How to open mail app from Swift

Question

Im working on a simple swift app where the user inputs an email address and presses a button which opens the mail app, with the entered address in the address bar. I know how to do this in Objective-C, but I'm having trouble getting it to work in Swift.

Answer 1

You can use simple mailto: links in iOS to open the mail app.

let email = "foo@bar.com"
if let url = URL(string: "mailto:\(email)") {
  if #available(iOS 10.0, *) {
    UIApplication.shared.open(url)
  } else {
    UIApplication.shared.openURL(url)
  }    
}

Answer 2

While other answers are all correct, you can never know if the iPhone/iPad that is running your application has the Apple's Mail app installed or not as it can be deleted by the user.

It is better to support multiple email clients. Following code handles the email sending in a more graceful way. The flow of the code is:

• If Mail app is installed, open Mail's composer pre-filled with provided data
• Otherwise, try opening the Gmail app, then Outlook, then Yahoo mail, then Spark, in this order
• If none of those clients are installed, fallback to default mailto:.. that prompts the user to install Apple's Mail app.

Code is written in Swift 5 :

    import MessageUI
    import UIKit

    class SendEmailViewController: UIViewController, MFMailComposeViewControllerDelegate {
        
        @IBAction func sendEmail(_ sender: UIButton) {
            // Modify following variables with your text / recipient
            let recipientEmail = "test@email.com"
            let subject = "Multi client email support"
            let body = "This code supports sending email via multiple different email apps on iOS! :)"
            
            // Show default mail composer
            if MFMailComposeViewController.canSendMail() {
                let mail = MFMailComposeViewController()
                mail.mailComposeDelegate = self
                mail.setToRecipients([recipientEmail])
                mail.setSubject(subject)
                mail.setMessageBody(body, isHTML: false)
                
                present(mail, animated: true)
            
            // Show third party email composer if default Mail app is not present
            } else if let emailUrl = createEmailUrl(to: recipientEmail, subject: subject, body: body) {
                UIApplication.shared.open(emailUrl)
            }
        }
        
        private func createEmailUrl(to: String, subject: String, body: String) -> URL? {
            let subjectEncoded = subject.addingPercentEncoding(withAllowedCharacters: .urlQueryAllowed)!
            let bodyEncoded = body.addingPercentEncoding(withAllowedCharacters: .urlQueryAllowed)!
            
            let gmailUrl = URL(string: "googlegmail://co?to=\(to)&subject=\(subjectEncoded)&body=\(bodyEncoded)")
            let outlookUrl = URL(string: "ms-outlook://compose?to=\(to)&subject=\(subjectEncoded)")
            let yahooMail = URL(string: "ymail://mail/compose?to=\(to)&subject=\(subjectEncoded)&body=\(bodyEncoded)")
            let sparkUrl = URL(string: "readdle-spark://compose?recipient=\(to)&subject=\(subjectEncoded)&body=\(bodyEncoded)")
            let defaultUrl = URL(string: "mailto:\(to)?subject=\(subjectEncoded)&body=\(bodyEncoded)")
            
            if let gmailUrl = gmailUrl, UIApplication.shared.canOpenURL(gmailUrl) {
                return gmailUrl
            } else if let outlookUrl = outlookUrl, UIApplication.shared.canOpenURL(outlookUrl) {
                return outlookUrl
            } else if let yahooMail = yahooMail, UIApplication.shared.canOpenURL(yahooMail) {
                return yahooMail
            } else if let sparkUrl = sparkUrl, UIApplication.shared.canOpenURL(sparkUrl) {
                return sparkUrl
            }
            
            return defaultUrl
        }
        
        func mailComposeController(_ controller: MFMailComposeViewController, didFinishWith result: MFMailComposeResult, error: Error?) {
            controller.dismiss(animated: true)
        }
    }

Please note that I intentionally missed out the body for the Outlook app, as it is not able to parse it.

You also have to add following code to Info.plist file that whitelists the URl query schemes that are used.

