What does `mailto:` do when there is no email client?

javascript html email mailto
Edward Karak picture Edward Karak · Nov 27, 2014 · Viewed 12.5k times · Source

I am developing a website.

What does mailto: open in if there is no email client (like Outlook, Thunderbird, etc.)? It works on my computer, which has Outlook, but what if one wants mailto: to open in, say, gmail.com?

What do I need to put in the mailto: statement for that to happen?

Answer

Edward Coyle Jr. picture Edward Coyle Jr. · Nov 27, 2014

As a web developer you don't have any control over the software that a user chooses to open their email, since it's handled by that user's web browser settings, or the OS. If a user has no email program installed on their machine and no operation defined for "mailto" links in their browser, nothing would happen.

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