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The fact that many people don't have the handling for it configured, especially on desktop. If you use a provider like gmail or hotmail, there's a chance they'

The fact that many people don't have the handling for it configured, especially on desktop. If you use a provider like gmail or hotmail, there's a chance they're not set up as your mailto link handler. So in that case, some random email client you have installed will open up and bug you with its first time setup wizard. Best case, the user is annoyed but still manages to copy the address manually. Worst case, they conclude the link is broken and don't use it.

kennydude 6y ago
That's an issue web browsers can solve.
- kzrdude 6y ago
  Chrome is jumping on it, by handling tel:. Which means it's not open to others
bandie91 6y ago
> If you use a provider like gmail or hotmail, there's a chance they're not set up as your mailto link handler. so, they should set themself up. what drives someone into invent yet another tool which accomplish something on a much higher cost, which is other programms' responsibility and those could less painstakingly fix it.
- judge2020 6y ago
  Gmail is doing this currently, at least for me (might still be in an A/B stage). It'll pop up the browser permission to handle mail links, then chrome will open the Windows 10 "default apps" page of settings to get you to change the mail app to Chrome.
  - dudus 6y ago
    This is an old feature. But it requires Gmail asking for a permission or maybe clicking on a setting somewhere and that means most users will ignore it or simply dismiss it without understanding what it even is. These days there are so many popups with warnings all the time (cookies, tos, notifications) you can't blame the users for just dismissing them without even reading
- MatekCopatek 6y ago
  I agree in principle and will use mailto: and tel: links on any project where I have the luxury of doing things properly without worrying about the consequences. But at the same time it's not easy to explain to a client that their email link might not work for a sizable portion of their visitors, especially if they've seen solutions that work all the time. I also agree about avoiding unnecessary bloat and this seems like a decent tradeoff. It's just a tiny popup that includes the native option, so you could argue it sits between a plain mailto: link and a full-on contact form with a backend service for sending emails/texts.
- some_random 6y ago
  "why don't all users just set up their mail client" really isn't an acceptable solution to the problem of "many users don't have a mail client set up"

kennydude 6y ago

That's an issue web browsers can solve.

kzrdude 6y ago
Chrome is jumping on it, by handling tel:. Which means it's not open to others

bandie91 6y ago

> If you use a provider like gmail or hotmail, there's a chance they're not set up as your mailto link handler. so, they should set themself up. what drives someone into invent yet another tool which accomplish something on a much higher cost, which is other programms' responsibility and those could less painstakingly fix it.

judge2020 6y ago
Gmail is doing this currently, at least for me (might still be in an A/B stage). It'll pop up the browser permission to handle mail links, then chrome will open the Windows 10 "default apps" page of settings to get you to change the mail app to Chrome.
- dudus 6y ago
  This is an old feature. But it requires Gmail asking for a permission or maybe clicking on a setting somewhere and that means most users will ignore it or simply dismiss it without understanding what it even is. These days there are so many popups with warnings all the time (cookies, tos, notifications) you can't blame the users for just dismissing them without even reading
MatekCopatek 6y ago
I agree in principle and will use mailto: and tel: links on any project where I have the luxury of doing things properly without worrying about the consequences. But at the same time it's not easy to explain to a client that their email link might not work for a sizable portion of their visitors, especially if they've seen solutions that work all the time. I also agree about avoiding unnecessary bloat and this seems like a decent tradeoff. It's just a tiny popup that includes the native option, so you could argue it sits between a plain mailto: link and a full-on contact form with a backend service for sending emails/texts.
some_random 6y ago
"why don't all users just set up their mail client" really isn't an acceptable solution to the problem of "many users don't have a mail client set up"