<key>LSApplicationQueriesSchemes</key>
<array>
    <string>googlegmail</string>
    <string>ms-outlook</string>
    <string>readdle-spark</string>
    <string>ymail</string>
</array>

Answer 3

I'm not sure if you want to switch to the mail app itself or just open and send an email. For the latter option linked to a button IBAction:

    import UIKit
    import MessageUI

    class ViewController: UIViewController, MFMailComposeViewControllerDelegate {

    @IBAction func launchEmail(sender: AnyObject) {

    var emailTitle = "Feedback"
    var messageBody = "Feature request or bug report?"
    var toRecipents = ["friend@stackoverflow.com"]
    var mc: MFMailComposeViewController = MFMailComposeViewController()
    mc.mailComposeDelegate = self
    mc.setSubject(emailTitle)
    mc.setMessageBody(messageBody, isHTML: false)
    mc.setToRecipients(toRecipents)

    self.presentViewController(mc, animated: true, completion: nil)
    }

    func mailComposeController(controller:MFMailComposeViewController, didFinishWithResult result:MFMailComposeResult, error:NSError) {
        switch result {
        case MFMailComposeResultCancelled:
            print("Mail cancelled")
        case MFMailComposeResultSaved:
            print("Mail saved")
        case MFMailComposeResultSent:
            print("Mail sent")
        case MFMailComposeResultFailed:
            print("Mail sent failure: \(error?.localizedDescription)")
        default:
            break
        }
        self.dismissViewControllerAnimated(true, completion: nil)
    }

    }

Answer 4

For Swift 4.2+ and iOS 9+

let appURL = URL(string: "mailto:test@example.com")!

if #available(iOS 10.0, *) {
    UIApplication.shared.open(appURL, options: [:], completionHandler: nil)
} else {
    UIApplication.shared.openURL(appURL)
}

Replace test@example.com with your desired email address.

You can also include a subject field, a message , and multiple recipients in the To, Cc, and Bcc fields:

mailto:foo@example.com?cc=bar@example.com&subject=Greetings%20from%20Cupertino!&body=Wish%20you%20were%20here!

Answer 5

In Swift 3 you make sure to add import MessageUI and needs conform to the MFMailComposeViewControllerDelegate protocol.

func sendEmail() {
  if MFMailComposeViewController.canSendMail() {
    let mail = MFMailComposeViewController()
    mail.mailComposeDelegate = self
    mail.setToRecipients(["ved.ios@yopmail.com"])
    mail.setMessageBody("<p>You're so awesome!</p>", isHTML: true)

    present(mail, animated: true)
  } else {
    // show failure alert
  }
}

Protocol:

func mailComposeController(_ controller: MFMailComposeViewController, didFinishWith result: MFMailComposeResult, error: Error?) {
  controller.dismiss(animated: true)
}

Answer 6

Swift 2, with availability check:

import MessageUI

if MFMailComposeViewController.canSendMail() {
    let mail = MFMailComposeViewController()
    mail.mailComposeDelegate = self
    mail.setToRecipients(["test@test.test"])
    mail.setSubject("Bla")
    mail.setMessageBody("<b>Blabla</b>", isHTML: true)
    presentViewController(mail, animated: true, completion: nil)
} else {
    print("Cannot send mail")
    // give feedback to the user
}


// MARK: - MFMailComposeViewControllerDelegate

func mailComposeController(controller: MFMailComposeViewController, didFinishWithResult result: MFMailComposeResult, error: NSError?) {
    switch result.rawValue {
    case MFMailComposeResultCancelled.rawValue:
        print("Cancelled")
    case MFMailComposeResultSaved.rawValue:
        print("Saved")
    case MFMailComposeResultSent.rawValue:
        print("Sent")
    case MFMailComposeResultFailed.rawValue:
        print("Error: \(error?.localizedDescription)")
    default:
        break
    }
    controller.dismissViewControllerAnimated(true, completion: nil)
}

