Make Gmail Default Email on Mac

Setting Gmail as your default email client on Mac is very simple. You only need to change the default email settings in Apple’s “Mail” app and you’re done. Then go into your browser to set Gmail as the default there, as well, by following the steps below.

1. Open the default “Mail” app
2. Bring up the “mail” menu and click on “preferences”
3. In the “general” tab, change “default email reader” to your preferred browser
4. Open your browser and set Gmail as your default email client

You can jump to the “browser” section of this article to find out how to make Gmail default in your browser.

Make Gmail Default Email: Windows 10

To set Gmail as your default handler for email links on Windows 10, you’ll need to wade through a few menus. It’s simple enough, though; just follow these steps and you’ll be done in no time. Then follow the guide for your browser to finish the setup.

1. Open the Windows “settings”
2. Click on the “apps” menu
3. From the “apps” menu, click on the “default apps” tab
4. Select “email” and set it to the browser of your choice
5. Set up your browser to open mailto links in Gmail by default

Guides for Browsers

Once you’ve set up your computer to let your browser handle email address links, you just have to set Gmail as the default in your browser. We’ll be focusing on the three most common ones: Google Chrome, Safari and Mozilla Firefox. 

Chrome 

Setting Gmail as your default email client in Google Chrome requires a few steps that you may not be that familiar with. You’ll have to go into those scary “advanced settings” menus, but don’t worry, we’re here to walk you through it. Just follow these steps to make Gmail the default email in Chrome.

First, open Chrome and click on the three-dots menu icon in the top-right corner of the screen. Then select “settings” from the dropdown menu. Click on “privacy and security” in the column on the left, then open the “site settings” menu. Next, scroll down to the end of the “permissions” section and hit “additional permissions.” Then click on the “handlers” option there.

In the “handlers” menu, turn on the option called “allow sites to ask to become default handlers for protocols.” If that option is already turned on, you may have previously set a default email handler. 

If that’s the case, you will see a section called “email” below, with an email client listed as a default. If you see “mail.google.com” listed, Gmail is already set as default. If it’s not set to Gmail, just clear the default.

Next time you open Gmail in Chrome, a diamond icon will appear in the address bar at the top right. Click on the diamond icon to open a dialog box where Gmail will ask to become default. Click “allow” and you’re done. Now every time you click on a mailto link in Chrome, it will open in Gmail.

Safari 

If you’re a Safari user, you’re out of luck. The only way to make Gmail the default email in Safari is to download an extension called “Mailto:” — yes, with a colon on the end. The bad news is that the extension hasn’t been updated for the latest version of Safari. 

Luckily, the code is available on GitHub, so you could try to update the extension yourself, if you have the know-how. The download for the old Safari version is at the bottom of the GitHub page. However, if having Gmail as a default mailto link handler is a priority, you’ll be better off just switching to a better browser for Mac than Safari.

Firefox 

When you first click on a mailto link in Mozilla Firefox, it will ask you which client you want to handle your email address links. You can immediately choose Gmail and be done with it, but no worries if you’ve already set a different one. 

To set Gmail as your default email client, click on the hamburger menu icon in the top-right corner, next to the address bar. Then go into Firefox’s “options” page. In the “general” tab, scroll down to the “applications” section and find the “mailto” option. Then just change it to “use Gmail” and you’ve finished setting up Gmail.