On the Lack of User-Choosable Default Apps in iOS

Conrad MacIntyre:

I suspect the reason is because of the deep system integration of things like Safari, Mail, Contacts, and the like. Take Mail, for example, if you could set Sparrow as your default client on iOS you’d still have to configure Mail because any email sent from other apps uses the Mail API. Then rely on IMAP to sync those things up. Inelegant and un-Apple.

That’s a good point about email, but it doesn’t apply to web browsing. There is no “Safari” sheet in iOS. And even for email, the answer is that iOS should allow third-party apps — like Sparrow — to provide their own system-wide sharing sheets.

★ Friday, 29 June 2012