iPhone The new share sheet: what if you don’t use Messages?

[JohnAms]

Now I guess this is a pretty much US-focused forum, so perhaps not too many compadres on this topic...

The new share sheet prioritizes Messages with a top row of contacts. Now this is great if you actually use Messages. But in countries like The Netherlands where Whatsapp is the dominant messaging app, this is pretty annoying. In my case, I’m stuck with a couple of random service numbers as suggested contacts, since these are the only ones that I use Messages with... :-(

I would suggest to either make this row optional, or to include the possibility to set the messaging app of choice.

Any thoughts?

 

[ZEEN0j]

The list will probably update with more apps as the developers updates their apps

 

[JohnAms]

The list will probably update with more apps as the developers updates their apps

Yes, for sure. But the Message section seems to be a fixed one...

 

[Ingster]

I am UK based, i do use what's app quite a bit, but i also use imessage extensively, it's just one line of icons, scroll on past man!

 

[digitalexplr]

Send feedback to Apple. You aren't the first think this first line should editable or optional. Let Apple know.

 

[bigjnyc]

The problem is that Apple doesn't allow you to change default apps so Messages is the default messaging app. I suspect if they allowed us to change the default messaging app, that row would change with it, but I don't see that happening in iOS 13..... Sending feedback won't make a difference as this is a feature that people have been begging for years now.

 

[JohnAms]

The problem is that Apple doesn't allow you to change default apps so Messages is the default messaging app. I suspect if they allowed us to change the default messaging app, that row would change with it, but I don't see that happening in iOS 13..... Sending feedback won't make a difference as this is a feature that people have been begging for years now.

Hm ok... well let’s hope that AI will at least over time provide me with a list that makes some sense then. I’m now seeing a guy who’s kid I brought to hockey practice once, 7 years ago and a phone company service number. Not the typical contacts I want to share stuff with....

 

[Aftermath747]

This probably won’t change. Apple will prioritize their own app, as they should, and try to incentivize consumers to use it.

 

[gwhizkids]

Hm ok... well let’s hope that AI will at least over time provide me with a list that makes some sense then. I’m now seeing a guy who’s kid I brought to hockey practice once, 7 years ago and a phone company service number. Not the typical contacts I want to share stuff with....

Hey, reignite old relationships! Apple is looking out for you and broadening your friend group at no extra cost!

 

[bigjnyc]

Hm ok... well let’s hope that AI will at least over time provide me with a list that makes some sense then. I’m now seeing a guy who’s kid I brought to hockey practice once, 7 years ago and a phone company service number. Not the typical contacts I want to share stuff with....

Yeah I could see how that would be a problem. I catch myself double and triple checking who I am sending stuff to now lol.

 

[gwhizkids]

Yeah I could see how that would be a problem. I catch myself double and triple checking who I am sending stuff to now lol.

Yes, the little icons are not the easiest to see, especially the "split" ones to multiple recipients.

 

[nick42983]

By far the most annoying "improvement" of iOS 13 that I've noticed. If I want to send someone a link by iMessage I can click on the icon and select a contact, now whenever I save an article to Pocket (my most frequent use for the share menu) I have to carefully NOT click on the row of recent contacts who I seldom if ever need to send a link to this way (email or Messenger are my preference). It was a flight of whimsy on my part to entertain the idea that Apple might let you hide this row of intrusive icons.

 

[Thomas Veil]

Well, I’D like to see an option to turn it off. I’m perfectly capable of hitting the Messages app button without having a bunch of contacts spread out above it. It’s intrusive, cluttered and, I imagine, too easy to send something to the wrong person. Apple needs to fix this by giving you the choice to turn it off.

 

[Nacho98]

I think there's a setting somewhere that disables it, what I have no idea...but I never get recent contacts listed above my app row in the Share sheet.

However, the various Share sheets throughout the OS are a mess for another reason - the seemingly arbitrary selection of system apps you are forced to keep, and how inconsistently they are managed. Read on carefully.

