A feature of the iPhone SDK allows you to bind your application to a custom url scheme. This allows others to trigger the opening of your app and opens the possibilities of passing data between apps.

Here’s a quick tutorial on how to update your Info.plist to register your own url.

List of iPhone apps with custom url shortcuts along with instructions on how to use them.

Safari

• http://
• https://
• ftp:// e.g. ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/

Phone Call

• tel://123456789

SMS / Text Message

• sms:123456789 – There is no // in the SMS scheme.
• Note: Currently no method to specify a body for the message.

Send an Email

• mailto:foo@example.com?cc=bar@example.com&subject=Greetings&body=Wish%20you%20were%20here!

AppStore

Like YouTube and Google Maps, certain http urls get hijacked by the build in Apple apps. This will open the Appstore app.

• http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=291586600&mt=8

Maps

Feed Reader

Twitteriffic / Twitteriffic Premium

A Twitter client by The Icon Factory

• Launch  - twitterrific://
• Start a tweet –  twitterrific:///post?message="message body"

Twinkle

Site Check

Phishing Protection for Mobile Safari by Kevin O’Regan –

• Launch – checkit://
• Check current url by prefixing with checkit:// e.g. checkit://http://quinagh.com

Credit Card Terminal

Online CC processing by InnerFence

This is one of the first iphone apps to provide a return path when it is invoked. See this post on their blog for more details and some security caveats.

• Launch – com-innerfence-ccterminal://
• See integration documentation for return url and other parameters (Developer integration docs)

Yummy

by Stephen Darlington

• Launch – yummy:URL
• yummy://post?url=${encoded url}&title=${encoded title}

Appigo Todo

Todo list management by Appigo

• Launch – appigotodo://
• Create a new todo - appigotodo://com.example.xyzapp/import?name=Buy%20some%20milk&note=Stop%20on%20the%20way%20home%20from%20work.&due-date=2009-07-16&priority=1&repeat=101
• See full document on linking to Todo.

Appigo Notebook

Notepad by Appigo

• Launch appigonotebook://
• More…
• Review (148Apps.com)

Darkslide (formerly Exposure)

ChatCo

English/Japanese IRC client

• irc://irc.example.domain/roomName
• irc://irc.example.domain/Nickname@roomName
• irc://irc.example.domain/Nickname!Realname@roomName

Eureka

Wikipedia Viewer by  Keishi Hattori

• Substitute eureka for http e.g. eureka://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple

Wikiamo

Wikipedia viewer by Satoshi Nakagawa
First one seen with 2 url schemes registered

• Substitute http for wikipedia or wikiamo
• wikipedia:// or wikiamo://

Ships² Viewer

Game by Universalis

• Launch with ships2://

Geopher Lite

Google Earth

 by Google

• Launch with comgoogleearth://

 

Alocola

by Dan Grigsby / Mobile Orchard

An iPhone location web-helper application 

• Launch with alocola://
• More…

 

Kindle

by Amazon

Amazon Kindle book reader

• Launch with kindle:/home

UniDict Engine & SpellChecker

by Enfour

Enfour has a number of apps that support round-trip URLs -add the sender app’s URL to the ‘Back’ button.

“UniDict Engine” (used for dictionaries like “American Heritage” & “Oxford Deluxe“) allows lookups from other applications as well as links between dictionaries.

“SpellChecker” also has round trip URLs. This lets apps send text to be checked with the results sent back to the app that made the call.

• Contact Enfour for details.

Skype

by Skype

VOIP Calls and Chat

• Launch with skype:
• Make a call skype:echo123?call – ‘echo123′ is the skype test number.
• Make a call skype:+353991234567?call – Full tel number including country code.
• more…

Ebay

by Ebay

Auctions

• Launch with ebay:

Facebook

by Facebook

Social Networking

• Launch with fb//:

EirText Pro

by Vincent Coyne –

SMS Client

• Launch with eirtext//:

iVersion

by Ben Reeves

Fully featured SVN Client for iPhone and iPod Touch

• Launch with svn://
• Open a session svn://user:pass@host.com/path/trunk

Round Tuit

by Leigh McCulloch

Use Round Tuit to keep a quick and easy list of things you need to get done. Add new items, delete items and order your items according to what you need to do next and make a productive difference to your day.

• Launch with roundtuit://
• Add Todo items roundtuit://add/[todo item 1]/[todo item 2]/[todo item 3]/

Gowalla

by Alamofire, Inc

Share your experiences through Gowalla with your Facebook & Twitter friends

• Launch with gowalla://
• Open spot 123 gowalla://spots/123
• Open user 123 gowalla://users/123
• Open trip 123 gowalla://users/123

Print Magic

by Wellala Inc

“Print Magic is the first application for the Apple iPhone & iTouch products, which allows for wireless printing through IPP on the latest OS system”

• Launch with print:// Data in the pasteboard will be printed.

Birdfeed

by BirdFeed

Twitter Client

• Launch with x-birdfeed://
• More options available

MyAppSales

by Dr. Touch

Download your iTunes Connect reports. (Not available from the AppStore, sold as source fo you to build and run via your developer account)

• Launch with myappsales://
• Go to reports myappsales://reports
• Go to specific report myappsales://reports/report_date=2010-01-01&region=0&type=0

Sounds real (sound bank)

by Série Blanche

Sounds real (sound bank)

• Launch with soundsreal://

Simply Tweet

by Hwee Boon Yar

Twitter client with push notifications

• Launch with simplytweet:
• Friends simplytweet:?timeline=friends
• Mentions simplytweet:?timeline=mentions
• Direct messages simplytweet:?timeline=directmessages
• Starts a new draft simplytweet:?link={URL}&text={text}

Echofon

by Naan Studio

Twitter client

• Launch with echofon:///post?’+window.location (Echofon)
• Launch with echofonpro:///post/username?’+window.loaction (Echofon Pro)

Good Reader

by Good.iWare Ltd

Download files for use offline

• Launch from another app gropen:// (help)
• Download files ghttp://, ghttps://, grhttp://, grhttps://, giwhttp:// or giwhttps:// (help)

Pocket Universe

by John Kennedy

Pocket Universe supports the following options (more to come), which makes it possible to link to planets or points in the sky from a web page and then ’see’ them in the app’s planetarium mode. Motion tracking mode must be off for these to function as expected.

• Launch and view astronomy://?goto=[sun|moon|mercury|venus|mars|jupiter|saturn|uranus|neptune|pluto]
• Time astronomy://[?day=xx][?month=xx][?year=xxxx][?hour=xx][?minute=xx][?second=xx]
• Altitude & Azimuth astronomy://?alt=xxx?azm=xxx
• astronomy://?ra=xx?dec=xx