Answer 7

Here how it looks for Swift 4:

import MessageUI

if MFMailComposeViewController.canSendMail() {
    let mail = MFMailComposeViewController()
    mail.mailComposeDelegate = self
    mail.setToRecipients(["test@test.test"])
    mail.setSubject("Bla")
    mail.setMessageBody("<b>Blabla</b>", isHTML: true)
    present(mail, animated: true, completion: nil)
} else {
    print("Cannot send mail")
    // give feedback to the user
}

func mailComposeController(_ controller: MFMailComposeViewController, didFinishWith result: MFMailComposeResult, error: Error?) {
        switch result.rawValue {
        case MFMailComposeResult.cancelled.rawValue:
            print("Cancelled")
        case MFMailComposeResult.saved.rawValue:
            print("Saved")
        case MFMailComposeResult.sent.rawValue:
            print("Sent")
        case MFMailComposeResult.failed.rawValue:
            print("Error: \(String(describing: error?.localizedDescription))")
        default:
            break
        }
        controller.dismiss(animated: true, completion: nil)
    }

Answer 8

Updated answer from Stephen Groom for Swift 3

let email = "email@email.com"
let url = URL(string: "mailto:\(email)")
UIApplication.shared.openURL(url!)

Answer 9

Here's an update for Swift 4 if you're simply looking to open up the mail client via a URL :

let email = "foo@bar.com"
if let url = URL(string: "mailto:\(email)") {
   UIApplication.shared.open(url, options: [:], completionHandler: nil)
}

This worked perfectly fine for me :)

Answer 10

This is a straight forward solution of 3 steps in Swift.

import MessageUI

Add to conform the Delegate

MFMailComposeViewControllerDelegate

And just create your method:

    func sendEmail() {
    if MFMailComposeViewController.canSendMail() {
        let mail = MFMailComposeViewController()
        mail.mailComposeDelegate = self
        mail.setToRecipients(["support@mail.com"])
        mail.setSubject("Support App")
        mail.setMessageBody("<p>Send us your issue!</p>", isHTML: true)
        presentViewController(mail, animated: true, completion: nil)
    } else {
        // show failure alert
    }
}

func mailComposeController(controller: MFMailComposeViewController, didFinishWithResult result: MFMailComposeResult, error: NSError?) {
    controller.dismissViewControllerAnimated(true, completion: nil)
}

Answer 11

You should try sending with built-in mail composer, and if that fails, try with share:

func contactUs() {

    let email = "info@example.com" // insert your email here
    let subject = "your subject goes here"
    let bodyText = "your body text goes here"

    // https://developer.apple.com/documentation/messageui/mfmailcomposeviewcontroller
    if MFMailComposeViewController.canSendMail() {

        let mailComposerVC = MFMailComposeViewController()
        mailComposerVC.mailComposeDelegate = self as? MFMailComposeViewControllerDelegate

        mailComposerVC.setToRecipients([email])
        mailComposerVC.setSubject(subject)
        mailComposerVC.setMessageBody(bodyText, isHTML: false)

        self.present(mailComposerVC, animated: true, completion: nil)

    } else {
        print("Device not configured to send emails, trying with share ...")

        let coded = "mailto:\(email)?subject=\(subject)&body=\(bodyText)".addingPercentEncoding(withAllowedCharacters: .urlQueryAllowed)
        if let emailURL = URL(string: coded!) {
            if #available(iOS 10.0, *) {
                if UIApplication.shared.canOpenURL(emailURL) {
                    UIApplication.shared.open(emailURL, options: [:], completionHandler: { (result) in
                        if !result {
                            print("Unable to send email.")
                        }
                    })
                }
            }
            else {
                UIApplication.shared.openURL(emailURL as URL)
            }
        }
    }
}

Answer 12

For Swift 4.2 and above

let supportEmail = "abc@xyz.com"
if let emailURL = URL(string: "mailto:\(supportEmail)"), UIApplication.shared.canOpenURL(emailURL)
{
    UIApplication.shared.open(emailURL, options: [:], completionHandler: nil)
}

Give the user to choose many mail options(like iCloud, google, yahoo, Outlook.com - if no mail is pre-configured in his phone) to send email.

Answer 13

In the view controller from where you want your mail-app to open on the tap.

• At the top of the file do, import MessageUI .

