How to Use and Customize the Share Sheet Menu in iOS

Thanks to Jake Rustenhoven and Flickr

The Share pane on iOS is very useful. Available since iOS 8 it enables you to share webpages, images and other information with third party apps and services. You can choose which apps and services are supported in the feature, put those you do use into a logical order (for you) and add new services.

Choosing Apps and Services

Not every app supports Share sheets, but here is how to find which apps/services do support them and how to enable them.

• In an app that supports Share tap the Share icon
• In the Share Pane swipe until you reach the ‘More’ icon at the right hand of the apps or Services rows.
• Tap More and a new sheet appears. This sheet tells you which apps or services are available for use with Share Sheet on your device.
• You can enable or disable apps and services by toggling them to off (white is off, green is on). Tap Done when you finish.

There are some apps and services (Messsage and Mail for example) that cannot be evicted from the Share menu.

Rearrange Available Choices

If you’ve installed numerous apps you may find the Share Sheet options you get when you tap the Share icon have become a little confusing to find and use. They don’t need to be: You can arrange them into a more logical order to help you navigate them better. I like to put the services I use most often to the far left so they appear first in the pane and I don’t need to swipe right for them. Here is how to move those services around:

• Tap and hold a Share Sheet option icon.
• The icon should pulse slightly
• When it pulses keep touching the icon and you can drag it, left or right, to a more suitable point on the Share Sheet.
• You can move the icons for apps and services within the Share Sheet.

Another Way to Rearrange

There is another way to reorganize and move the Share Sheet options.

• Swipe through until you find the ‘More’ icon on the apps or services line.
• Tap More and you’ll see a list of all the Activities or apps supported in Share Sheet on your device.
• You can enable and disable some of these just by toggling them to white (off).
• You can move them into a new order by tapping, holding and then dragging the three lines icon to the right of the app description.
• Tap Done and the share extensions will be in their newly-designated position.

Did you know?

It is worth exploring within individual apps to find unique Share Sheet implementations, for example, Press and hold a URL in Twitter and a preview appears with a Share Sheet button below it. Do you know of any other in-app Share Sheet implementations?