Best iOS 8 sharing and action extension apps for iPhone

By Allyson Kazmucha
last updated

Sharing and action extensions, both part of Apple's Extensibility feature in iOS 8, make it easier than ever to get things done on iPhone and iPad. No longer do you have to switch to an app just to upload a photo to Pinterest or save an article to Instapaper, or hunt down 1Password or Bing just to copy a password or translate a web site. Now all that functionality comes to you, where ever you are, at the tap of the Share button. And these are the best iPhone apps implementing them.

Pinterest

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Finding and sharing pins prior to iOS 8 wasn't all that much fun. You needed to copy the link to your clipboard and then go back into the Pinterest app and paste it back out. Now, whenever you want to pin something, you can do it right then and there simply by bringing up the share sheet and tapping the Pinterest button.

Evernote

If you use Evernote to store photos, text notes, checklists, and more, you'll appreciate how easy iOS 8 and extensions make it to easily add information to your account from anyone on your iPhone. Just tap the Share button in any app, including Safari, and tap the Evernote option. Title your note and choose a notebook, and your content will be there waiting next time you launch Evernote.

Pocket

Read-it-later services used to have to resort to complex JavaScript bookmarklets or hope for third-party integration to try and make links easier to move articles and links from your iPhone and into their service. Now, thanks to sharing extensions, almost anything can go from your phone to your Pocket in just two taps.

Instapaper

Find an article you like on the web and want to save it to read later? Don't worry about copying the link, jumping over to another app, and hoping it detects the link in the clipboard and offers to add it. Just tap the share button and the Instagram button, and let iOS 8 do all the work.

1Password

Best apps that support sharing extensions in iOS 8: 1Password

Back in the dark days before iOS 8, if you want to get your login out of 1Password and into another app, you had to switch between the two and use copy and paste to get you through. Now, whether you're in Safari or any other app, all you need to do is bring up the share sheet, tap the action extension, authenticate with Touch ID or passcode, and your passwords get autofilled. It's not magic, but it's close.

Transmit

Best apps that support sharing extensions in iOS 8: Transmit

Transmit lets you take any file on your iPhone and easily upload it to your FTP server of choice. All you have to do is go to the item you want to upload, tap the share button, and watch it go. Whether it's an image in the Photos app or something in Safari, Transmit's extension will take it from where it is and put it where you want it to be.

Bing

Best apps that support sharing extensions in iOS 8: Transmit

The Bing action extension is nothing short of incredible. It lets you translate any web page in Safari to any language it supports, and all with just two taps. Gone are the days of having to copy and paste links or text into web-based translators. Now that translator is ready and waiting for you where ever you go.

If you want on the fly translation inside Safari for iOS, be sure to download the Bing app.

Day One

Day One is among the best journaling apps for the iPhone and its iOS 8 extension makes it even better. With it, you can share images and add descriptions right from the Photos app, or send text, links, or other data to Day One from where ever you are, without ever having to hunt down and launch the actual app.

Your favorite apps that take advantage of sharing and action extensions?

If you've come across some great apps that take full advantage of sharing and action extensions, be sure to let me know in the comments what they are and what makes them great!

Allyson Kazmucha
Allyson Kazmucha

iMore senior editor from 2011 to 2015.

24 Comments
  • This is probably a dumb question, but you probably have to be logged in to Facebook through iPhone settings in order to use it on the Share Sheet right? I don't like to be logged in through there :/
  • Yep, I never liked that either. At least with share extensions you can tap more and finally remove it :)
  • I think I'll keep myself logged out of Facebook through my iPhone settings and remove Facebook from the share sheet :)
  • For some reason I cannot see whatsapp messenger showing up in my share extensions.. is it because they have not updated their app to do so or is apple blocking it in order for us to use imessage only? So far i love extensions but it is no way as cool as how android does it.. apple has a long way to go..
  • What about Microsoft's One Note. For me so far the best app for taking notes and available for all plattforms. And with the latest update it supports sharing extensions!
  • Yes, Pocket and One Note are the best ones for me. Ally - Have you noticed that changes to order don't stick? On my iPhone 6, Twitter insists on going third, right after Messages and Mail, and right before Facebook, even when I move it.
  • Changes don't stick for me. I continually put pocket and Evernote first and they continue to move back to the end. I also move LastPass first in the bottom row and it loses if spot too. Sent from the iMore App
  • Same here. Hoping they fix this in the next release.
  • Yep, have noticed that too, but have found neither rhyme nor reason for what triggers the reset.
  • I really wish Facebook Pages Manager was one of the apps that allowed this.
  • Instagram should do this is about time how long they taking on a iPad app and a share menu extension. Sent from the iMore App
  • I wonder if the Gmail app can make use of extensions. That way it won't even be necessary to be able set default email apps. Sent from the iMore App
  • OneNote was one of the first.
  • OneNote works great with sharing. Sent from the iMore App
  • Why do we use instapaper or pocket once we have ¨read it later¨as a native option? Can anyone explain me the difference?
  • A new one is called sight
    https://appsto.re/au/z8o00.i. Just take a screen shot of any page and it will convert this into an article even if it is more than one page. The only thing is the screenshot will be added to your photos. You can delete the photo with no problems.
  • How much is Forbes paying iMore to highjack our mobile browsers each and every time readers click on an article? This is really annoying and a despicable business practices from what was a respected publication.
  • I got hit by this too. Usually this is accomplished with a an ad serving up some unscrupulous JavaScript, rather than the originating site. IMore should probably dig in and figure out where it is coming from so as not to alienate the faithful.
  • Thx for the insight. The way this ad is displayed on my iPad, it certainly seems like exactly what is happening. I thought something of the sort might be the case (though I didn't know the technical cause), but after seeing it for approx. two weeks I thought iMore was on the take. I suppose I will stand down as I haven't seen an ad today after getting vocal!
  • The only real thing I am missing switching from Android to 6 Plus is bluetooth sharing! Is there really no way to share a file wirelessly with Windows? At work, I have been using the scanner apps to save a ton of time by sending legal documents from phone to work computer instead of getting them out from the file and photocopying or scanning them through scanner. Haven't been able to do that with iPhone even though the camera and scanner apps are better!
  • SendAnywhere might be a solution for you
  • The Bing app isn't available in Finland. Bleh. Sent from the iMore App
  • A vote here for Deliveries! It's awesome to receive a shipping notice in email, tap on the tracking link to open in Safari and the tap the Deliveries extension to add the tracking info to a new item without having to fight with copy/paste of what might be an HTML formatted tracking number - which would have required you to jump through hoops like pasting into notepad and then re-selecting and copying...
  • Google+ and Mobli