You Can Change the Default Apps on Your iPhone. Here’s How

Apple is preparing to release iOS 18.4 in April, and that update will likely bring more emoji and a new food section to Apple News. But when Apple released iOS 18.2 in December, that update made it easier to change your iPhone’s default apps.

Read more: Everything You Need to Know About iOS 18

Your default apps are the apps your iPhone uses automatically in certain situations. So if you tap a phone number on a website, for example, your iPhone will open your Phone app and place a call to that number. But if you like using another app for phone calls, like WhatsApp, you can now make that app your iPhone’s default call app.

Here’s how to change your default apps on your iPhone.

How to change your iPhone’s default apps

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Apps.
3. Tap Default Apps.

From this menu you can choose to change different categories of default apps on your iPhone. Here are the categories you can change and Apple’s description of each.

• App Installation*: Choose an alternative app marketplace instead of the App Store to use as your default.
• Browser App: Choose another app instead of the Safari app to use when opening links to webpages.
• Calling: Choose another app instead of the Phone app or FaceTime app to make calls.
• Call Filtering: Choose an app to use for presenting caller ID and blocking unwanted callers.
• Contactless App*: Choose another app to make contactless transactions using your device’s built-in technology.
• Email: Choose another app instead of the Mail app to use when opening links to send email.
• Keyboard: Choose an app to use for text-entry capabilities systemwide.
• Messaging: Choose another app instead of the Messages app to use when opening links to send instant messages.
• Password & Codes: Choose another app instead of the Passwords app to use for Password AutoFill in Safari and other apps.

*Only available in certain countries and regions.

Tap into any of these categories and you can change that default app. If you don’t have a third-party app downloaded to your iPhone for a certain category, that category will show you Apple’s app or nothing.

Couldn’t I change my default apps before?

In some cases yes. When Apple released iOS 14 in 2020, the update let you change your iPhone’s default email and browser apps. You could also change a few other categories before iOS 18.2, like Keyboard, but the options were scattered throughout Settings.

With iOS 18.2, your iPhone gathers those categories in one place, and the update adds a few other categories, like Messaging and Calling.

For more on iOS 18, here’s what you need to know about iOS 18.3.2, iOS 18.3.1 and iOS 18.3. You can also check out our iOS 18 cheat sheet.

Watch this: The iOS 19 Features Rumored That Are Not AI

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