Apple’s macOS Apps Are the Weak Link
Ubiquitous linking is needed, and possible
Apple’s macOS is renowned for its elegant user interface, performance, and developer ecosystem. But when it comes to enabling users to meaningfully connect information — to create links between thoughts, projects, emails, and pieces of content — macOS is falling short. The problem is especially troubling for knowledge workers, who depend on what I’ve called hyper-relevant contextual information retrieval, or “HR-CIR”. This principle, grounded in cognitive science, is essential for modern knowledge work.
Despite its polish and promise, macOS still lacks overt support for robust, user-friendly linking. This violates both the spirit and the practical recommendations of the Manifesto for Ubiquitous Linking, which I authored to encourage software platforms and developers to address what I call the meta-access problem: the difficulty of re-accessing information that is related to your contextual focus.
Take Apple’s own macOS apps. In Notes, Messages, Reminders, Freeform, and even Mail, there is no “Copy Link” menu option that would let users create a persistent, shareable link to a specific item. This is a fundamental limitation for anyone who wants to organize information across documents and applications. In many cases, there’s no straightforward way — via the UI or automation — to get reliable, cross-device links.
Even when underlying identifiers do exist — and clearly they must — Apple keeps them hidden. For example, when you receive a date in a text via Messages on macOS, you can click it to create a Calendar event. That event includes a hidden link back to the original message, something like: sms://open?message-guid=ABCBB940-08A7-4FC8-8FDF-DF32CEB4234E But this linking mechanism is entirely private. There is no public API or automation hook to retrieve message GUIDs. So while Apple engineers can build this feature into Calendar, third-party developers and users are locked out.
This two-tier system creates a structural imbalance. Apple apps get privileged access to internal mechanisms that allow for deep integration, while third-party developers — and power users — are left to work in the dark. Apple’s Notes app, for instance, clearly tracks and syncs notes across devices. That requires stable internal identifiers. And in fact, there is a (clunky) API to obtain those identifiers. But Apple does not provide a standard notes:// URL scheme, nor does it expose a UI to “Copy Link” to a note. The only built-in method for obtaining a link is through awkward use of backlinks.
Thankfully, Hookmark works around this limitation. It uses Apple’s APIs to construct hook://notes links, enabling users to copy persistent links to specific Notes and connect them to other content. The same is true for Calendar entries, Mail messages, and even Photos. Hookmark leverages Apple’s automation and scripting frameworks to create hook:// links across many link-friendly apps, effectively turning macOS into a much more cognitively supportive platform.
But for HR-CIR apps like Hookmark to fully support all kinds of digital content, Apple must do more. The Messages app remains particularly frustrating: users still cannot link to individual messages at all. Nor is there a documented, public API for doing so — even though Apple uses message GUIDs internally, as shown above. Imagine needing to reference an email thread for legal reasons. Or perhaps you discussed a detailed technical issue with your team-mate. Scrolling back months of messages is just not practical. Why can’t we just link to a message, Freeform boards, etc.?
The situation is equally frustrating in the Music and Podcasts apps. Want to get a link to a specific song or episode? Control-click the item, dig into a popup menu, navigate to the “Share” submenu, and only then can you select “Copy Link” — which yields a bare URL without a title.
There’s no AppleScript or Shortcuts action to do this either. One couldn’t add more hurdles to linking if one tried. And without a Copy Link menu item in the app’s menu bar, even UI scripting is impossible.
This design prevents users and developers from creating what I’ve called omni-links: links that can refer to any digital object — across applications — and be invoked from anywhere. Omni-links are foundational to HR-CIR. They allow users to fluidly jump from a note to a file, from a task to a message, from an idea to a relevant reference — without losing context or momentum.
To be fair, macOS is not completely closed. AppleScript, Automator, and more recently Shortcuts have created powerful automation opportunities. Apple Mail, to its credit, exposes RFC-5322 compliant message IDs that allow linking across apps. Hookmark uses this API to enable users to copy shareable links to emails. But so much Apple software is not link-friendly.
In my own correspondence with Steve Jobs in 2010, I highlighted the importance of linking for cognitive productivity. Steve even requested a white paper, which I provided — over thirty pages detailing how software can support higher-order thinking. Had Jobs lived longer, we might have seen more progress in this domain. As it stands, however, macOS still lacks the basic tools needed to treat information as linkable, contextual, and interconnected.
Apple has done the hard work of making object identifiers internally accessible — we know this because its own apps use them behind the scenes. But by withholding those capabilities from the public automation of many of its apps, Apple keeps its platform less useful than it could be. A simple fix — surfacing “Copy Link” in each app’s UI and exposing public APIs — would open the door to a more interconnected and cognitively supportive macOS.
What’s Already Possible — and What’s Next
Despite the frustrations with Apple’s own apps, the future of linking on macOS is not hypothetical — it’s already taking shape. Thanks to macOS’s automation infrastructure and a growing community of thoughtful developers, many apps (such as these) today are already link-friendly. These apps make it possible to copy robust, automation-accessible links to their content — enabling users to move fluidly between tools and ideas.
With apps like these and tools like Hookmark, macOS users can already start building a more interconnected digital environment — one that respects context, supports memory, and enhances creative and analytical thought. This is the world envisioned by the Manifesto for Ubiquitous Linking: a world where content isn’t trapped in silos, and where your digital resources can be summoned — and understood — in context.
Imagine if Apple fully embraced this model. Imagine if every Mac app included a consistent “Copy Link” command in the edit menu, and every digital object — from messages to media — had a stable, linkable identity. Imagine if Apple gave third-party developers access to the same internal identifiers, via an API, that its own apps already use. The benefits to users, developers, educators, researchers, and creators would be profound.
We don’t need to imagine the technology. It’s here. What’s needed now is the will — and a collective push for a more connected macOS.
Terms
The meta-access problem: the difficulty of re-accessing information that is related to your contextual focus. This is explained in my Cognitive Productivity: Using Knowledge to Become Profoundly Effective.
Omni-links: links to anything, not just web links, but app links to.
RFC-5322: “Internet Message Format” including e-mail IDs.
HR-CIR: Hyper-Relevant Contextual Information Retrieval (e.g., Hookmark’s context window).
Note to developers and readers
Are you a developer? Help build a more interoperable and cognitively supportive ecosystem. Learn what makes an app link-friendly and expose basic linking features (like “Copy Link” and automation-accessible URLs).
Are you a user who cares about better tools for thinking? Join others calling for change. Sign the Manifesto for Ubiquitous Linking. It was signed by David Sparks, Eric Böhnisch-Volkmann, Ken Case, Mark Bernstein, Michael Tsai, Rich Siegel, Tim Stringer and many other visionaries. Please show your support for a more connected macOS.