diff --git a/crates/core/app.rs b/crates/core/app.rs
index f78ed8dd..3e0247f4 100644
--- a/crates/core/app.rs
+++ b/crates/core/app.rs
@@ -1565,10 +1565,12 @@ empty string.
 A format string may be empty. An empty format string is equivalent to the
 'none' alias. In this case, hyperlinks will be disabled.
 
-At present, the default format when ripgrep detects a tty on stdout all systems
-is 'default'. This is an alias that expands to file://{host}{path} on Unix and
-file://{path} on Windows. When stdout is not a tty, then the default format
-behaves as if it were 'none'. That is, hyperlinks are disabled.
+At present, ripgrep does not enable hyperlinks by default. Users must opt into
+them. If you aren't sure what format to use, try 'default'.
+
+When ripgrep detects a tty on stdout then hyperlinks are automatically
+disabled, regardless of the value of this flag. Users can pass '--color always'
+to forcefully emit hyperlinks.
 
 Note that hyperlinks are only written when a path is also in the output
 and colors are enabled. To write hyperlinks without colors, you'll need to
diff --git a/crates/core/args.rs b/crates/core/args.rs
index 05d015aa..6125f5e8 100644
--- a/crates/core/args.rs
+++ b/crates/core/args.rs
@@ -1136,7 +1136,7 @@ impl ArgMatches {
             .wsl_prefix(wsl_prefix());
         let fmt: HyperlinkFormat =
             match self.value_of_lossy("hyperlink-format") {
-                None => "default".parse().unwrap(),
+                None => "none".parse().unwrap(),
                 Some(format) => match format.parse() {
                     Ok(format) => format,
                     Err(err) => {