How to Remove Unwelcome Contacts From Your iOS Share Sheet

[MacRumors]

Do contacts keep popping up in your iOS Share Sheet that you'd rather not see there each time you open it? Keep reading to learn how to get rid of them.

Whenever you go to share something on your iPhone or iPad using the Share button, iOS brings up the activity view – often called the Share Sheet – at the top of which is a row of suggested contacts with whom you've interacted recently. Swiping along this row reveals more contacts, and the icon in the corner of each profile picture indicates the app that you often use to communicate with that person.

These suggested contacts are useful if you share a lot of things with the same people, but there may be times when you'd prefer not to see specific contacts there, for example if someone is a duplicate suggestion over multiple apps, or if you don't want to draw attention to your regular comms with a certain someone. Whatever the reason, you can actually steer these sharing suggestions to appear less often, or not at all. Here's how.

Make Contacts Appear Less Often in iOS Share Sheet

1. Tap the Share button (the box with an arrow pointing out) in any app to bring up the Share Sheet.
2. Long press on the suggested contact that you want to see less often in the Share Sheet.
3. Tap Suggest Less in the popover menu.

Bear in mind, doing this won't guarantee that the contact doesn't appear in the Share Sheet again in future, but if you keep repeating it whenever they do show up, iOS will eventually get the message.

Remove All Contacts From iOS Share Sheet

Short of deleting their contact in the Contacts app, the only way to guarantee that someone doesn't keep turning up on your Share Sheet is to disable the contact suggestions row completely.

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Scroll down and tap Siri & Search.
3. Under the "Suggestions From Apple" section, toggle off the switch next to Show When Sharing.

That's all there is to it. Now the next time you invoke the Share Sheet, you won't see any contact profiles at the top. You can reverse the change just as easily by switching on the Show When Sharing toggle again.

Article Link: How to Remove Unwelcome Contacts From Your iOS Share Sheet

 

[HappyDude20]

I love this function. Helps me quickly send stuff to people I frequently communicate with.

 

[ahmedg]

Oh my God. First time ever a feature that I didn’t know existed. And guess what? I searched for something like this just yesterday.

 

[hellosil]

Remove All Contacts From iOS Share Sheet 🥳
Thank you!

 

[xxray]

I’m so glad Apple added the option to turn this off. I used to be so scared I’d send someone a link to something I didn’t want to send them…

 

[patsfan83]

Hated seeing FB Messenger contacts there from 1 craigslist sale.

 

[JM]

😱

1000 blessings on you and you family for this tip 🙌

 

[rotax]

Is there a way to do this when entering typing a contact name? Often when I pick eg Messages in the share sheet and then start to type the contact's name, another contact always comes up first. Is there a way to eliminate this contact from being suggested. Its just there as a pop-up as you type, so it does not seem like it can be selected and "suggested less" at this point in the user interface

 

[Corsig]

Now if I could only remove unwanted contacts from my life as easy

 

[BenTrovato]

Is there a way to get someone you actually want in this list? The people I send messages/sharing the most never appear in this list. On my iPad it's perfect, on the iPhone I have whatsapp contacts showing up that I never send things to and not the people I iMessage the most 🤷‍♂️

 

[syklee26]

Is there a way to FIX a contact on share sheet?

 

[Simos.805]

And if you remove a contact by mistake? How can you reverse it?

 

[Eric_WVGG]

so they were definitely thinking about adultery when they designed this feature, right?

 

[MisterSavage]

I was actually shocked at how dumb the selection process was for this. You only sent a DM to a person one time on Slack? Let's suggest them every single time you share something and not use people you contact all the time.

 

[DaPizzaMan]

I knew you could turn it off, but I never knew about the "Suggest Less" feature. Definitely will be using that.

 

[TechRemarker]

while it’s better than nothing feature less does not work for me. It will hide the person you select in that moment but for me they always come back. Thing an ex partner for instance or a family member you don’t want to mistakenly send something to ever. Since you have probably messaged these people endless times, have lots of images of them and maybe still message, iOS must think you featured less unintentionally no matter how many times you click it. For me the second option is what I did before if hiding it entirely since while it’s a helpful feature the chance of sending someone mistakenly since there name is one click next to someone else isn’t worth the risk.

 

[CarAnalogy]

I don’t understand why there isn’t an option to remove a specific contact entirely. Suggest less is kind of patronizing.

“Yeah yeah we know you *think* you don’t want to see this contact, but we know better.”

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

Great hint! Now do the opposite, how do I add suggestions? 90% of all my shares are iMessages to my wife, yet my iPhone suggests no iMessage accounts.

 

[Yptcn]

Now that's a GREAT hint 👍🏻

 

[Robin Bonathan]

I would like to have a larger list of contacts to share with but iOS limits the number

 

[George Dawes]

This is super annoying , thank god there's a workaround !!

 

[compwiz1202]

Great hint! Now do the opposite, how do I add suggestions? 90% of all my shares are iMessages to my wife, yet my iPhone suggests no iMessage accounts.

My wife is always first, and if she is in range, then airdrop is before her iMessage

 

[iDento]

While I like this feature a lot, it's good to know I can remove unwanted people. Thanks for the tip Macrumors.

 

[GlassFingers]

I didn’t know this could be entirely disabled. Awesome, thanks!!

 

[CCnNYC]

I'm more frustrated that it always favors messaging over email. Some people I email a lot, and message very little, but it still suggests messaging them and I have to keep opening a blank email.