diff --git a/scripts/open_url_in_instance.sh b/scripts/open_url_in_instance.sh
index e9c6db2a1..85cd919d4 100755
--- a/scripts/open_url_in_instance.sh
+++ b/scripts/open_url_in_instance.sh
@@ -8,12 +8,8 @@ _proto_version=1
 _ipc_socket="${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR}/qutebrowser/ipc-$(echo -n "$USER" | md5sum | cut -d' ' -f1)"
 _qute_bin="/usr/bin/qutebrowser"
 
-if [[ -e "${_ipc_socket}" ]] && [[ `pgrep -f $_qute_bin` ]]; then
-	exec printf '{"args": ["%s"], "target_arg": null, "version": "%s", "protocol_version": %d, "cwd": "%s"}\n' \
-				"${_url}" \
-				"${_qb_version}" \
-				"${_proto_version}" \
-				"${PWD}" | socat - UNIX-CONNECT:"${_ipc_socket}"
-else
-    exec $_qute_bin --backend webengine "$@"
-fi
+exec printf '{"args": ["%s"], "target_arg": null, "version": "%s", "protocol_version": %d, "cwd": "%s"}\n' \
+            "${_url}" \
+            "${_qb_version}" \
+            "${_proto_version}" \
+            "${PWD}" | socat - UNIX-CONNECT:"${_ipc_socket}" 2>/dev/null || $_qute_bin --backend webengine "$@" &