For shortcuts, scripts, and other apps

One link, and a new message is open in Postfach.

Postfach has a link of its own, postfach://. With it, a shortcut on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, a script, a web page, or your own app opens Postfach, or starts a new message with the recipients, the subject, and the text filled in. The message waits for you: a link never sends anything.

Download Examples

From Postfach 1.7.3, on Mac, iPhone, and iPad.

The links.

Two things a link can do: open Postfach, or open a new message in it.

Link	What it does
`postfach://`	Opens Postfach. On the Mac with every window closed, it opens the main window.
`postfach://compose?to=…&subject=…&body=…`	Opens a new message with the recipients, the subject, and the text the link names.
`postfach://compose/anna@example.org?subject=…`	The same, with the addresses before the question mark, where a `mailto:` link has them. So `mailto:` becomes a Postfach link when `postfach://compose/` takes its place.

What a new message can have.

The fields are a mailto: link's, read the same way. Write each value percent-encoded: a space is %20, a new line %0A, and an ampersand inside a text %26. A plus stays a plus.

The message is written from the account of the mailbox you are in, as New Message is, and you can choose another under From before you send it.

to, cc, bcc: one address or several, separated by commas, with a name if you like: Anna%20Keller%20%3Canna@example.org%3E
subject: one line
body: the text, line breaks included
Up to 100 recipients, 1,000 characters of subject, and 100,000 of text. Anything else a link names, a sender or an attachment, is left out

Examples.

The same link works on the iPhone, the iPad, and the Mac.

A shortcut that writes to the same person

In the Shortcuts app, add the action Open URLs with a link like this one. Put the shortcut on your Home Screen, and a message to your team is one tap away.

postfach://compose?to=team@example.org&subject=Weekly%20report

Send what you share to Postfach

A shortcut that takes text from the share sheet: URL Encode the text, put it into a link with the action Text, and hand the link to Open URLs. In any app, Share then starts a message in Postfach with the shared text in it.

postfach://compose?subject=Shared&body=[URL Encoded Text]

A `mailto:` link, in Postfach

On the iPhone and the iPad, a mailto: link opens the mail app chosen in Settings. A shortcut with Replace Text turns one into a Postfach link: find mailto:, replace it with postfach://compose/, then Open URLs. On the Mac you need none of this: choose Postfach in Mail › Settings › General › Default email reader.

mailto:anna@example.org?subject=Hello
postfach://compose/anna@example.org?subject=Hello

From the Terminal or a script on the Mac

The open command hands a link to Postfach, and so does AppleScript's open location. A script that builds or tests something can leave the message ready for you to look over.

open "postfach://compose?to=team@example.org&subject=Build%20finished&body=All%20tests%20passed."

osascript -e 'open location "postfach://compose?subject=Hello"'

From your own app

Encode every value yourself, leaving only letters and digits as they are. URLComponents leaves an ampersand in a value as it is, which ends the field. To ask first whether Postfach is installed, add postfach to LSApplicationQueriesSchemes in your app's Info.plist and call canOpenURL.

func encoded(_ text: String) -> String {
    text.addingPercentEncoding(withAllowedCharacters: .alphanumerics) ?? ""
}

let link = "postfach://compose"
    + "?to=\(encoded("anna@example.org"))"
    + "&subject=\(encoded("Build 185"))"
    + "&body=\(encoded("It's on TestFlight & ready."))"

if let url = URL(string: link) {
    UIApplication.shared.open(url)    // NSWorkspace.shared.open(url) on the Mac
}

On a web page

A link on a page opens Postfach for a reader who has it. Everyone else gets nothing, so beside a page for the public, a mailto: link is the better choice.

<a href="postfach://compose?to=support@example.org">Write with Postfach</a>

What a link does not do.

Anyone can write a link, on any page or in any app, so a link only ever fills in a message. You see it, and you decide.

It sends nothing: you press Send yourself
It attaches no file and does not choose the account a message is sent from
It does not read, search, or open your mail
It gives the app that opened it no answer back
With no account that can send, it opens Postfach and nothing more
It does not make Postfach the default mail app on the iPhone and the iPad, where a mailto: link still opens the one chosen in Settings
The iPhone and the iPad may ask whether to open Postfach before they hand it a link

Get Postfach.

On Mac, iPhone, and iPad. From the App Store, one purchase for all three.