{"id":48505,"date":"2025-07-16T16:47:56","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T20:47:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=48505"},"modified":"2025-07-16T16:47:56","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T20:47:56","slug":"weak-ubiquitous-linking-in-apples-apps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/16\/weak-ubiquitous-linking-in-apples-apps\/","title":{"rendered":"Weak Ubiquitous Linking in Apple’s Apps"},"content":{"rendered":"

Luc Beaudoin<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

If you are like many knowledge workers, on a typical day you access over dozens of information resources. If you have to use search or navigate through folders to get to them, you’re taking a big hit on productivity. It’s much easier to access a resource by clicking on a contextually placed link than it is to search for it or navigate to it through folders. For instance, if your task list contains links to the resources (drafts, emails, notes, PDFs, etc.) you need to process today, then you can use your task list becomes a hub from which you can quickly jump to what you need.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Luc Beaudoin<\/a> (Mac Power Users<\/a>):<\/p>\n

Despite its polish and promise, macOS still lacks overt support for robust, user-friendly linking. This violates both the spirit and the practical recommendations of the Manifesto for Ubiquitous Linking<\/a><\/em>, which I authored to encourage software platforms and developers to address what I call the meta-access problem<\/em>: the difficulty of re-accessing information that is related to your contextual focus. <\/p>

[…]<\/p>

Take Apple’s own macOS apps. In Notes, Messages, Reminders, Freeform, and even Mail, there is no “Copy Link” menu option that would let users create a persistent, shareable link to a specific item. This is a fundamental limitation for anyone who wants to organize information across documents and applications. In many cases, there’s no straightforward way — via the UI or automation — to get reliable, cross-device links.<\/p>

Even when underlying identifiers do exist — and clearly they must — Apple keeps them hidden. For example, when you receive a date in a text via Messages on macOS, you can click it to create a Calendar event. That event includes a hidden link back to the original message, something like: sms:\/\/open?message-guid=ABCBB940-08A7-4FC8-8FDF-DF32CEB4234E<\/code> But this linking mechanism is entirely private. There is no public API or automation hook to retrieve message GUIDs. So while Apple engineers can build this feature into Calendar, third-party developers and users are locked out.<\/p>

[…]<\/p>

There’s no AppleScript or Shortcuts action to [copy Music or Podcast links] either. One couldn’t add more hurdles to linking if one tried. And without a Copy Link<\/strong> menu item in the app’s menu bar, even UI scripting is impossible.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n