Setting Default Apps in iOS 14
One of the new features in iOS 14 is the ability to change the default email or browser app to a third-party alternative such as Chrome, Edge, or Outlook. A bug in the first public release of iOS 14, however, causes your default browser or mail app setting to reset to Mail or Safari when your iPhone or iPad reboots.
You can tell which features and services Apple uses a lot internally.
The latest version of Google Chrome now supports this ability, so anyone on iOS 14 can set Google’s app as their default browser and it will be used to automatically open web page links that are tapped in other apps.
Privacy-focused browser DuckDuckGo is now able to be set as the default browser app on the iPhone and the iPad, serving as an alternative to Safari. With DuckDuckGo set as the default, links that you tap on an iPhone or iPad will open in DuckDuckGo instead of Safari.
Microsoft has updated its Outlook app for iOS devices to enable support for the new iOS 14 feature that lets third-party mail and browser apps be set as default apps (via The Verge).
The default browser implementation is really lame…this alert will show all the time when you try to open a link 😒
I haven’t seen other complaints about this, so hopefully it was fixed in the GM.
PSA [to developers]: You want to add http/https to
LSApplicationQueriesSchemes.
Previously:
- iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 Announced
- iOS Default Apps and Competing With Built-in Apps
- The Hotel Cupertino Clause
Update (2020-09-22): John Voorhees:
New alternatives are being released all the time[…]
[…]
As easy as the process of switching is, though, the feature is not bug-free. I have been unable to get iOS or iPadOS to recognize my new default email client after I switch it.
Update (2020-09-28): Juli Clover:
iOS 14.0.1 fixes a bug that could cause third-party apps set as the default to reset after the iPhone is restarted. It
But many other categories of apps — messages, music, calendar, etc. — remain stuck on Apple’s built-in software. Facebook isn’t too pleased about that. According to The Information, Facebook is making a more forceful push to convince the iPhone maker to let people choose their own preferred messaging app.
Update (2020-10-22): Hartley Charlton:
Although that bug was fixed, a new bug in iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 is now afflicting the selection of third-party email apps and browsers. It appears that whenever a selected third-party app is updated, the default app selection for email app or browser is reset to Apple’s Mail or Safari.
They really didn’t want to add this feature. Imagine how well sideloading will work if it’s ever mandated.
Update (2022-06-30): Christian Selig:
[When] Apple added the option to set a different default email app, their API,
MFMailComposeViewController, for whatever reason wasn’t updated to support this so you have to rely onmailto://links that don’t support attachments, etc.
3 Comments RSS · Twitter
Am I the only one who immediately set my browser to Firefox?
You can tell which features and services Apple uses a lot internally.
Another clear piece of evidence that Apple has no idea how to manage QA. How can a company with this much riding on software continue to be this boneheaded about, um, assuring quality?
They're well past due for training everyone thoroughly in Test Driven Development. With continued mistakes this egregious, I'm not sure there's an easier head rethread that would take.
One annoying bug though: when you restart your iOS 14.0 device the default apps revert back to Safari and Mail. Maybe this wil get fixed later?