Browser support for background links on macOS

Published — 1 minute read

In Apple Mail on macOS, you can hold down the Command ⌘ key while clicking links to open them in the background. This is handy when you have an email with a list of links, because the browser window doesn’t become active on each link click.

I like it because it’s how clicking links used to work for me when I used Gmail. Middle-click all the links!

This works with the following browsers:

I’m not surprised about Orion supporting this, as it uses WebKit, but I am surprised by Firefox supporting this. Good job!

Sadly, none of the Chromium-based browsers I have installed support this:

Except for Arc! If you turn off the Little Arc feature, which opens a tiny popup window for links from other apps, Arc will happily stay in the background—unlike my opinions on the longterm existence of VC-funded The Browser Company.