Ditch Apple’s Mail and Safari apps on your new iPhone or iPad with this feature

A new iPhone can be a great holiday gift. You can pack it full of fun apps, use it for amazing photography, and just generally enjoy using it day after day. But, for a long time, you also got stuck with Apple’s default mail and web-browsing apps, regardless of your preferred defaults.

Fortunately, Apple has been loosening its grip on the iPhone and iPad by adding the option to put widgets on the iPhone’s home screen, create custom app icons and, although somewhat limited, change the default apps for email and web browsing. (Here are some of our other favorite features from iOS 15.)

That means you can use Gmail or Google Chrome — or another app of your choice — on your new iPhone and finally leave Safari and Apple Mail behind. It’s a big win for iPhone and iPad users. 

Read more: The best iPhone 13 cases

The process to change over your default mail and browser app is really simple, but also somewhat hidden. Apple doesn’t make it as easy as Android, where there’s a dedicated section for setting default apps in settings. You have to know where to look, and below, we’ll show you where that is.

Set your default mail or browser

In order to use another app as an email or web browser replacement, the developer will need to update the app with support for the new feature. Make sure to check the App Store for any updates before trying to change your default app. Here’s what you need to do.

Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad. Scroll down until you find the app you want to use. For example, find Google Chrome if you want it to be your main browser. Or Outlook if you want to use it as your email app and tap it. Select the appropriate option, either Default Browser App or Default Email App. Pick from the list of available apps on the next screen, then back out of settings. 

With a new default app set, anytime you click a link, your preferred browser will open. Or whenever you tap an email address, your email app will launch. It’s about time Apple added this capability. 

Default apps aren’t the only cool feature in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 — we found a bunch. We also figured out some specific tricks, like how to get free iCloud storage.