Links from Microsoft Teams no longer open in the expected browser

[marcoskirsch]

This used to work, but Microsoft must have changed how they launch URLs.

Before: links would go to Finicky and open in the expected browser.
Now: links presumably go to Finicky but always open in Safari and Safari stays in the background.

Have you tried creating configuration for this application?

I tried changing default browser to Edge, and links from Teams correctly opened in Edge and Edge came to the foreground.
I tried changing default browser to Safari, and links from Teams opened in Safari and Safari stayed in the background !
I tried changing default browser to Finicky and the same incorrect behavior remained.

What application are you trying to set up

I want to click links on Microsoft Teams and have them open in the correct browser per my configuration, which works correctly from other applications including Microsoft ones.

[marcoskirsch]

Perhaps if there is a log on what Finicky processes it may shed some light?

[patrickrushton]

It looks like Teams opens links to a safe-link checker (maybe this is dependent on the organisation)

I seem to be able to redirect all links by matching https://statics.teams.cdn.office.net/*

[jamtur01]

If it helps, this has stung me a bit. When you add a Teams meeting to a calendar invite it now comes with two links, both wrapped in safelinks. The first opens the Teams help page redirect and the second opens the actual meeting. I've found a bunch of tools (BusyCal was one example) are configred to grab the first link in a meeting invite, meaning you always ended up at the redirect page. I initially assumed this was Finicky enable to untangle the link in the safelinks but discovered this twist too.

[thoroc]

What's the process to expose the secondary link then?

[thoroc]

I've got the logs by running: /Applications/Finicky.app/Contents/MacOS/Finicky --dry-run --window and I see that the origin/destination urls are encoded there.

[thoroc]

Here is an example that works for v4:

export const msTeamsHandlerEgress: BrowserHandler = {
  match: (url: URL, { opener }) => {
    return (
      opener?.bundleId === MSTEAMS_APP.bundleId &&
      url.host === 'statics.teams.cdn.office.net' &&
      url.pathname.startsWith('/evergreen-assets/safelinks/1/atp-safelinks.html')
    );
  },
  browser: FIREFOX_APP.bundleId,
};

[afuechsel]

But this is not what I want. I want the links in teams handled with the finicky rules the same way as ususal: some of them should open in Chrome, others in Firefox. Now I cannot do any filtering for these links, due to the safelinks feature. Is there a way to filter out the final URL and create filters based on this?

[thoroc]

I know it is frustrating.

---

Is the target URL not part of the safelink URL?

[afuechsel]

Is the target URL not part of the safelink URL?

Yes, but in a very bad format so I don't know, how to filter them. For example this:

[2025-11-11T10:39:36.179Z] [INFO ] URL received | url: https://statics.teams.cdn.office.net/evergreen-assets/safelinks/2/atp-safelinks.html?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.heise.de&locale=de-de&dest=https%3A%2F%2Fteams.microsoft.com%2Fapi%2Fmt%2Fapac%2Fbeta%2Fatpsafelinks%2Fgeturlreputationsitev2%2F&pc=2ZJKH1bhO%252fQ9t0IKIKODdo5OyVJBtA6OtfmY2XsGasoKxrOr%252fznhrUDZtZpvm7pFYw4CUE1oydiYoSdHi2IL%252fkXf70dA4IRYfijkNV97MKFK6ebgemsU50LyQHwRjqDOb4mQov3SF1sOIhTfSOJUdyH4N8AnKAzpZ%252f7Q8KwJb%252bT5%252b2BM...
20httponly&wau=https%3A%2F%2FIND01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com%2FGetUrlReputation&si=1762857573119%3B1762857573119%3B48%3Anotes&sd=%7BconvId%3A%2048%3Anotes%2C%20messageId%3A%201762857573119%7D&ce=prod&cv=50%2F25101616511&ssid=E4307BC6-020A-4E86-8D23-
...

[jamtur01]

function isValidUrlObject(url) {
  try {
    return Boolean(url && url.host && url.hostname && url.protocol);
  } catch {
    return false;
  }
}

const msTeamsSafelinksRewriter = {
  match: (url) =>
    isValidUrlObject(url) &&
    url.hostname === "statics.teams.cdn.office.net" &&
    url.pathname.startsWith("/evergreen-assets/safelinks/"),
  url: (url) => {
    try {
      // Extract the actual URL from the safelinks wrapper
      const actualUrl = url.searchParams.get("url");
      if (actualUrl) {
        const decodedUrl = decodeURIComponent(actualUrl);
        log(`Extracted URL from Teams safelink: ${decodedUrl}`, `Original: ${url.href}`);
        return new URL(decodedUrl);
      }
      log(`No URL parameter found in Teams safelink: ${url.href}`);
      return url;
    } catch (error) {
      log(`Error extracting URL from Teams safelink: ${error.message}`);
      return url;
    }
  },
};

I've not tested this at all. I fixed it personally by parsing it in my calendar app (ItsyCal) and extracting the Teams URL there. That code is here if it's at all helpful.