This document describes several URL schemes that are supported by system applications on iOS and Mac OS X. Native iOS applications and web applications running in Safari on any platform can use these schemes to integrate with system applications and provide a more seamless experience for the user. For example, if your iOS application displays telephone numbers, you could use an appropriate URL to launch the Phone application whenever someone taps one of those numbers. Similarly, clicking an iTunes link, launches the iTunes application and plays the song specified in the link. What happens when a user clicks a link depends on the platform and the installed system applications.
This document describes those schemes that require special attributes or special formatting in order to be understood by the associated system application. As a result, this document does not describe all URL schemes supported on different Apple platforms.
You should read this document if you want to launch a system application from your iOS application or from your web application running in Safari. This document contains both Cocoa Touch sample code—using the openURL: method of the shared UIApplication object to open URLs—and HTML samples. For more information on how to use the openURL: method, see UIApplication Class Reference.
Each article in this document describes the format of a particular type of URL:
“Mail Links” describes the format for sending email with the Mail application.
“Phone Links” describes the format for dialing phone numbers in the Phone application.
“Text Links” describes the format for launching the Text application.
“Map Links” describes the format for specifying locations in the Maps application.
“YouTube Links” describes the format for linking to YouTube videos.
“iTunes Links” describes the format for linking to items in the iTunes Music Store.
Last updated: 2009-06-17