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Google Chrome offers an option for directly opening any e-mail link in a new tab with Gmail Compose window. This option is very helpful for sending mails to the address by simply clicking on them.

Currently this mail protocol handling feature is supported in Chrome and Firefox 12+. Internet Explorer users can add this through Google tool bar settings.

What is Mailto Protocol

Webmasters use a HTML tag to open a compose new mail window pre-filled with 'to address' when a user click on that link. There are a number of desktop software available for handling this. Very famous Microsoft Outlook is one of such tool.

The simple HTML code is like this.

<a href="mailto:abc@xyz.com">abc@xyz.com</a>

How to Activate or Deactivate this Handler

If you love to use your desktop e-mail software then the browser handling option should be disabled first. But either you want to add this, or want to remove this, the option can be changed from here.

1. Open a new tab in Chrome and type chrome://settings/handlers in the omnibox. Press enter.

Or,

If this does not works, then Go to wrench icon at the top right corner of the browser. Then Settings ⇒ Under the Hood. In the Privacy section, click on the Content Settings. Under Handlers, select the 'Allow' option and go to Manage Handlers.

2. Expand the 'site' drop down box for mailto protocol and choose 'none' to deactivate this. Or, choose 'Gmail' to set this on.

Mailto Protocol Handler in Chrome


I really like this and don't expect that I would ever need to stop this. Hope other browsers and e-mail clients will start providing this soon.

Post tagged in: GmailGoogle Chrome