Products · Pattern or everyday thing
Mailto links
Raised as a usability problem by 8 people on Hacker News over 7 years (2018–2024), in 7 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Mailto links fail when default mail client is wrongUnreviewed
20182026- Users often have mailto links misconfigured, so clicking them fails to open email2024-10-08
- Mailto links break or open wrong client, forcing manual copy and paste of address and code2024-09-28
- Clicking a mailto link without a desktop client triggers a confusing setup process2022-09-08
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 8 complaints
- Users often have mailto links misconfigured, so clicking them fails to open email2024-10-08
- Mailto links break or open wrong client, forcing manual copy and paste of address and code2024-09-28
- Clicking a mailto link without a desktop client triggers a confusing setup process2022-09-08
- Opening a mailto link in browsers requires configuring a mail client, which people don't have set up2022-08-20
- Links labelled 'Contact' unexpectedly open the email client instead of expected behaviour2020-09-10
- Users dismiss permission popups without understanding them, so the feature goes unused2020-09-10
- Mailto links open the OSX Mail app, which the user immediately closes2019-12-10
- Mailto links fail when the user's default mail client is wrong2018-09-27