For example, if I go to share a photo, the apps that come up are Airdrop, Facebook, Gmail, Messages, and Books.

If I tap on More, it lists AirDrop, Facebook, Gmail, and Messages under Favorites. Then under Suggestions, it has Notes, Reminders, and Books. Clicking Edit shows you what you can and can't remove. I can not delete AirDrop, but I do want Facebook, Gmail, and Messages, so these three are fine.

After clicking Edit, Notes and Reminders have a toggle switch (set to off, and they are thus not on the Share sheet). Books does not have a toggle switch, and is permanently forced upon my Share sheet. All three apps are deletable system apps and should be treated the same - I should either be able to exclude all three or be forced to include all three. I cannot exclude Books at all from my Share sheet.

You will find similar but different lunacy in other Share sheets throughout the OS, where you arbitrarily are forced to keep some system apps (due to no toggle switch) while other system apps can be toggled off and left off the Share sheet.

Lastly, there are two ways to add apps to the Share sheet - by checking the green plus next to the app (moves it to Favorites), or turning the toggle on (keeps it out of the Favorites list). But in both cases, the app gets added to the Share sheet, and the Share sheet makes no distinction between Favorites and non-favorites, so what's the point of the distinction in the Edit screen and having two ways to include apps on the Share sheet? I can deal with this though, but the inconsistency in apps forced upon my share sheet by lack of a toggle kills me.

 

[Shirasaki]

By far the most annoying "improvement" of iOS 13 that I've noticed. If I want to send someone a link by iMessage I can click on the icon and select a contact, now whenever I save an article to Pocket (my most frequent use for the share menu) I have to carefully NOT click on the row of recent contacts who I seldom if ever need to send a link to this way (email or Messenger are my preference). It was a flight of whimsy on my part to entertain the idea that Apple might let you hide this row of intrusive icons.

With that being said, seeing Volume HUD goes away after 12 years makes me wonder if Apple will wait 12 years for this top message recipient row to go away. So, after taking it away, people will still remember all of its hay day, alongside all the good And bad times. (Speculation time!) /sasrcasm

 

[Thomas Veil]

They’ll fix it when enough people end up accidentally sexting their wife instead of their girlfriend, or sending that criticism of the boss to him instead of a colleague. 😮

 

[Jodiuh]

Any update on this guys? It takes up so much space and I have to scroll down for what used to be right there on the screen like find or copy. :/

 

[DomC]

What's with the share sheet in Twitter and Tweetbot showing a small window with the site of the link you want to save? Is this a Twitter thing that Tweetbot has to use? Having this pop up adds another step to saving a link since you have to hit Share in this box to bring up choice like Instapaper etc. which used to come up in the initial box.

 

[johaen8]

Any update on this guys? It takes up so much space and I have to scroll down for what used to be right there on the screen like find or copy. :/

You can rearrange the order of the actions in the share sheet. There’s an edit button on the bottom. Click that and you can add or remove actions from the favorites section at the top. It might not be exactly what you’re looking for, but it helps.

 

[ZEEN0j]

What's with the share sheet in Twitter and Tweetbot showing a small window with the site of the link you want to save? Is this a Twitter thing that Tweetbot has to use? Having this pop up adds another step to saving a link since you have to hit Share in this box to bring up choice like Instapaper etc. which used to come up in the initial box.

That’s the context menu. It’s like a right click with extra options (it’s system wide). They’ve added the share button there. But in tweetbot you can also just tap the tweet and press the share button at the bottom.

 

[okieoutwest]

I definitely see this as useful feedback, and it makes me curious about whether not implementing it and leaving as is will shift some users messaging preferences over time. Sometimes these little nudges can convert a few. For example, I message a few close friends often on different platforms but the ease of share sheet as its now designed might move me to use Messages more often instead of spread out on different ones and over time consolidate our group chats into iMessage.

I would like to see the second row in the share sheet become contextually aware - so holding down on the Messages icon might pop up a short row-list of the 4-5 most recent message threads.