How to exclude Notes and Reminders apps from the UIActivityViewController?

I am creating a UIActivityViewController and pass String and URL to it. This, obviously, configures the UIActivityViewController to use some items which I want to exclude (my objective is to share the info about my app).

I have managed to exclude lots of system provided activities (like 'Add to Reading list') by setting the appropriate excludedActivityTypes.

However, I am unable to exclude Reminders and Notes apps. Can someone suggest a way of doing it? These apps appear 3rd and 4th on the list and therefore make Twitter and Facebook not visible unless user scrolls.

If you don't want to subclass UIActivityViewController you can include them in your .excludedActivityTypes when creating your UIActivityViewController.

Objective C:

UIActivityViewController *activityController = [[UIActivityViewController alloc]initWithActivityItems:sharingItems applicationActivities:nil];
activityController.excludedActivityTypes = @[
    UIActivityTypeAssignToContact,
    UIActivityTypePrint,
    UIActivityTypeAddToReadingList,
    UIActivityTypeSaveToCameraRoll,
    UIActivityTypeOpenInIBooks,
    @"com.apple.mobilenotes.SharingExtension",
    @"com.apple.reminders.RemindersEditorExtension"
];
[self presentViewController:activityController animated:YES completion:nil];

Swift 4.2:

let activityController = UIActivityViewController(activityItems: sharingItems, applicationActivities: nil)
activityController.excludedActivityTypes = [
    UIActivity.ActivityType.assignToContact,
    UIActivity.ActivityType.print,
    UIActivity.ActivityType.addToReadingList,
    UIActivity.ActivityType.saveToCameraRoll,
    UIActivity.ActivityType.openInIBooks,
    UIActivity.ActivityType(rawValue: "com.apple.reminders.RemindersEditorExtension"),
    UIActivity.ActivityType(rawValue: "com.apple.mobilenotes.SharingExtension")]
present(activityController, animated: true, completion: nil)

Swift 2.2 version. Tested in iOS9.3. Works.

UPDATE and got approved by App Store Review.

import UIKit

class ActivityViewController: UIActivityViewController {

    func _shouldExcludeActivityType(activity: UIActivity) -> Bool {
        let activityTypesToExclude = [
            "com.apple.reminders.RemindersEditorExtension",
            "com.apple.mobilenotes.SharingExtension",
            UIActivityTypeOpenInIBooks,
            UIActivityTypePrint,
            UIActivityTypeAssignToContact,
            "com.google.Drive.ShareExtension"
        ]
        
        if let actType = activity.activityType() {
            if activityTypesToExclude.contains(actType) {
                return true
            }
            else if super.excludedActivityTypes != nil {
                return super.excludedActivityTypes!.contains(actType)
            }
        }
        return false
    }

}

Also useful

 "com.apple.mobileslideshow.StreamShareService"

gets rid of the "cloud" one.

There is a way, but involves private API.

Sometimes Apple makes exceptions, especially if you fix a bug.

Let's dive into details...

UIActivityViewController has got a private method called "_availableActivitiesForItems:", which returns an array of UISocialActivity objects.

UISocialActivity has got an interesting property, called "activityType", which returns a domain-formatted activity type.

After some tests, I managed to discover the Reminder and Notes activity types:

• com.apple.reminders.RemindersEditorExtension
• com.apple.mobilenotes.SharingExtension

Unfortunately, passing those two types into ".excludedActivityTypes" didn't make any difference.

OLD WAY:

Update: I've found a better way to do it.

The first solution I've posted doesn't work in some cases, thus shouldn't be considered stable.

Header:

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@interface UISocialActivity : NSObject

- (id)activityType;

@end

@interface UIActivityViewController (Private)

- (id)_availableActivitiesForItems:(id)arg1;

@end

@interface ActivityViewController : UIActivityViewController

@end

@implementation ActivityViewController

- (id)_availableActivitiesForItems:(id)arg1
{
    id activities = [super _availableActivitiesForItems:arg1];
    NSMutableArray *filteredActivities = [NSMutableArray array];

    [activities enumerateObjectsUsingBlock:^(UISocialActivity*  _Nonnull obj, NSUInteger idx, BOOL * _Nonnull stop) {
    
        if (![[obj activityType] isEqualToString:@"com.apple.reminders.RemindersEditorExtension"] &&
            ![[obj activityType] isEqualToString:@"com.apple.mobilenotes.SharingExtension"]) {
            [filteredActivities addObject:obj];
        }
    
