Frequently, people send links to me in PMs, however in order to open them, I have to open a new browser, then copy and paste the URL into that browser. It would be so much easier if we could just click on it.
That would be a lot easier! For folks PMing, but especially so for the "your message has been replied to" mails.
Clickable!
This is long overdue and actually kind of odd that it hasn't been asked for on this board before. At least not recently.
Not allowing links in PMs cuts down on spam. That barrier to engagement means that the recipient of a nefarious link has some time to think about it before they visit it.
That said, there should be links in internal PMs that the site sends us to notify us of stuff. Realistically, this probably means building a notification system that's separate from the message system.
It's not like email where any bot can flood you with spam, after all.
You can report a person who sends spam, and they will lose their PM privileges.
...A box should open up offering you options such as 'copy' or "Go to http..." That's the one you click and you'll go to the link. It's no different than if someone puts a link in the body of a post and doesn't take the 's' out of the 'https.'