Turn off contacts in the iOS 13 Share Sheet

Yes good point, we can get rid of the contacts list in the share sheet by switching off iMessage - Apple is giving us a good reason to stop using iMessages, I’m going to do that for now at least, and I may never go back to iMessages if I find that one of the many alternatives is better. Apple, you may have shot yourself in the foot over this issue!

Thanks for a well-articulated request. I fully agree and want that entire quick share row gone. The new share panel has made printing much more tricky, and as we use iPads for repeated printing in a business environment, iOS13 is more of a Mickey Mouse toy than a serious tool. We also have issues with the new way of dealing with browser tabs/pdfs/blobs so are not upgrading key devices.

Fine to give us options. But these compulsory drawbacks are very un-Apple. I am also holding off Catalina for different reasons but in the context of similar new Apple attitude.

Just updated to iPadOS 13.2 and we’re still stuck with this issue - I don’t think Apple have given it the slightest consideration. As a professional/business user trying to use an iPad as an alternative to a laptop, iPadOS has been a big disappointment because of the new share sheet - not only have I got contacts I absolutely don’t want displayed, but apps that could share files by Open-In easily and reliably in iOS12 can’t even be seen on the share sheet at all. Looks like its back to a laptop for me!

For me, only one contact has been showing up on the list and I realized it was just because I wished them happy birthday via an iMessage recently. I normally don’t use iMessages anymore. Our previous conversation was 2 years earlier. So I just deleted my happy birthday message and that contact stopped appearing in the Share Sheet.

So it seems like that part of the Share Sheet is time-sensitive. So you can try deleting a few messages rather than having to delete the entire conversation.

Of course it would be better if Apple allowed you to turn this off completely. Having that one random contact there kept giving me anxiety about accidental shares and she’s not the person I share with the most.

It’s infuriating, like many of you, most of the suggested contacts are people I have never shared anything with! The only answer is to start deleting all my recent conversations. But they will just add more! What a stupid thing.

Thank you. I left feedback. This is frustrating. i message my girlfriend a million times a day and never see her in that list... but for some reason, my ex-wife, who I message maybe once a month for divorce stuff is like a permanent fixture.

i want the feature, but I also want the ability to modify that list of contacts. Argh.

The only way I found to get rid of it was to delete EVERY. SINGLE. MESSAGE. I had ever received from anybody.

The weird thing was most of the suggestions were people with whom I rarely have any contact. I regret updating to iOS 13. I cannot downgrade to iOS 12 and so now I am stuck having to delete every message I receive. Really makes one questions Apple’s planning.

It’s appalling they would implement a bizarre and unwelcome feature without a toggle to turn it off.

It also makes inadvertent shares much more likely.

I think you are right.

The top row with contacts shows me a mix of private and business contects I would next to never come to the idea that I wanted to share something with them.

But they are there - very prominent in the top row - and every time I want to use the share sheet I fear I will accidently share stuff to them.

So I do not use the share sheet any longer at all ... :-(

This feature is really problematic. I wish you could customize which contacts appear, the way you can customize which apps appear. In my experience, the people it pulls up are really random... for example: my boyfriend and my sister—who I text constantly, often share links and screenshots with, and are listed in my “favorites” contacts—have never ONCE shown up. Meanwhile, it suggests coworkers who I rarely text. Another example: a random guy from a dating app who I haven’t talked to in more than year texted me this week, and now he shows up on every share sheet. It’s so annoying.

I actually would like to use this feature, if it worked in a logical way, to save steps in sharing links, screenshot, podcast episodes, etc. But right now it’s useless and could even be embarrassing in some scenarios.

Is there a way to make favorite contacts in the “share sheet”? I email photos to my work email about 5 times a day and it never shows up yet someone I messaged 2 weeks ago does? Apple gives us the ability to customize everything else but this function.

Totally agree. For me the issue is not accidentally sharing something. I just do not want that on my screen. I NEVER use iMessage and that’s just really annoying. Please, Apple, give us the option to disable this horrendous feature. (More like bug than feature, actually)

rockstar1000 wrote:

Please, Apple, give us the option to disable this horrendous feature. (More like bug than feature, actually)

Apple is not reading here for suggestions. If you want them to know how you feel, use the feedback link provided above. The more people who comment there, the more likely this is be something that Apple pays attention to.

Is there still no solution? I’m constantly anxious when I want to share something now.

if it was not bad enough but now other apps started to use it for their own contacts, like Telegram. Every time I want to share something on Telegram the list of most recent Telegram contacts appear and if I accidentally tapped on one of them it would INSTANTLY send to this contact. This is SO NOT SECURE!

Folky63 wrote:

Is there still no solution? I’m constantly anxious when I want to share something now.

if it was not bad enough but now other apps started to use it for their own contacts, like Telegram. Every time I want to share something on Telegram the list of most recent Telegram contacts appear and if I accidentally tapped on one of them it would INSTANTLY send to this contact. This is SO NOT SECURE!

The solution, for now, is to take personal responsibility and be careful.

I have the same problem, the contacts suggestion over whatsapp and telegram appears unwelcome.

i tried to log out the telegram app in my case and the contacts suggestion disappear when “share” button touch