Not directing to desktop app once a client preference was selected

[kongo09]

Steps to reproduce

1. I'm trying to follow a matrix.to link and open the destination in my locally installed Desktop client
2. I select Element as client on the matrix.to site
3. The browser offers me to open the locally installed Desktop client (that's great)
4. I click cancel and see a page for Download vs. Continue to browser
5. Going to browser now goes to browser, which I don't want, but that's expected
6. Clicking download goes to download, which I don't want either, but that's also expected
7. How do I now open the desktop client?

When I return to this page later with the next matrix.to link, the preferences have been stored and I see directly the download vs. browser choice. It turns out that the first click on download offers to open the desktop app again, but after that it keeps going to download. This is not clear at all.

Outcome

What did you expect?

Clear button: "Open in Desktop app" next to "Download" and "Browser"

What happened instead?

No clear way for the user to trigger the desktop app

See video

Bildschirmaufnahme.2025-09-26.093321.mp4

[t3chguy]

Kinda sounds like #368

[kongo09]

Yes, seems related.

As matrix.to cannot know if the desktop app is installed, a solution would be to offer two choices:

• open desktop
• open browser

below there can be an offer to download and install the desktop app, but the link above would keep trying the element:// link