Share Sheet - What's the difference between the two rows?

[frou]

You know the standard system share sheet? What's the difference between the upper and lower rows?

In the following, for example, why is adding to Pocket designated by the app's proper icon... whereas adding to Things is a greyscale concept that goes on the lower row?

 

[chabig]

The top row is a list of apps that can accept or open the document or data. The bottom comprises actions that you can perform on the data.

 

[frou]

The top row is a list of apps that can accept or open the document or data. The bottom comprises actions that you can perform on the data.

Is that at the code API level? Because at the user level, this distinction gets murky fast.

 

[chabig]

I don’t know. But I’m a user and all I see are apps in the top row and actions in the bottom row.

 

[popcorn-in-sac]

Is that at the code API level? Because at the user level, this distinction gets murky fast.

I agree. In the example provided, I see Apps in both rows, and Actions in both rows. Not clear at all.

 

[dannyyankou]

I don’t care what the difference is, I just look at it as 2 rows of actions I can take. Less to scroll through if it were just one row.

 

[ZEEN0j]

I’ve wondered this as well. I guess the top row is for sharing/sending mostly. Bottom row is an action with the data. Problem is app devs mix it up.

 

[Shirasaki]

I would guess the top row (below airdrop) is just a generic "open with" while the bottom one is an "action" row. Sometimes there are duplicated actions (doing the same thing).

 

[bucksaddle]

First part of this might help?

https://developer.apple.com/ios/human-interface-guidelines/extensions/sharing-and-actions/

 

[redman042]

It's always been confusing for me. I've just had to memorize where to look for things, or poke around, to some degree.

 

[Apple blogger]

It depends on how app developer programs it. For eg. twitter, on a safari web page, twitter has both an app on the top row, and action on the bottom row.

On the top row, it opens up the quick tweet in the app currently itself. Whereas, in the bottom row, it says “tweet link” which means It will copy the link in the tweet and let you tweet the whole link.

It’s kind of stupid to have both, unless they both are different functions, but it’s there. It could be easily stream lined too if Apple wants it.

There’s even whatsapp which has 2 apps on the top row, one landed whatsapp, second labled forward, it’s found when sharing something from the whatsapp app itself. It’s stupid cause both do the same thing, forward it..

So it depends on the app developer.

Main difference is, as pointed out in the first reply, the bottom row is actions, like copy, share, add, etc. top row is share or open in the app to edit etc.

 

[cynics]

All the functions are extensions that can be leveraged by devs. The top row are your shared extensions and the bottom row is your action extensions.

Shared extensions are generally used for....sharing. Shared is used in the sense of "shared with others" so you find social media, emails, messages, etc, etc....

And like the name would imply, actions extensions are used for actions like saving an image, printing, copying, etc, etc...

Somethings might not fit into either very well and fall in a grey area.

However knowing that its shared and actions I think will help a lot of people get a better grasp on it. I keep my extension list fairly tidy, if there is something i will never use I remove it so I can get to the think I do use faster.

EDIT: Nevermind @Shirasaki posted a link.