Email links now open in Gmail for Chrome users

Google Chrome users get a little added convenience today thanks to the power of HTML5 coding. A new update now offers Chrome and Gmail users the option to have all email links open up with your Gmail account.

In other words, you no longer have to copy and paste an email address into Gmail to compose a message. Like Outlook or Thunderbird, clicking a “mailto” URL will now fire up Gmail’s message composition feature instead.

“Thanks to the magic of HTML5 things are getting simpler,” said Gmail software engineer Michael Davidson.

“Now, when you go to Gmail in Chrome, you will be asked if you want Gmail to open all email links. Say yes, and clicking on email links in any application on your computer will open a fresh Gmail compose window.”

Chrome users will find today that they’ll be given the option to Allow Gmail (mail.google.com) to open all email links”. Click ‘Use Gmail’ and then any email link you click on your computer will now open up with Gmail rather than your default mail app.