Gmail sharing issue: Subject and body merging in UIActivityViewController

Other Questions Gmail
1

I’m having trouble with the UIActivityViewController when sharing content to Gmail. While it works fine for other apps, including the default Mail app, Gmail is causing issues. The subject line disappears and the body content shows up in the subject field instead.

Here’s a simplified version of my code:

let messageBody = "Hello, this is the message body"
let messageSubject = "Important: Please Read"

let itemsToShare = [messageBody]
let shareSheet = UIActivityViewController(activityItems: itemsToShare, applicationActivities: nil)

shareSheet.setValue(messageSubject, forKey: "subject")

let excludedActivities: [UIActivity.ActivityType] = [.airDrop, .print, .assignToContact, .saveToCameraRoll]
shareSheet.excludedActivityTypes = excludedActivities

present(shareSheet, animated: true)

Has anyone else run into this problem? Any ideas on how to fix it so Gmail correctly separates the subject and body?

2

I’ve dealt with similar Gmail sharing quirks in my apps. One workaround I’ve found effective is using NSAttributedString to combine the subject and body. Something like this:

let combinedText = NSMutableAttributedString(string: “(messageSubject)\n\n(messageBody)”)
combinedText.addAttribute(.font, value: UIFont.boldSystemFont(ofSize: 16), range: NSRange(location: 0, length: messageSubject.count))

let itemsToShare = [combinedText]

This trick ensures the subject stands out visually in Gmail’s interface. It’s not perfect, but it’s been a reliable solution in my experience. Just remember to adjust the font size and style to fit your app’s design.

3

hey, i’ve had similar probs with gmail sharing. have u tried using a custom URL scheme? smthin like:

let gmailURL = “googlegmail://co?subject=(messageSubject)&body=(messageBody)”
UIApplication.shared.open(URL(string: gmailURL)!)

It bypasses UIActivityViewController entirely. might work better 4 ur case

4

I’ve encountered this issue before, and it can be frustrating. The problem lies in how Gmail handles the shared content from UIActivityViewController.

Instead of using setValue(forKey:) for the subject, try adding both the subject and body as separate items in the activityItems array. Something like this:

let itemsToShare = [messageSubject, messageBody]
let shareSheet = UIActivityViewController(activityItems: itemsToShare, applicationActivities: nil)

This approach seems to work better with Gmail, as it treats the first item as the subject and the second as the body. It’s not a perfect solution, as it might affect how other apps interpret the shared content, but it’s worth a try.

Another option is to use the MFMailComposeViewController specifically for email sharing. This gives you more control over the subject and body, although it requires implementing a separate flow for email sharing.