How to Choose Your Default Apps on the iPhone

This article explains how to change default apps on iOS 14 and above.

How Default Apps Work on iPhone

The word "default" means two things when it comes to iPhone apps. First, it means apps that come pre-installed on your iPhone when it ships to you from the factory (or when you reset the phone to factory settings).

In the second case, default apps are apps that are always used to do a certain thing. For example, when you tap a website link in an email, it always opens in Safari. That makes Safari the default web browser on your iPhone. When a website includes a physical address and you tap it to get directions, Apple Maps launches because it is the default mapping app.

Many apps do the same things. Google Maps is ​an alternative app for navigation. Many people use Spotify rather than Apple Music for music streaming. Others prefer Chrome for web browsing instead of Safari. Anyone can install these apps on their iPhone. But what if you always want to use Google Maps instead of Apple Maps? What if you want links to open in Chrome every time?

How to Change Default iPhone Apps on iOS 14 and Up

It used to be that you couldn't pick default apps on your iPhone, but that changed in iOS 14. If you're running that version of the iOS, or newer, you can now pick default iPhone apps other than the ones that come with the factory settings.

For now, you can only pick default iPhone apps in a couple of categories: web browser and email. No other categories of app support changing defaults. The options for the default apps are:

Here's how to change your default web browser or email app on iOS 14 and up:

1. If you don't already have the app you want to set as the new default on your iPhone, get it at the App Store.

2. With that done, tap Settings.

3. Scroll down to the bottom of the Settings screen and tap the app you want to make the default.

4. Tap Default Browser App or Default Mail App.

5. Tap the app you want to set as the default.

6. Your choice will be automatically saved. Return to using your iPhone the way you want and, whenever you open a link or start a new email, your selection from step 5 will be your new default.

You Can't Change iOS Default Apps on iOS 13 and Earlier

If you're running iOS 13 or earlier and are looking to change your default iPhone apps, it's not possible. You'll need to upgrade to iOS 14.

In the past, Apple didn't allow people to make certain kinds of customizations. One of the blocked customizations was choosing your default apps.

Apple didn't allow this kind of customization because it wanted to ensure that all iPhone users enjoy a similar experience, with a baseline level of quality and expected behavior.

The other reason that its apps are the default is that doing that brings Apple more users. Consider the Music app. By making it the default music app, Apple has acquired 98 million paying customers for its Apple Music service as of 2021. That's more than $4 billion in annual revenue. If it allowed customers to set Spotify as their default, Apple would likely lose some percentage of those customers.

How to Delete Default Apps on iPhone

Apple's tight control​ over the iPhone and its software will probably never completely go away, but it's getting looser. While it used to be impossible to delete the apps that come with the iPhone, in iOS 10, Apple made it possible to delete some of these apps, including Calculator, Home, Watch, Reminders, Stocks, and more.