I want to be able to open links in my app with chrome custom tab will that still work if the user doesn't have chrome or will it crash my app. I tried to uninstall Chrome from my phone(i use my phone for testing) but I can't unless I root my phone which I don't want to. Is it possible for android to ship without the chrome browser.
You can disable Chrome to emulate it not being installed: https://support.google.com/android/answer/2521768?hl=en-GB. There's no need to root the phone.
Many browsers, including Edge, Firefox and Samsung Internet support the Custom Tabs protocol, so your app should still be able to use Custom Tabs, as long as one of the browsers that support it is installed.