macOS: eM Client doesn't set the "source app" when opening links — breaks browser-router utilities

Feature request
1

Summary
When I click a hyperlink in an email, eM Client correctly opens it in my default browser — but it doesn’t identify itself as the app that opened the URL. As a result, browser-picker / link-router utilities (Finicky, Velja, Choosy, OpenIn, etc.) can’t tell the link came from eM Client, so any rule that routes links by source application silently fails for eM Client.

Steps to reproduce

  1. Install a URL-router app and set it as the default browser (e.g. Finicky or Velja).
  2. Create a rule: links opened from eM Client → open in Chrome (matched on the source app).
  3. Click a link in an eM Client email.

Expected: the router sees eM Client as the source and applies the rule.
Actual: the router receives an empty source — no name, bundle ID, or path. In Finicky’s log the opener is blank:
Setting opener | name: | bundleId: | path:

Velja’s source-app history likewise shows no originating app, and the link falls through to the catch all/default browser.

Likely cause
This is consistent with eM Client opening URLs in a way that doesn’t propagate the calling app’s identity to LaunchServices — e.g. shelling out to the /usr/bin/open command-line tool (or a similar indirect launcher), where the short-lived helper becomes the nominal “opener” and eM Client’s identity is lost. Apps that open links directly via Cocoa’s -[NSWorkspace openURL:] /NSWorkspace.open(_:slight_smile: from the main app process are attributed correctly by macOS, and router apps can match on them.

Suggested fix
Open external links via NSWorkspace.shared.open(url) directly from the eM Client process rather than shelling out to /usr/bin/open or any indirect launcher. That lets macOS record com.emclient.mail.client as the opener, so source-based routing works.

Why it matters
People running multiple browsers/profiles rely on these tools to route work links to one browser and personal links to another, and commonly send all email links to a specific browser. Right now eM Client is the one app that can’t be targeted this way, forcing broad catch-all workarounds that also capture unrelated links.

Happy to provide logs or test a build. Thanks!

2

People running multiple browsers/profiles rely on these tools to route work links to one browser and personal links to another, and commonly send all email links to a specific browser.

There is Sleekplan suggestions below which you can vote for to “choose what browser you want to open links with” if you need different browsers for different work or personal related reasons.
You can add any comments you like to either suggestion or create a new suggestion to vote on.

and

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