Gmail is not only a website to check email from the browser, but it works just like a real app on computers even if it does not require the installation of any program. The Gmail site, in fact, can interact, thanks to the integration with the browser used (especially if you use Chrome), to send notifications as Outlook would do and to send emails when clicking email addresses.
You can then use Gmail as the default Email client on Windows and Mac PC, which works as an app, directly from the Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Chrome web browser .
In this way, if you find a clickable email address, a link of type mailto: // or a written contact me ", just press on it to open the window for composing a new message with Gmail .
Unless you have other needs, Gmail can therefore be used as an email program to send and receive Email.
The mailto links, just to clarify, are those of the mailto: // .
Thanks to this new feature, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Google Chrome become, to all intents and purposes, client programs for sending and receiving mail, making the use of Outlook or Thunderbird superfluous.
The configuration is automatic but it may be necessary to set, on the browser used, Gmail as the default program to open the links of the e-mail addresses.
1) To set Gmail to open mailto: // links on Google Chrome, when you open Gmail you should receive a warning at the top asking if you want to allow Gmail to open all the links of the emails.
Just click on the status with two arrows at the top of the address bar to allow Gmail to open the Email links.
If the message does not appear or if the button is not found, go to Chrome Settings by pressing the button with three lines at the top right and move to the " Advanced Settings " tab .
Then, click the " Content Settings " button, look for the Managers item and enable the " Allow sites to ask to become default protocols managers " option.
At this point, open Gmail and you should see at the top, on the address bar on the right side, an icon with a double rhombus.
Press the icon and select the " Allow " option.
From the Chrome Settings, under Manage Managers, the association to the mailto: // links will now appear, with mail.gmail.com .
2) In Firefox, to open the links of e-mail addresses found on the internet with Gmail, you have to go to the options from the button at the top right.
From the Options screen, go to the Applications tab and scroll through the list until you find Mailto, then select the " Use Gmail " item in the drop-down menu to use it as the default client.
3) With Opera the procedure is almost the same as in Chrome.
Press on the Opera menu in the upper left corner, go to Settings, then to the Privacy and security section, click on "Manage managers" and under the item mailto, select mail.google.com .
4) In Safari, on Mac, you need to install an extension to have Gmail as the default email app.
You will then see a list of email clients from which to select Gmail .
5) With Internet Explorer instead you need to install the Google Toolbar.
Then click on the toolbar options button (the wrench), go to the " general " tab and select " use Gmail for Send to links ".
NOTE: In Windows 10, after configuring the browser correctly and as follows, the PC Settings window > System -> Default apps opens where you will need to change the default Email app by putting the browser used and then Chrome, Firefox, Opera to depending on the choice.
For other versions of Windows, see here how to set the default program for each file .
NOTE2: On Mac, the default app is that of Mail or Mail.
Then open this application, go to preferences and from the Mail> General menu, add the browser as the default email program.
Returning instead to Chrome and Firefox, I remember that it is possible to receive notification of new emails arriving directly from the browser without necessarily keeping the gmail.com site open.
For Firefox the extension is Gmail Notifier while for Chrome there is Google Mail checker.
With these extensions an icon will appear on the browser indicating unread messages.
Alternatively you can use the Pop Peeper plugin to receive alerts on the desktop for new incoming email messages.
Finally, remembering that you can read the emails from the Gmail site even offline, from the browser, without internet connection, I would say that, with Gmail, any browser can be used safely as a traditional email client and you can give up Outlook or other programs.
