Within Purpose Jobs, the ‘Send Email’ button on the Candidate Profile functions as a mailto link. Mailto links are special HTML links that automatically activate your web browser’s default email client and pre-fill a specific address, allowing you to compose an email directly to the candidate of your choice.

If you haven’t used mailto links in the past, it’s possible you’ll find that your browser’s default email client and your preferred email client are not in alignment. However, you’ll be happy to hear that it’s simple to make the adjustment that will allow mailto links to open the appropriate email client so that you can communicate seamlessly with candidates.

To begin, sign into the Gmail account you’d like to use when communicating with candidates. Navigate to ‘Settings’ and click ‘Site Settings’. Scroll down, and when you select ‘Handlers’ a dialogue box will appear that reads ‘Allow mail.google.com to open all email links?’ Select ‘Allow’, and you’ll be all set!

To begin, navigate to your Firefox Options, and then choose ‘Preferences’. Next, select ‘Application’, and locate the mailto option. Choosing mailto will reveal a drop-down, from which you can select the email client of your choice:

You’ll also see two other handy options within the drop-down. ‘Always ask’ will prompt you to choose the email client of your choice each time you select a mailto link. ‘Use other…’ will allow you to choose a desktop email client, if this is your preference.

As you can imagine, some web browsers play more nicely with mailto links than others. For instance, if you’re utilizing Internet Explorer and Gmail in tandem, you’ll need to install the Google Toolbar in order to make Gmail your browser’s default email client.

Once you’ve installed the toolbar, head to ‘Options’ and then choose ‘General’ from the left-hand column. Beneath the Web-browsing Tools heading, check the box beside ‘Use Gmail for Mailto: Links’, and you’ll be all set!

Safari and Opera users will also need to utilize a third-party extension in order to make the appropriate adjustment. We recommend the Mailto: extension, which you can find here for Safari or Opera.

If you’re utilizing Chrome with another webmail client, we recommend the Chrome extension Mailto:, which will allow you to easily set Outlook, Yahoo! Mail, FastMail, Zoho Mail, or AOL Mail as your default email client. If you’re not utilizing one of these listed clients, it also offers you the option to ‘Add Another Service’.

If you’re utilizing a desktop email client, rather than a webmail email client, you have a few options. If you’re utilizing the client that is the default program for your operating system, you will not have to make any adjustments in order to utilize mailto links easily. However, if you’re using another client, you’ll need to adjust your settings accordingly:

For Windows users, navigate to your ‘Control Panel’, choose ‘Programs’, and then select ‘Default Programs’. Next, choose ‘Set Associations’ and click on ‘Associate a file type or protocol with a program’. Within the list of ‘Protocols’, locate mailto and then double click on this option. You’ll then be able to select any email client you have installed as the default handler for these mailto links.

For macOS users, navigate to the ‘Mail’ application, and then locate ‘Preferences’. This will open your General preferences by default. Now, choose the email client of your choice from the ‘Default Email Reader’ drop-down.

Once you’ve made the appropriate adjustment and set your preferred default email client for mailto links, you will not have to adjust again in the future. We hope this makes your outreach to candidates as smooth as possible!