Disclaimer: I don't know it's a bug, feature suggestion, or even just a question. So, I randomly pick between bug or feature section. Sorry.

Brief Summary

The feature I am suggesting is essentially profile-specific link opening in Orion. As of now, if a specific profile window is active, and a user clicks a link outside of Orion (for instance, in a document, email, etc.), it opens in the main profile window, not the active one. I suggest that this link should instead open in the profile window that's currently active. This feature will significantly improve user experience by increasing the ease and efficiency of managing different browsing profiles.

Details:

At present, users might use multiple profiles in Orion for different tasks, such as work, personal browsing, or research. This helps keep various activities separate and organized. However, when a user is working in a specific profile (let's say, 'Work Profile') and clicks on a link from an external source, the link will open in the 'Main Profile'. This interrupts the user's workflow and can lead to confusion, with content from different activities intermingling.

My proposal is that if a user is currently active on a specific profile (other than the main one), any links clicked from outside Orion should open in that active profile. This will help in maintaining the segregation of different tasks and improve the overall user experience.

An implementation example can be taken from Google Chrome. If a user has multiple profiles open in Chrome and they click a link in an external application, that link opens in the last active Chrome window, regardless of which profile it is.

As this feature adds on to the existing feature of having multiple profiles, it should be relatively straightforward to integrate. The browser would need to track the last active profile window and open external links there. However, this should only apply when the active window isn't the main profile window to avoid any confusion and to maintain the original functionality as well. An option could be added in the settings for users to opt in/out of this feature, allowing more customization for individual preferences.

This feature will not only extend the usefulness of Orion's multiple profile functionality but also bring a major improvement in the user experience by streamlining the workflow. This way, users can maintain a clear separation between different tasks without worrying about jumbled content.

Image/Video:

Sorry, can't provide this at the time I posted it. But, it's very easy to reproduce tho.

ImBIOS While this is being considered something like Choosy should let you both select which Orion profile to use when clicking a link, and setup rules to open specific URLs in specific profiles automatically.

ImBIOS Merging here, as the requested is directly opposite. We are looking for user community concensus.

There is also this, somewhat relevant discussion https://orionfeedback.org/d/4417-option-to-have-certains-urls-to-be-opened-in-defined-profile

This feature allows a user to click on any URL/link on any app and the page will open on the last active profile regardless of which one is set to "default." This is to ensure that there's no need for any third party apps to define which URL gets opened on which profile.

When I am in work mode any external/url i click on from any app will open in my work profile since that is the profile I am active in.

I then swipe over to my personal desktop where I have Discord and a personal profile of chrome. I click my personal chrome to check my personal gmail, then i switch over to discord where a friend send me a funny youtube video. i click that link and the video opens in my personal profile because that was the last active profile of chrome.

after i watch the video i swipe over to do my work again. i get a ping from a coworker on slack. i click that link and now that url opens on my work profile because that was now my last active profile.

onionbrowser Merging here, to arrive at conclusion what does the community want us to do.

its interesting that people want links to open on the default which is fine but the use case for me is that i have one mac machine and i have two desktops. one for work apps and one for personal apps. when i am on my work desktop i see slack and my work profile on chrome. i do most of my work on gsuite there and so any links i open on my work slack opens there.

then i swipe over to my desktop 2 which is all my personal apps and my personal chrome profile. i click on chrome to check my personal gmail. then i check discord and someone sent me a funny youtube video. i want that link to open on my personal chrome.

i also have a personal slack channel and i click on a URL there and it will open on my personal chrome because that was the last profile that was active.

its basically the only feature that keeps me on chrome at the moment. maybe its very niche... but its something that I've found difficult to step away from chrome for.

phy @Vlad is this true? If it is, seems like the latest active profile is what the external url will open.

Is the way to achieve this by not setting any profile as the “default”?

Maybe that’s the solve for both scenarios. Let ppl choose a default to open all external links there OR let people not set a default profile so any external link opens on the last active profile.

hello all -- curious if there's a desire to have external links open in the last active profile or at least work on that setting as a feature vs letting all links open in the default profile. ty!

I'm using Velja, and quite happy with it.

The only thing that is awkward is that I always need to start the primary "default sync" profile (the original one created when first run) before I start other profiles. I need to do this so that opening links using the original Orion app icon will open them in this profile. If I don't do this, there is no way to get links opened in that original profile.

There are a few ways I can see to making this easier.

1. Make a separate Orion app icon / executable for the primary profile, so that it's just like other profiles in this regard. There would be a "Show in Finder" context menu for this profile in Manage Profiles, just like the other profiles.
2. Have opening links with Orion (and not a specific profile's app executable) open the primary profile, always, regardless of which profile was the first to be opened on launch.

The current behaviour of "whichever profile was first to launch is used for opening Orion app links" seems kind of accidental. I'd prefer to have a well defined behaviour that doesn't depend on how I started up Orion.