Question

I’ve seen some apps that let the user choose the 3rd party app for displaying a route/direction in iOS 6, e.g. the “Where to?”-App. When you click on the directions button it shows you a list of routing apps, e.g. Apple Maps, Google Maps, Deutsche Bahn Navigator and different others and also displays apps for download from the App Store that are capable of showing routes/directions.
It looks like a native system feature, but I cannot find any information about it.

The apple documentation recommends using

[MKMapItem openMapsWithItems:@[mapItemStart, mapItemDest] launchOptions:@{MKLaunchOptionsDirectionsModeKey: MKLaunchOptionsDirectionsModeWalking}];

but that only leads directly to the maps app.
As it is possible to register as a routing app, is there any convenient way to have the user choose the routing app from your own app?

Kind regards
Kim

Answer 1

You could allow a selection in your app and open any app the user has installed as long as the app has a URL Schema to launch from your app using:

[[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:<some URL>];

For example, you can find the appropriate URL scheme for google maps here:

https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/ios/urlscheme