"Continue in your browser" persists a preference for Element Web

[richvdh]

If you have Element Desktop installed, and choose Element as your preferred client, then matrix.to links open in a page like this:

If you then click "Continue", then the link opens in Element Desktop. Great success! Meanwhile the matrix.to tab updates to:

This is maybe a bit confusing, but ok. Normally I just ignore it.

The question is: what happens if you click "Continue in your browser". My expectation is that it opens that one link in https://app.element.io, and that future matrix.to links will go back to opening in Element Desktop.

However, what actually happens is that the next time you open a matrix.to link, it will default to Element Web. Worse, it's unclear how to repair the damage. (Turns out, you can click "Change", then "Element" again, and that fixes it.)

TL;DR

STR:

• Click "Continue in your browser"
• Open another matrix.to link
• Be surprised that it now defaults to opening in Element Web.

[richvdh]

My expectation is that it opens that one link in app.element.io, and that future matrix.to links will go back to opening in Element Desktop.

I think basically I'm surprised that Element Web and Element Desktop/iOS/Android are treated as a single client by matrix.to. The whole thing would feel a lot more intuitive if it explicitly distinguished between the two in the client list.

[t3chguy]

Matrix.to has no way of knowing if you have element desktop installed, so it tries you on the element:// link while falling back to an element web button for users that don't have element desktop installed. The Web behaviour being stuck to after is definitely trying to be smart but questionable