Gmail signature not working on mailto link

Question

When I use Gmail to send an email, the email signature defined in the settings is automatically added at the bottom of the email. However, when I open a mailto link to send a message, the email signature is not automatically added.

Here's the code:

<a href="mailto:[email protected]?subject=Thanks for your time&body=Hi,%0A%0AIt%20was%20a%20real%20pleasure%20speaking%20with%20you.%20Thank%20you%20for%20your%20time%20and%20we'll%20be%20in%20touch%20soon." target="_blank">test</a>

And there's a JSFiddle here. What do I need to do to make the email signature appear when I'm sending from a mailto link?

Farah

@DaniSpringer: tried on both settings, tried on a Chromebook; problem persists. – Farah

It works for me with your existing code. Is there a chance Google is seeing the chromebook as a mobile device for some weird reason? Do you have a mobile sig set up as well? – Karalynn

@DaniSpringer: can you update the fiddle with "a link"? The fiddle has an <a> tag; what do you mean with "a link? – Farah

@Drazisil: doesn't work for me, there must be a problem somewhere. – Farah

I guess &body= sets the whole body, and unless there is a way to signal that the signature should be added (e.g. &body=etc%20etc%20{signature}) there is no way to acomplish this. – Cano

Answer 1

Using body as a parameter in the mailto link replaces everything that is already placed into the email by Gmail. If body is not part of the attribute from mailto, then the signature works as expected.

Source: I tested this with your fiddle by removing the body attribute and clicked the link again. It works just as you want.

I have to add code to submit this answer with a fiddle, so here is the link that will work with a signature:

<a href="mailto:[email protected]?subject=Thanks for your time" target="_blank">test</a>

Lucero

No, I'm not talking about adding a signature to the mailto link, I'm talking about using mailto to open Gmail and then have Gmail add the signature at the bottom of the email like it does when you send an email from the Gmail interface. – Farah

Sorry @frenchie, you're right I misunderstood what you initially tried to do. I amended my answer accordingly. Sorry this is not more helpful but this seems to be a bug that Gmail hasn't bothered to fix yet. – Lucero

I can see that this answer is marked correct, but does it actually answer the question? I have the same behaviour on all mailto links, even if they don't specify a body or subject, ie just have the email address and nothing else. – Janessa

Answer 2

Do this (on desktop of course):

http://mail.google.com/mail/?view=cm&fs=1&tf=1&[email protected]&su=Hello%20Dani%20(via%20Stack%20OverFlow)">http://mail.google.com/mail/?view=cm&fs=1&tf=1&[email protected]&su=Hello%20Dani%20(via%20Stack%20OverFlow)

Note:
If you want your gmail signature, you must use gmail.
If you'd like to use a different client, you must make a signature on that client itself.

Tabes

Yes but that's not a mailto link; the reason it needs to be a mailto is that not everyone uses Gmail. – Farah

As @Farah has stated in the comments, he wants the signature to be shown in Gmail directly when he clicks on a mailto link from somewhere else. He already has a signature setup with Gmail but when he clicks on a mailto link and it opens in Gmail, the signature isn't shown. This answer doesn't provide the information on how to fix that (I think this is a Gmail bug). – Lucero

@DaniSpringer try this: create a gmail signature with a logo and when that's set up, click on the mailto link in the jsfiddle. The signature with the logo isn't there as it normally is when you click to compose a new email from the gmail interface. – Farah

Answer 3

A workaround for this which could be used in conjunction with above answers:

1. Compose new email, leave it totally blank
2. Save the email as a canned response titled something like "SIG"
3. When clicking a mailto link with a body description, you can go the the last line of the email and insert your SIG canned response to dump your signature in there.

Deepset