    }];

    return [NSArray arrayWithArray:filteredActivities];
    }
    @end

NEW WAY:

Header:

@interface UIActivityViewController (Private)

- (BOOL)_shouldExcludeActivityType:(UIActivity*)activity;

@end

@interface ActivityViewController : UIActivityViewController

@end

Implementation:

@implementation ActivityViewController

- (BOOL)_shouldExcludeActivityType:(UIActivity *)activity
{
    if ([[activity activityType] isEqualToString:@"com.apple.reminders.RemindersEditorExtension"] ||
        [[activity activityType] isEqualToString:@"com.apple.mobilenotes.SharingExtension"]) {
        return YES;
    }
    return [super _shouldExcludeActivityType:activity];
}

@end

"Illegal", but it works.

It would be great to know if it actually passes Apple validation.

Anybody stumbling in this post in 2019. The key for the Reminders extension changed with iOS 13 and is now:

(rawValue: "com.apple.reminders.sharingextension")

You can not exclude these since Notes and Reminders are not declared as UIActivities in the Apple Documentation. Only a problem as of iOS9 and hopefully Apple will provide this option. The declared UIActivities until this moment are:

UIActivityTypePostToFacebook, 
UIActivityTypePostToTwitter, 
UIActivityTypePostToWeibo, 
UIActivityTypeMessage, 
UIActivityTypeMail, 
UIActivityTypePrint, 
UIActivityTypeCopyToPasteboard, 
UIActivityTypeAssignToContact,
UIActivityTypeSaveToCameraRoll,
UIActivityTypeAddToReadingList,
UIActivityTypePostToFlickr,
UIActivityTypePostToVimeo,
UIActivityTypePostToTencentWeibo,
UIActivityTypeAirDrop

Thank you for this! On xcode 8.1, swift 3, I was able to use to get:

UIActivityType(rawValue: "com.apple.reminders.RemindersEditorExtension"), UIActivityType(rawValue: "com.apple.mobilenotes.SharingExtension"),

For Swift3+, there is no need for any Private API hacks. Simply use the public "excludedTypes" array on the UIActivityViewController. As there is still no UIActivityType for these (as they're Apple's built extensions), you need to refer to it via String. You could use this format for any third-party sharing extensions too.

e.g.

let avc = UIActivityViewController(activityItems: ["my item"], applicationActivities: nil)
avc.excludedActivityTypes = [ .copyToPasteboard, 
    UIActivityType(rawValue: "com.apple.reminders.RemindersEditorExtension"),
    UIActivityType(rawValue: "com.apple.mobilenotes.SharingExtension") ]

avc.completionWithItemsHandler = { (activity, success, items, error) in
        print("AVC finished \(success) \(activity as Optional) \(items as Optional) \(error as Optional)")
    }
present(avc, animated: true, completion: nil)

Only way I have found is to create your own custom activities, pass parameters to them directly (not through the activity sheet) and then pass some random variable (not String, URL, Image) through the activity sheet.

MyCustomPinterestShareActivity* pinterest = [[MyCustomPinterestShareActivity alloc] init];
MyCustomFacebookGroupsActivity* facebook = [[MyCustomFacebookGroupsActivity alloc] init];
MyCustomInstagramActivity* instagram = [[MyCustomInstagramActivity alloc] init];

NSArray *activities = @[facebook,instagram,pinterest];

NSArray *activityItems = @[someVarThatCanBeWhateverTypeJustNotStringURLOrImg];

UIActivityViewController *activityView = [[UIActivityViewController alloc] initWithActivityItems:activityItems
                                                                           applicationActivities:activities];

But then again, why would you want to use the ActivityViewController in the first place if you can't use any of the functionality... Hopefully there will be a better solution soon

I could not send _shouldExcludeActivityType to Super as recommended by Matteo Pacini, but this is how I could come around this:

@interface CustomActivityViewController()

- (BOOL)_shouldExcludeActivityType:(UIActivity *)activity;

@end

@implementation CustomActivityViewController

(...)

- (BOOL)_shouldExcludeActivityType:(UIActivity *)activity{

    if([[activity activityType]   isEqualToString:@"com.apple.reminders.RemindersEditorExtension"] || [[activity activityType] isEqualToString:@"com.apple.mobilenotes.SharingExtension"]){
    
    return YES;
}
    
    return [[super excludedActivityTypes]containsObject:activity.activityType];

 }