Use case: When users open any URL in iOS Safari and tap the share button, the share extension can automatically receive the PDF version of the webpage from Safari.
We've observed that the system Markup app and the Apple Books app can automatically receive a PDF file from Safari. However, our custom share extension only receives the webpage URL.
While iOS Safari provides an "Options" button to manually share a webpage as a PDF, this feature is not intuitive and requires user education.
Could someone help to identify the correct NSExtensionActivationRule (or any other solution) that would allow our share extension to directly receive the PDF snapshot from Safari without requiring additional user actions?
There's no supported way for you to force select pdf for share with the APIs currently available. If you'd like us to consider adding the necessary functionality, please file an enhancement request using Feedback Assistant. Once you file the request, please post the FB number here. If you're not familiar with how to file enhancement requests, take a look at Bug Reporting: How and Why?
You can get the URL and render your own PDF but it is a code level workaround that you must implement yourself.