In the past I used Fastmate to handle email on my Mac. Recently I switched to using Fastmail in a Safari web app. Today I clicked on a “mailto:” link for the first time since that change. I’m pretty sure Fastmate handled this fine, but the web app unfortunately does not (can’t even be registered by default).
I tried to set up the default mail handler using duti, but that worked only partially: clicking on the link does open the Fastmail web app, but it does not open the composer (and fill in the “To:” mail address).
How can I set up Fastmail (or any other Safari web app) as mailto: handler?
If you’re using webmail (email in a web browser) instead of an email app, you can choose a web browser in Mail settings, but the browser might not open webmail automatically when you click email links. Some third-party browsers and webmail services might have their own settings to change this behavior.
So I’m not going to spend more time on this.
I’ll indeed contact Fastmail support (and report back here later).
I think Fmail2 is your honest to goodness answer here, and given the low price of free, it’s worth trying it before you dismiss it or abandon your efforts. (Unless passkeys are, for some reason, a baseline requirement for you, but that sounds more like a future thing than a reality in any scenario.)
For that matter, to move from a web-based mail to an app, what’s wrong with using the app Apple Mail (and Contacts). Works well with Fastmail. But @rob wants a web-mail solution.
Fmail2 looks a bit more feature complete to me, but I don’t know; I don’t use them.
Both these apps are wrappers of a web app. Rob would get all the benefits of the Fastmail website, and Fastmail’s website offers several features that the Apple Mail app does not. So I get where he’s coming from, but unless he’s specifically married to the idea of using Safari instead of a wrapper around the Fastmail website, I think he’s severely limiting his options.
One problem with mailto links is that they’re just not reliable in browsers. If you click it without having a default email app configured, it won’t work. And if you have your browser set as your default email app, that’s still not quite enough information for the browser to be reliable at going to your preferred email app, clicking the Compose button, and pre-filling the To field. So an app is the way to go here for practical day-to-day use.
I think I changed from Fastmate to Safari when I was using a company MacBook and logged in/out every day. Unfortunately, 1Password’s autofill did not work with Fastmate, but it does work in Safari. However, I’m now using a personal MacBook Air, so I no longer need to log out every day.
Today I briefly tested both Fastmate and FMail2. Both seem to handle several different mailto links fine. Additionally, 1Password autofill does work in FMail2, but (still) not in Fastmate. On the other hand, FMail2 has an (IMHO) ugly status bar. Furthermore, I don’t like the icon of either app.
So I forked the Fastmate repository, modified the app icon, and built the app with Xcode. I will use this build until I get an answer from Fastmail support.
I use Open in Webmail for this. It was $2. It has presets for webmail providers like Fastmail or you can provide your own URL string (I don’t use Fastmail, so my mailtos open and fill fields with https://app.hey.com/messages/new?subject={subject}&to={to}&body={body}&cc={cc}&bcc={bcc})
You can also choose which browser it will open webmail in. Also, it runs completely in the background, so even though the icon is ugly, you never see it.
Looking forward to hearing their answer. I’m a recent convert to Fastmail and I quite like their iOS/iPadOS app — especially that it has full access to all of the account settings — and have been wondering how to get by on Mac.
I’m sticking to a Safari web app for now. I used to use Spark (legacy version) but have just switched to a new laptop and would prefer not to install it if there’s a better option.
There’s a reason there are half a dozen popular mail apps that aren’t from Apple. I suspect many people want additional features. In my case there is just one behaviour of Mail that means I refuse to use it. When I close/archive/delete an email, that does not mean I want to open another one. Spark, Airmail, Fastmail, Edison all offer an option to “do nothing”.
The day Apple realise this omission will be the day I stop caring about which email app I use and just default to Apple Mail on all platforms.
I’m afraid this is a limitation of the browser/OS itself. Unlike Firefox or Chrome, Safari doesn’t support setting default email links. Currently, Safari defaults to the “Default Email Reader” option set in the Mac Mail app. This option will be available in the Fastmail web UI for Safari as soon as the feature is supported in Safari.
Good news you got authoritative response from a quality service provider. I had confidence they would support you quickly, hence my suggestion.
So I guess now you can consider moving to one of the many “very popular” email apps.
Me, Apple Mail works just fine for me and for probably millions of others. Works well with Fastmail including the masked emails, scheduled emails, etc. But then what do I know?
it is in the account setup for SMTP. As you may expect, I defer to experts:
Perhaps email them same question if clarification needed.
If not working for Apple Mail, then many another “cool” and “popular” email client can do it. I don’t know. I focus on the emails and their content not on the vagaries of the technology, unless warranted.
I tested and you can’t choose a saved-to-dock web app.