Setting Gmail as the default mail program on OSX

While getting my new system back to the way my old system was configured, I’ve been very surprised at the amount of old, outdated information on setups floating around the web.

For example, a few months back Chrome provided a new way to have both mailto: links and your default system mail handler in OSX set up from the browser. Google searches still point to the outdated and cumbersome methods to do it. Here’s the easier way…

Even then, the all important support post talking about this doesn’t tell you easily how to do this (as well as set your GCal for being the default system calendar handler.).

In Chrome, log into Gmail. In the omnibar (the combined address and search bar you use for typing), you should see this “protocol handler” icon.

Click on it and you should get a dropdown radio box which allows you to choose your default mail account as the default for all mail links and as the default OSX mail program outside of Chrome as well.

Go to your Google calendar account in Chrome and repeat the same process of clicking on the double diamond icon and choosing Google calendar as the handler.

If you ever want to disable these things, just type chrome://chrome/settings/handlers in the omnibar in Chrome and it should bring up the settings to disable wither of these (as well as any other handlers you may have enabled.).