebView.getSettings();
webSettings.setJavaScriptEnabled(true);
mWebView.setWebViewClient(new WebViewClient(){
@Override
public boolean shouldOverrideUrlLoading(WebView view, String url) {
if( url.startsWith("http:") || url.startsWith("https:") ) {
return false;
}
// Otherwise allow the OS to handle things like tel, mailto, etc.
Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse(url));
startActivity( intent );
return true;
}
});
mWebView.loadUrl(url);
Also, note that in the above snippet I am enabling JavaScript, which you will also most likely want, but if for some reason you don't, just remove those 2 lines.