• Put this function inside your Controller.

   func showMailComposer(){ guard MFMailComposeViewController.canSendMail() else { return } let composer = MFMailComposeViewController() composer.mailComposeDelegate = self composer.setToRecipients(["abc@gmail.com"]) // email id of the recipient composer.setSubject("testing!!!") composer.setMessageBody("this is a test mail.", isHTML: false) present(composer, animated: true, completion: nil) }

• Extend your View Controller and conform to the MFMailComposeViewControllerDelegate .

• Put this method and handle the failure, sending of your mails.

   func mailComposeController(_ controller: MFMailComposeViewController, didFinishWith result: MFMailComposeResult, error: Error?) { if let _ = error { controller.dismiss(animated: true, completion: nil) return } controller.dismiss(animated: true, completion: nil) }

Answer 14

@IBAction func launchEmail(sender: AnyObject) {
 if if MFMailComposeViewController.canSendMail() {
   var emailTitle = "Feedback"
   var messageBody = "Feature request or bug report?"
   var toRecipents = ["friend@stackoverflow.com"]
   var mc: MFMailComposeViewController = MFMailComposeViewController()
   mc.mailComposeDelegate = self
   mc.setSubject(emailTitle)
   mc.setMessageBody(messageBody, isHTML: false)
   mc.setToRecipients(toRecipents)

   self.present(mc, animated: true, completion: nil)
 } else {
   // show failure alert
 }
}

func mailComposeController(controller:MFMailComposeViewController, didFinishWithResult result:MFMailComposeResult, error:NSError) {
    switch result {
    case .cancelled:
        print("Mail cancelled")
    case .saved:
        print("Mail saved")
    case .sent:
        print("Mail sent")
    case .failed:
        print("Mail sent failure: \(error?.localizedDescription)")
    default:
        break
    }
    self.dismiss(animated: true, completion: nil)
}

Note that not all users have their device configure to send emails, which is why we need to check the result of canSendMail() before trying to send. Note also that you need to catch the didFinishWith callback in order to dismiss the mail window.

Answer 15

For those of us still lagging behind on Swift 2.3 here is Gordon's answer in our syntax:

let email = "foo@bar.com"
if let url = NSURL(string: "mailto:\(email)") {
   UIApplication.sharedApplication().openURL(url)
}

Answer 16

In my case I was just trying to open the mail app, without creating an email draft.

In case someone is stumbling upon this question and is actually trying to do the same thing here is the code I used:

private var openMailAppButton: some View { 
        Button {
            if let emailUrl = mailAppUrl() {
                UIApplication.shared.open(emailUrl)
            }
        } label: {
            Text("OPEN MAIL APP")
        }
    }

private func mailAppUrl() -> URL? {
        let gmailUrl = URL(string: "googlegmail://")
        let outlookUrl = URL(string: "ms-outlook://")
        let yahooMail = URL(string: "ymail://")
        let sparkUrl = URL(string: "readdle-spark://")
        let defaultUrl = URL(string: "message://")
        
        if let defaultUrl = defaultUrl, UIApplication.shared.canOpenURL(defaultUrl) {
            return defaultUrl
        } else if let gmailUrl = gmailUrl, UIApplication.shared.canOpenURL(gmailUrl) {
            return gmailUrl
        } else if let outlookUrl = outlookUrl, UIApplication.shared.canOpenURL(outlookUrl) {
            return outlookUrl
        } else if let yahooMail = yahooMail, UIApplication.shared.canOpenURL(yahooMail) {
            return yahooMail
        } else if let sparkUrl = sparkUrl, UIApplication.shared.canOpenURL(sparkUrl) {
            return sparkUrl
        }
        
        return defaultUrl
    }

Answer 17

I created a Swift package that handles exactly this and also implements a check if they have multiple email clients.

https://github.com/joe-scotto/EmailLink

Answer 18

func mailComposeController(_ controller: MFMailComposeViewController, didFinishWith result: MFMailComposeResult,error: Swift.Error?) {

    controller.dismiss(animated: true, completion: nil)
}