natenate19@Thanks for filling the issue...

Tried to reproduce this issue on reported chrome 69.0.3497.81 Using Mac 10.13.6.Attaching screen-cast for reference 
Steps:
---------
1. Launched reported chrome 
2. Linked the mail to mail.app and opened mail 
3. Clicked on 'Open Links In Background' as per screen-cast
As we are observed that link opened in back ground on chrome

@Reporter: Could you please review the attached screen-cast and confirm if anything being missed here and also retry this issue with New profile that is not having any extensions and apps or reset all the flags. Let us know whether issue still persists. If possible provide screen-cast for better triaging it.

Thanks.!

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Google Chrome: 69.0.3497.81 (Official Build) (64-bit)
Revision: 032b3ca19e9af20182f9bd03deefc0faf4695558-refs/branch-heads/3497@{#869}
OS: Mac OS X
JavaScript: V8 6.9.427.19
Flash: 31.0.0.108

Experiencing identical issue to @Reporter.

Reeder, Apple Mail, Airmail 3 all opened links in background 100% of the time with Chrome 68.

Does not work in 69.

Followed steps in Comment 3, creating new profile, resetting all #flags. Does not correct issue.

Of note, the screencast is not using material design Default in 69. So I also changed from Default to Normal in 69, problem still exists.

ONLY ONCE did I get 69 to open links in background:

1. Downloaded fresh install of 69
2. Overwrote previous install of 69 in which chrome://flags/#top-chrome-md was set to "Normal" prior to overwrite.
3. Chrome now opened links in background, using normal profile.
4. HOWEVER, returning Chrome to "Default" in chrome://flags/#top-chrome-md caused Chrome to once again jump to forefront when opening links from other apps.
5. Attempted to retrace my steps identically by downloading fresh install, resetting current chrome://flags/#top-chrome-md to "Normal" and overwriting does NOT work.

Original Reporter here.  I've created a new Profile, there are no flags altered from default, there are no Extensions loaded.  The behavior is the same, Chrome 69 steals focus and immediately comes to the foreground, when it should stay in the background.

I've attached a screencast showing this behavior with a fresh Profile.  I'm using a single message from Mail.app opened in its own Windows to demonstrate, but this occurs with 'Open Link Behind Mail' from the main Mail.app window as well, and other apps like Tweetbot as referenced in the initial report.

This issue was introduced immediately after upgrade from 68 stable to 69 stable.  I have reproduced it on multiple machines with identical versions of Chrome and macOS, fresh profiles, and old profiles.  I have no explanation for why this was not reproducible in Comment 3, but Comment 4 demonstrates the issue is not specific to me.  As stated initially, this regression has occurred before with Chrome, circa M45:

https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=500038

I realize the etiology of this current regression may be different, but it is the same exact presentation.

Thanks.

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Thank you for providing more feedback. Adding the requester to the cc list.

For more details visit https://www.chromium.org/issue-tracking/autotriage - Your friendly Sheriffbot

I can confirm this issue.

phanindra.mandapaka@ It seems that you are still using Cocoa - there it still works. This issue is reproducible under MacViews/MdRefresh.

 Issue 882167  has been merged into this issue.

Same with CMD-clicks: Chrome should also open in the background. But it fails. (Please see recently merged  issue 882167 .

@lgrey: Is this issue related to (a dupe of) bug 854609, which is assigned to you?

Thanks.

Correct, it's a dupe. Apparently other platforms don't have this concept (open in background), which is why it broke in MacViews. On Mac, activation should be  received as a separate event, which makes it relatively easy to fix, but it's time consuming since it requires also fixing many, many tests that expect open link = activate browser.

lgrey@: Okay, thanks for your feedback!