Ok, so we’re all in Zoom way too much these days. We’re clicking links in calendar entries, Slack messages, and emails. They’re opening a browser tab every time, which then opens Zoom. I wrote a little script to clean up all those tabs, but that’s a kludge. Choosy is better.
I’ll start with the very simple tip: in Choosy you can add an advanced rule that targets any URL containing “zoom.us” and have it open directly in Zoom, completely bypassing your browser. You don’t even have to add Zoom as a browser in Choosy, just select “Browse…” from the dropdown list when specifying what browser to use and find “zoom.us” in your Applications folder.
There have been a few “default browser” apps for macOS over the years. Notably BetterTouchTool can function as one now, doing all kinds of neat tricks with your urls. The thing is, I’ve never seen one that has the perfect combination of ease and power that Choosy pulls off. Choosy is a breeze to set up, offers a great popup menu either horizontally or in a circle around your cursor, and has all of the advanced features you need.
You can specify all the browsers you’ll ever use, and set their order of preference. You can have Choosy always use the best running browser, only asking you to select one if none are running. Or you can have it offer you a selection of all your browsers, just your running browsers, or automatically assume it should use your favorite if no others are running. It can even expand shortened URLs for you on the fly.
This is all great if you’re a developer and constantly using every browser out there. But it’s also handy for anyone that has some sites that need a specific browser that’s not their preferred browser. You know, the sites you keep Chrome around for even though you prefer Firefox or Safari for everything else. Or, as illustrated above, a need to open links in an app that isn’t normally able to capture URL clicks.
What makes all of that possible is Choosy’s custom rules. Under advanced preferences you can build rules like the Zoom one above. You can have specific url patterns trigger specific browsers. Or have one that detects local HTML file clicks and lets you choose whether to open them in your browser or your text editor (yes, you can add your favorite editor as a browser option). My setup defaults to the best running browser, but if I hold down option when clicking a link anywhere on my Mac, I get a menu of all available browsers. Everything is customizable.
It even has an API and url scheme, so it’s a breeze to integrate into things like bookmarklets and shell scripts.
I know there are other tools like this, and I’d love to hear about your favorites in the comments, but Choosy has served me well for longer than I can remember. It’s absolutely worth the ten bucks, even if just to curb your Zoom tabs.
Choosy is available at choosyosx.com.
