App: Velja
Developer: Sindre Sorhus
Genres: Utilities, Developer Tools

Open links in a specific browser or a matching native app. Easily switch between browsers.

Velja is not able to handle links clicked inside a browser. However, Velja comes with a Safari extension which you can enable in the Safari settings. You can then click the toolbar icon to open the current page with Velja or right-click a link to open it with Velja. You can find extensions for other browsers on the app's website.


Example use-cases:
• Use Safari as your primary browser but open Google Meet links in Chrome
• Open links to figma.com directly in the Figma desktop app
• Open links to the internal company website in Firefox
• Open Zoom meeting invitations directly in the desktop Zoom app
• Open all links clicked in the Slack app in your Chrome work profile


The app is free without ads because I love making apps. Consider leaving a nice review.


■ Highlights

• Quickly change the primary browser
• Interactive browser prompt
• Directly open links to certain websites in their desktop app
• Remove tracking parameters on clicked and copied links (Google UTM, Twitter, TikTok, etc)
• Open copied links from the menu bar menu
• Open Google Meet links in Chrome even if Safari is the default browser
• Press a keyboard shortcut to use an alternative browser
• Custom link rules
• Open a specific browser depending on which app the link was clicked in
• Use a specific browser profile for some links
• Hide the menu bar icon
• Browser extensions (Safari built-in, see website for others)
• Shortcuts support
• Handoff support
• Share extension


■ Custom link rules

Velja lets you create advanced rules to open certain links in a specific browser. For example, you could create a rule to make all URLs with the domain “google.com” open in Chrome. Or links opened from a specific app. Or both.

You can also use this to open some links in a specific browser profile. It supports Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers like Edge, Brave, Vivaldi, etc.


■ Supported apps

Velja supports opening links in the native app for these services:

• Airtable
• Amazon Chime
• Apple Music
• Around
• Asana
• ClickUp
• Discord
• Figma
• Front
• Jitsi Meet
• Linear
• Microsoft Teams
• Miro
• Notion
• Pop
• Slite
• Spotify
• Telegram
• TIDAL
• Trello
• Twitter
• Zeplin
• Zoom

And these services that do not have a desktop app:

• Google Meet
• YouTube

You can also add custom apps using the rules feature. I'm happy to consider adding more apps built in.

Note: It's not feasible to add Slack support as its desktop app does not support opening Slack URLs directly.


■ Bonus

- The app also resolves some URLs to popular services offline whenever possible to improve the speed of opening links. These websites often add useless redirects when you copy links. For example, it can rewrite URLs like youtube.be, l.facebook.com, safelinks.protection.outlook.com, google.com/url?=…, etc, to its final destination. This works for copying and opening links, even with the “expand short URLs” setting disabled.


■ FAQ

‣ What are tracking parameters and why would I want to remove them?

Removing tracking parameters improve privacy and also make URLs more aesthetically pleasing. Tracking parameters are used by many websites to track your browsing activity across websites.

Velja supports 200+ common tracking parameters (e.g. Google UTM) and it has special support for removing tracking from links to Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok.

Before: https://foo.com?utm_content=buffercf3b2&utm_source=snapchat.com
After: https://foo.com

Did you know that if you click a TikTok link that someone shared with you, they will be able to see that you watched it? Velja anonymizes TikTok links so that you will not be tracked.

‣ How does this compare to other similar apps like Choosy, Bumpr, OpenIn, and Browserosaurus?

See the website.


More FAQs on the website.


■ Support

You can contact me through the feedback button in the app.

Release notes:
- Bug fixes.