Originally published at: How to Change Your Default Email and Web Clients in iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 - TidBITS
For the first time since the introduction of the iPhone, iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 let you choose the apps that serve as your default email client and Web browser. “Take Control of iOS 14 and iPadOS 14” author Josh Centers shows you how.
Just after we published, Brave released an App Store update so that it can also be a default browser. I’ve updated the article to reflect that.
I just downloaded an iCab update that says it can be set as the default browser.
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Nice article for those who have iOS14 looking the same as your phone. Mine (8) has not the same menu and I cannot change my browser. It seems that Apple is doing country segregation.
That seems odd. So you’re using an iPhone 8 with iOS 14, you have downloaded the latest version of Google Chrome or Brave or Firefox or another supported Web browser, and you’re looking in Settings > Chrome/Brave/Firefox and not seeing the option for a default browser?
Whenever I saw that, it turned out that the App Store app hadn’t downloaded the necessary update yet, and when I forced that (App Store > tap your avatar > pull down to refresh), the updates appeared and once installed, solved the problem.
If you’re looking for an update of a specific app, I find that it’s better to search for the app in the App Store. If an update is available, there will be an Update button to tap. That works better if you don’t want to wait while 50 other apps also get updated.
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It is really nice to be able to be able to click on links again. However, this seems to be a bit fragile… I occasionally do use Safari, and when I do it seems to set itself as the preferred browser, even without asking me.
I just realized that Spark by Readdle, one of the apps in the article, stores your emails and account credentials on their server. They are not malicious or hiding this fact (although I think they could make it more clear). In fact, they use it provide features like “share a link to this email.” But I don’t want that for myself. I wonder if you folks think this is a good or bad idea for users’ security.
I think by definition it’s worse for security for the simple reason that it provides another vulnerable point. That’s not to suggest that Readdle is doing anything wrong at all, and I used Spark for a while—I do trust them.
For most people, your mail host is already one point of vulnerability, so unless you’re using POP and downloading all mail locally right away, there’s already exposure.
Of course, the real question is the liability if someone were to able to read your email? It’s never a good thing, but if you don’t have confidential information readily accessible, it’s not likely to be life-changing.