Managing Share Sheets in iOS 8

You’ve probably already used the Share icon to transfer something on your device (like a PDF downloaded into Safari) to another app (like iBooks), or to send something on your device somewhere else (like sharing a photo on Twitter).

Thanks to Extensibility, iOS 8 lets third-party developers create extensions that you can add to your Share sheets. In the figure below, I’ve added the Evernote and OmniFocus extensions to my Safari Share sheet and positioned them at the forefront for easy access ①.

① Thanks to Extensibility, you can share Web pages from Safari to other apps and services, like Evernote, OmniFocus, and Instapaper. You can even use 1Password to log in to Web sites easily.

What You Can Share

Web pages in Safari and other browsers
Images in the Photos app
Locations in Maps ②

② Share sheets offer oodles of possibilities, including sharing your location with your Twitter followers.

Email attachments
Almost anything else, so long as the developer has included Share sheet capabilities and you’ve enabled the extension

Share sheets often muddle the idea of sharing with actions like copying and printing.

Where You Can Share To

Out of the box, iOS can send shared items to Messages, Mail, Safari Reading List, and Photos, depending on content. It can also AirPlay content, add a photo to a contact card, and more.
iOS includes built-in sharing extensions for Twitter, Facebook, Flickr ③, and Vimeo, but you must first enable each service in Settings, as described earlier, in Social Media.

③ Social networking sharing extensions can appear in Share sheets.

Any app or service provided by a third-party extension.

How to Share

Whenever you can share content, you see a Share icon. (Some apps, like Maps for iPad, replace this icon with a Share text label ④.)

④ The Share icon may be a simple text label.

Tap the icon or label to open the Share sheet.
Tap an extension icon.

Re-arranging a Share Sheet

Once you’ve opened a Share sheet, you can rearrange the icons on it to put the items you use most frequently on the left, so you see them easily:

By icon: Move an icon by holding it briefly and then dragging it.
By row: Slide the row you wish to rearrange to the left, and tap the revealed More button to see the Activities screen ⑤. Drag a grab box on the right up or down. Tap Done.

⑤ Drag a multi-lined grab box to re-arrange a Share sheet row.

Note: In my testing, I found that the arrangement of a particular Share sheet was often, but not always, copied in similar apps.

Adding and Removing Extensions

Open the app whose Share sheet you want to work with, tap the Share icon, flick left, and then tap More. On the Activities screen, toggle the switches as desired and then tap Done.

Note: In my testing, I found that I sometimes had to enable or disable an extension on a per-app basis.

Sharing from the Photos App

Sharing from the Photos app works slightly different than from most apps, since you can share multiple pictures.

Share One or More Items

Tap an item that you want to share. A blue checkmark appears on that item.
Tap the Share icon.
Tap any additional items you want to share ⑥.

⑥ Even with a single photo selected, you may include more before sharing. To include more items, tap them in the Share sheet. A blue checkmark appears on selected items.
When you’re done, tap a sharing extension, such as iCloud Photo Sharing.
Follow the prompts to finish.

Share Multiple Items at Once

While viewing a set of photos or videos in the Photos app, tap Select in the upper right.
Tap each item you wish to share.
Tap the Share icon.
Tap an extension, such as Facebook.
Follow the prompts to finish.

iCloud Photo Sharing

The iCloud Photo Sharing extension allows you to share photos and videos in an album. The album can be viewed by others in the Photos app or on the Web. If you tap iCloud Photo Sharing in a Share sheet, you can add the selected media to an existing shared album; tap Shared Album to choose any album or to create a new one.

To manage a shared album, go to Photos > Shared > Album and tap People at the bottom. From here, you can invite or un-invite subscribers, put the album on the Web and get a URL to it, allow subscribers to post pictures, and more.

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