Unless you have been living in a cave over the last few months, it is very likely that you’ve heard about how you can now change the default email app on iOS 14 — the latest version of Apple’s operating system that powers their iPhone and iPad devices. It took over ten years and fourteen major releases of iOS for Apple to finally enable this functionality for its users. Although this change has been welcomed by nearly everyone, Apple hasn’t really made it obvious to find. The setting to set a third-party email app such as Spark as the default email app on iOS 14 is somewhat hidden inside the Settings app, so here’s a simple guide that explains how to change the default email app on iOS 14.
Why Should You Change the Default Mail App on iOS?
Apple's Mail.app has been the default email app since the introduction of iOS (iPhoneOS) in 2007. Over time, although Apple allowed third-party email apps to flourish, one core experience was still left untouched. Anytime you tap on an email link on iOS, you see the email composer automatically open in your default email app. Until iOS 13, even if you were using a third-party email app like Spark, the email links would still open the Apple Mail.app (since it is the default). However, with iOS 14, you can now set Spark as the default. As a result:
- Any mailto: links that you come across in Safari or any other browser will now correctly open Spark instead of the Apple Mail.app
- Tapping on any email address in the Contacts app will open the email composer Spark
- Any other app that displays tappable email addresses will open in Spark.
Before you can change the default email app, ensure that you have downloaded and launched the app at least once. We recommend downloading Spark so that you can get the benefits of all the incredible features we offer. Spark supports email accounts from all the popular email service providers such as Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, iCloud, Aol, Office 365 and Exchange, Fastmail, etc. as well as any account that supports IMAP and SMTP. Follow the steps outlined below to switch from Mail.app to Spark as the default email app on iOS.
How to Set a New Default Mail app on iOS 14
- Open Settings app.
- Slightly pull down to reveal the Search at top to search for Spark or manually scroll down to find Spark in the list of apps, then tap on it.
- You’ll see a Default Mail App option here.
- Tap & choose Spark as the default email app.
Effectively, to change the default email app on iOS 14, go to Settings app > Spark > Default Mail App and then choose Spark from the list.
Spark is now the default email app on your iPhone or iPad.
A Couple of iOS Bugs You Should Know About
Unfortunately, Apple has let in two annoying bugs related to the default email and browser app feature iOS, which we hope Apple will fix in an upcoming point release soon.
- Currently, any changes you make to the Default Mail App setting are forgotten if you reboot your device. As a result, you will have to follow the steps outlined above every time you restart your iPhone or iPad.
- Every time you tap on any mailto: link on iOS outside of any third-party default email app, it will still force the Apple Mail.app sheet. There’s a simple workaround for this bug — simply delete the Mail.app after you’ve switched to Spark as your default email client on iOS 14.
Why {Your Favorite Email App} Can’t Be Set As Default
Right now, there’s only a few email apps that offer the ability to be set as default. Apple requires that apps have to get a special approval (called Entitlements) from Apple before they can offer the ability to be set as default. This is likely done so that not every app can just claim to be a browser or email client on iOS. As a result, many of the major email apps are yet to be updated to support this feature, so it'll be a while before you are able to set them as default.
Spark is proud to support the default email app feature from Day 1. Our massive iOS 14 update introduces some awesome new features, including a collection of beautiful widgets for your iPhone or iPad home screen. If you haven’t already, here’s the ultimate guide to using widgets on iOS 14.
Spark, with its iOS 14 update and awesome collection of iOS 14 widgets, is truly the best email app for iPhone and iPad.
Preshit Deorukhkar 
