Open specific URLs in certain app?

Question

How can I tell xdg-open to open, say, YouTube URLs in a specific app, but use my default browser for all other URLs?

Answer 1

The closest you can get with xdg is using url-scheme-handlers, i.e. mailto, http, ftp... and so on.

xdg-settings list default-url-scheme-handlers

This will make Google Chrome the default handler for all https links.

xdg-settings set default-url-scheme-handler https google-chrome.desktop

You can't achieve domain specificity with xdg-open.
Using a script that intercepts YouTube links and opens them with a specific application is really the only way.

This is similar to what you're after.

It's the approach you want, only without the yad dialog. It really depends on how and/or what is opening the URL.

Answer 2

Use a wrapper script:

#!/usr/bin/bash

url=$1

if [[ $url == *youtube.com/watch* ]] || 
  [[ $url == *youtu.be* ]] || 
  [[ $url == *vimeo.com* ]] || 
  [[ $url == *instagram.com* ]] ||
  [[ $url == *facebook.com* ]] || 
  [[ $url == *twitter.com* ]] || 
  [[ $url == *x.com* ]]; then
  mpv $url
  if [[ $? -ne 0 ]]; then
    kdialog --error "Error playing video $url"
    exit 1
  fi
elif [[ $url == ^mailto:* ]]; then
  thunderbird $url
else
  firefox $url
fi

$ chmod +x ~/.local/bin/url-handler.sh

~/.local/share/applications/url-handler.desktop:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=URL Handler
Exec=/home/YOUR_USERNAME/.local/bin/url-handler.sh %u
Terminal=false
Type=Application
MimeType=x-scheme-handler/http;x-scheme-handler/https;

$ xdg-mime default url-handler.desktop x-scheme-handler/http
$ xdg-mime default url-handler.desktop x-scheme-handler/https

^{🎩-tip: this Google Gemini transcript (with my edits)}