Protocol handler?
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Glad to see more people having this idea! The problems we ran into were in helping the browser understand the address and know where to forward. Each server implements lookup routes differently, so there's not necessarily a generic path that you can trust is available on https on the person's home server, even if you know their home server origin. So in some ways the feature should be offered by your home server software, maybe offering a website that does the handler registration to its known lookup/redirect address.
But that is limiting in a few ways. It's a lot of extra steps for each person to do (browsers' default UI for registering protocols is not obvious or easy). It doesn't carry over to different devices, and if you have more than one home server in some way, you are back dealing with that not-great browser UI to pick which handler you want.
In general people are more accustomed to registering protocols to apps they have installed, especially phone apps. It's much easier to register them there and you don't have to have approval flow UI, but taking that approach moves this whole served handler route out of the backend again, so we have to start thinking more along the lines of web+ap-compatible servers that handler clients know how to call or bounce to.
@julian@community.nodebb.org @silverpill@mitra.social @SoniEx2@chaos.social @rimu@piefed.social -
Glad to see more people having this idea! The problems we ran into were in helping the browser understand the address and know where to forward. Each server implements lookup routes differently, so there's not necessarily a generic path that you can trust is available on https on the person's home server, even if you know their home server origin. So in some ways the feature should be offered by your home server software, maybe offering a website that does the handler registration to its known lookup/redirect address.
But that is limiting in a few ways. It's a lot of extra steps for each person to do (browsers' default UI for registering protocols is not obvious or easy). It doesn't carry over to different devices, and if you have more than one home server in some way, you are back dealing with that not-great browser UI to pick which handler you want.
In general people are more accustomed to registering protocols to apps they have installed, especially phone apps. It's much easier to register them there and you don't have to have approval flow UI, but taking that approach moves this whole served handler route out of the backend again, so we have to start thinking more along the lines of web+ap-compatible servers that handler clients know how to call or bounce to.
@julian@community.nodebb.org @silverpill@mitra.social @SoniEx2@chaos.social @rimu@piefed.socialAlso I want to highlight this excellent comment by Yumechi about fingerprinting and de-anonymization risks.
https://socialhub.activitypub.rocks/t/fep-07d7-a-custom-url-scheme-and-web-based-protocol-handlers-for-linking-to-activitypub-resources/3588/53
@SoniEx2@chaos.social @silverpill@mitra.social @julian@community.nodebb.org @rimu@piefed.social -
Also I want to highlight this excellent comment by Yumechi about fingerprinting and de-anonymization risks.
https://socialhub.activitypub.rocks/t/fep-07d7-a-custom-url-scheme-and-web-based-protocol-handlers-for-linking-to-activitypub-resources/3588/53
@SoniEx2@chaos.social @silverpill@mitra.social @julian@community.nodebb.org @rimu@piefed.social@smitten_ Do you know what is the status of Fedlilinks? Has it been abandoned?
FEP-07d7 was withdrawn, and other proposals have even less support than these two. -
@julian I write about this here: near zero mobile browser support but strong desktop browser support- and I suggest a JavaScript fallback for the others …. https://www.timothychambers.net/2025/06/24/the-seven-deadly-fediverse-ux.html
@tchambers @julian @silverpill I put together a prototype, using web+ap.
Here’s a video demo - https://peertube.wtf/w/r8M4KpS6yLd9H2r2oPAs9M
The workflow is a wee bit clunky, with the browser popping up things more than I'd like, but it works.
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@tchambers @julian @silverpill I put together a prototype, using web+ap.
Here’s a video demo - https://peertube.wtf/w/r8M4KpS6yLd9H2r2oPAs9M
The workflow is a wee bit clunky, with the browser popping up things more than I'd like, but it works.
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@tchambers @julian @silverpill I put together a prototype, using web+ap.
Here’s a video demo - https://peertube.wtf/w/r8M4KpS6yLd9H2r2oPAs9M
The workflow is a wee bit clunky, with the browser popping up things more than I'd like, but it works.
rimu@mastodon.nzoss.nz what happens if a browser that doesn't understand protocol handlers encounters this scheme?
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@julian I write about this here: near zero mobile browser support but strong desktop browser support- and I suggest a JavaScript fallback for the others …. https://www.timothychambers.net/2025/06/24/the-seven-deadly-fediverse-ux.html
@tchambers@indieweb.social @julian@community.nodebb.org You're absolutely right about the mobile browsers sadly, but support on mobile apps is good. The UX there is better than it is on desktop browsers too, because it can be registered in the app manifest and doesn't require complicated approval and handler selection flows. People are also more familiar with links that look a certain way opening in their related app, it's just that they expect the behavior at the host level instead of the protocol level.
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@tchambers @julian @silverpill I put together a prototype, using web+ap.
Here’s a video demo - https://peertube.wtf/w/r8M4KpS6yLd9H2r2oPAs9M
The workflow is a wee bit clunky, with the browser popping up things more than I'd like, but it works.
This is so great, I feel like whenever this idea comes up it's just so difficult to explain to people what it would feel like to use. (and why it's helpful!)
You talked about changing the address yourself in the browser bar which is already easier than loading up your home server and going through the step to lookup. For me what excited me about this idea was that people could be displaying the links in pages. You often see it with a socials section at the bottom of someone's blog, they link to their profile on their server when what I want them to link to is their profile with the web+ap protocol.
But this leads to another big UX problem, the links are useless if you don't have a handler registered. There is no fallback mechanism your browser will just ask you what you want to open it with and have an empty list of suggestions. So I think it would need to have a recognizable way to be communicated to the user, a consistent icon for the link and a memorable name because only people who knew they set up a handler would want them.
@rimu@mastodon.nzoss.nz @tchambers@indieweb.social @julian@community.nodebb.org @silverpill@mitra.social -
This is so great, I feel like whenever this idea comes up it's just so difficult to explain to people what it would feel like to use. (and why it's helpful!)
You talked about changing the address yourself in the browser bar which is already easier than loading up your home server and going through the step to lookup. For me what excited me about this idea was that people could be displaying the links in pages. You often see it with a socials section at the bottom of someone's blog, they link to their profile on their server when what I want them to link to is their profile with the web+ap protocol.
But this leads to another big UX problem, the links are useless if you don't have a handler registered. There is no fallback mechanism your browser will just ask you what you want to open it with and have an empty list of suggestions. So I think it would need to have a recognizable way to be communicated to the user, a consistent icon for the link and a memorable name because only people who knew they set up a handler would want them.
@rimu@mastodon.nzoss.nz @tchambers@indieweb.social @julian@community.nodebb.org @silverpill@mitra.socialsmitten_@key.portend.place might I suggest appropriating the ActivityPub logo? For lack of a better option.
There's the "networked nodes" fediverse logo but it really loses its effect when made small.
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@julian@community.nodebb.org I agree, that was what I ended up using in the akkoma prototype
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@julian nothing good...
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@tchambers @julian @silverpill I put together a prototype, using web+ap.
Here’s a video demo - https://peertube.wtf/w/r8M4KpS6yLd9H2r2oPAs9M
The workflow is a wee bit clunky, with the browser popping up things more than I'd like, but it works.
There are quite a few dialogues, yes... but once the initial setup is done it looks alright.
Curious... because when I open magnet:// links, there's no confirmation on subsequent links once I've done the initial handler assignment. It looks to be something reserved for
web+handlers, which is a little annoying, isn't it. -
@julian nothing good...
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@tchambers @julian Yep I will be keen on that if the feature gains any traction. I recall seeing some JS on your blog which looks like it'd do the trick.
