How do I set a default for ‘mailto’ links on my browser?

How to get email links to open in Google Chrome

Here are four steps to get email links to open in Chrome:

1. Navigate to Chrome settings

First, launch the Chrome web browser:

• In the right area of the browser screen, there are three gray dots showing the “Settings” menu that appear.
• Click on these three dots and click on the word “Settings” to show the Chrome settings menu on the screen.

2. Launch privacy and security menu

Once you’re on Chrome’s settings page, scroll down the page until you see the “Privacy and security” section. In this section:

• Navigate to the “Site settings” option and a gray arrow appears on the right side of the menu option.
• Click on it, locate the words “Additional permissions” and click on the gray downward-facing arrow that appears to the right area of that menu option.

3. Set default settings

In the “Additional permissions” menu:

• Scroll until you see the “Protocol handlers” menu option.
• Click on the gray right-facing arrow to expand the menu, and select the “Protocol handlers” menu option.
• In the “Protocol handler” menu, under the words “Default behavior,” there are two options. Select the “Sites can ask to handle protocols” option.

4. Allow Gmail to open all links

Finally, open up your Gmail email account in a new tab on your computer. On the right side of the URL’s address bar, there is an icon with two intertwined diamonds that will appear:

• Click on the icon to get a pop-up menu that asks, “Allow mail.google.com to open all links?”
• Select the “Allow” menu option so that the next time an email opens, it will automatically open in Gmail.

How to stop email links from opening in Google Chrome

You can also stop email links from automatically opening in Google Chrome in the same settings menu that you accessed to have email links open in the browser and follow these steps:

1. Launch Privacy and Security menu in Chrome settings

Return to Chrome’s settings page and navigate to the “Privacy and Security” section:

• Select the “Site settings” menu option and click on the gray arrow on the right side of the menu option.
• Navigate to the “Additional permissions” menu option and expand the menu by clicking on the gray downward-facing arrow that appears to the right area of that option.

2. Set your default protocol settings

Once you’ve expanded the “Additional permissions” menu, you can launch the “Protocol handlers” menu option by clicking on the gray right-facing arrow:

• In the “Protocol handler” menu, under the words “Default behavior,” look for the menu option that says, “Don’t allow sites to handle protocols.”
• Select this option and future email links won’t automatically open in Gmail.
• Under the two options for selection, a list of sites that aren’t allowed to handle site protocols appears, and you can confirm that you’ve denied Gmail access to opening email links by seeing if it appears on this list.

How to set a default for mailto links on other browsers

You may also open email links on other browsers automatically. Here are three common internet browsers and how to set them as your email link default opener:

Apple Safari

You can follow these seven steps to set Safari as your default browser to open mailto links:

1. Launch the Safari web browser on your computer.
2. Begin downloading the Google Mailto Extension from Google.
3. While the Google Mailto Extension is downloading, navigate to the right area of the browser and locate the “Downloads” icon, which is represented by a downward facing arrow and click on it.
4. From the menu of extensions that appear, click on the Google Mailto Extension twice to install it on the browser.
5. A new menu will appear and you can navigate to the “Options” menu option.
6. From the menu options, select the default email client you’d like to use, and this selection automatically saves your preferences.
7. You can close out the browser and then reopen it to confirm it saved your settings.

Mozilla Firefox

You can follow these seven steps to set Firefox as the default browser to open mailto links:

1. First, launch the Firefox web browser on your computer.
2. Navigate to the Firefox menu that is in the left corner of the browser on the screen and click on it for it to open.
3. In the menu that appears, select either the “Options” (PC) menu option or the “Preferences” (Mac) menu option depending on the type of computer you’re using.
4. In the following menu, find the word “Application” and click on it.
5. A search bar then appears, and you can type in the word “Mailto.”
6. Results generate and appear on the screen, and you can navigate to the “Action” column that appears.
7. In this column, you can then select which default email client you’d like the browser to open emails in.

Microsoft Edge

You can follow these three steps to set Edge as your default browser to open mailto links:

1. Open your email account on your browser.
2. On the right side of the URL’s address bar, click on the icon depicting two intertwined diamonds, which show the handler menu.
3. In the pop-up menu, select the option that reads, “Allow mail.google.com to open all links.” From that point forward, all emails open in the browser of your choice.

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