mail_to_native

Pub Version License Platform

Pick an installed mail app and open its compose screen with subject and body prefilled — through a native dialog, not a Flutter widget.

Most packages in this space open the mail app's inbox. mail_to_native opens a prefilled draft, in the app the user picks.

Demo

iOS Android
iOS Demo Android Demo

Platform Support

Platform Status Notes
iOS ✅ Full support (13.0+) UIAlertController picker, MFMailComposeViewController for Apple Mail
Android ✅ Full support (API 24+) Native dialog with launcher icons, ACTION_SENDTO
Web / desktop ❌ Not supported N/A
iOS Android
Detection Known schemes probed with canOpenURL + MFMailComposeViewController.canSendMail() Every mailto: handler, via PackageManager
Picker UIAlertController (.alert, centred) Centred dialog with each app's launcher icon
Apple Mail MFMailComposeViewController — an in-app sheet n/a
Others Per-app compose deep link Explicit ACTION_SENDTO intent
"Other apps" UIActivityViewController ACTION_SEND chooser

Why Apple Mail is special

On iOS 14+ mailto: is handed to the user's default mail app. If that default is Gmail, a mailto: link labelled "Apple Mail" opens Gmail. There is no Apple-Mail-only compose URL, so this plugin drives MFMailComposeViewController instead — which always composes in Apple Mail, as an in-app sheet.

Installation

dependencies:
  mail_to_native: ^0.8.1

iOS needs one extra step — see iOS setup. Android needs none.

Usage

import 'package:mail_to_native/mail_to_native.dart';

const message = MailMessage(
  subject: 'Meeting notes',
  body: 'Here is the summary…',
  to: ['someone@example.com'],
);

// Native dialog, then compose. Skips the dialog when only one app exists.
await MailTo.pickAndCompose(message);

The dialog always appears, even with one app installed, and carries an "other apps" entry that opens the system share sheet. No mail app at all? The same dialog shows emptyMessage with an OK button — you write no empty-list branch:

await MailTo.pickAndCompose(
  message,
  dialogTitle: 'Choose a mail app',
  cancelLabel: 'Cancel',
  emptyMessage: 'No mail app is installed on this device.',
  okLabel: 'OK',
  otherAppsLabel: 'Other apps…',
);

Pass showEmptyAlert: false to suppress the empty dialog and just get null back, or showOtherApps: false to drop the share entry.

The share sheet is also available on its own:

await MailTo.share(message);   // every app that takes text, not just mail

Share-sheet header

Without metadata iOS shows a bare app icon and no title, because a plain text item carries no preview. Pass ShareMetadata to fill the header strip:

await MailTo.share(
  message,
  metadata: const ShareMetadata(title: 'Meeting notes', subtitle: 'krisp.ai'),
);

// pickAndCompose forwards it when the user chooses "other apps"
await MailTo.pickAndCompose(message, shareMetadata: metadata);
  • title — bold line; defaults to the message subject.
  • subtitle — grey line under it, where a shared link shows its domain. Ignored unless icon/image is set: iOS treats an item carrying a subtitle as a file and replaces the app icon with a generic document glyph. iOS only.
  • icon — PNG/JPEG bytes for the thumbnail. Leave it unset: iOS then draws the host app's icon full-bleed. Supplied artwork gets aspect-fitted into a white tile, which looks inset by comparison. Falls back to image. iOS only.
  • image — PNG bytes shared as a picture next to the text: a mail attachment, a photo in messengers. On Android it is served through the plugin's own FileProvider, so hosts need no manifest entry.

Android has no subtitle or icon slot for a plain-text share, so only title applies there (as the chooser's EXTRA_TITLE).

Driving the list yourself:

final apps = await MailTo.installedApps();   // [] when none installed
if (apps.isNotEmpty) {
  await MailTo.compose(message, app: apps.first);
}

Handing the message to the platform default:

await MailTo.compose(message);   // no app → default mailto handler

iOS setup (required)

iOS cannot enumerate installed apps. canOpenURL returns false for any scheme not declared by the host app, so add this to ios/Runner/Info.plist — without it, only Apple Mail is ever detected:

<key>LSApplicationQueriesSchemes</key>
<array>
  <string>googlegmail</string>
  <string>ms-outlook</string>
  <string>readdle-spark</string>
  <string>ymail</string>
  <string>airmail</string>
  <string>fastmail</string>
  <string>protonmail</string>
  <string>mailru-mail</string>
</array>

Keep any schemes already in that array — add to it, don't replace it. Listing only a subset is fine: apps you leave out simply never appear in the picker.

Why the package cannot do this for you

canOpenURL reads LSApplicationQueriesSchemes from the app bundle's Info.plist (Runner.app/Info.plist). A pod's s.info_plist writes the plugin framework's Info.plist, which iOS never consults, and SwiftPM has no Info.plist merging at all. Xcode copies one Info.plist per target — there is no merge step, unlike Android's manifest merger (which is why the <queries> block can ship inside this package).

If you would rather not maintain the list by hand, add this to your app's ios/Podfile — it patches Runner/Info.plist on every pod install:

post_install do |installer|
  # … your existing post_install body …

  require 'xcodeproj'
  schemes = %w[googlegmail ms-outlook readdle-spark ymail airmail fastmail protonmail mailru-mail]
  plist_path = File.join(__dir__, 'Runner', 'Info.plist')
  plist = Xcodeproj::Plist.read_from_path(plist_path)
  existing = plist['LSApplicationQueriesSchemes'] || []
  plist['LSApplicationQueriesSchemes'] = (existing + schemes).uniq
  Xcodeproj::Plist.write_to_path(plist, plist_path)
end

Trade-off: it rewrites a tracked file, so it will show up in git status the first time and re-add any scheme you deliberately removed.

Mail.ru

Mail.ru publishes no compose URL scheme — mailru-mail is the community-reported one and is unverified. If the app is installed but never appears in the picker, that scheme is wrong. A bad guess is harmless: detection just skips it. Reports with a confirmed scheme are welcome.

Android needs none of this — Mail.ru is enumerated like any other mailto: handler.

Android setup

None. The plugin's own manifest contributes the Android 11+ <queries> block.

Notes

  • MailMessage.isHtml is honoured only by Apple Mail's native composer. mailto:-driven apps have no way to express HTML and always get plain text.
  • compose resolves true when the composer opened (for Apple Mail: when the sheet closed without an error), false when nothing could be opened.
  • Long bodies: mailto: URLs are length-limited by the receiving app. Apple Mail's native composer has no such limit.
  • Apple Mail is reported as installed only when it has an account configured — simulators usually don't.
  • MailApp.isOther marks the "other apps" pick returned by pickApp; hand it to share. pickAndCompose does that for you.
  • cancelLabel is iOS-only. The Android dialog is dismissed by tapping outside or pressing back, so it carries no cancel button.
  • The Android dialog is drawn programmatically (no Material dependency) because a Flutter host activity is not guaranteed to carry an AppCompat/Material theme. It follows the system light/dark setting.

License

MIT

Libraries

mail_to_native
mail_to_native_method_channel
mail_to_native_platform_interface