Delve into the world of built-in app and system services available to developers. Discuss leveraging these services to enhance your app's functionality and user experience.

Posts under General subtopic

Post

Replies

Boosts

Views

Activity

Message Filter Extension not working on iOS 26.0 and above
Hello, We are using a Message Filter Extension (ILMessageFilterExtension) to classify SMS/iMessage content (junk vs allow) in our app. After testing on iOS 26.1, we want to confirm whether there are any behavioral, performance, or API-level changes that impact message filtering, such as: Changes in how often the filter extension is invoked Differences in classification accuracy or system overrides New privacy, entitlement, or permission-related restrictions Execution time limits or memory constraints Any changes specific to iMessage vs SMS filtering We did not find any explicit mention of Message Filter Extensions in the iOS 26.1 release notes and would like to confirm whether the existing behavior from previous iOS versions remains unchanged. Has Apple introduced any known or undocumented changes in iOS 26.1 that developers should be aware of when supporting Message Filter Extensions? Sometime I also found unpredictable behaviour on iOS version 18.5 or below, like sometime it works but sometimes starts working. Thanks in advance for any guidance.
1
0
139
3w
iOS 26: Unable to Transition from CallKit Screen to App when remoteHandle is nil or empty string
Hello, I am developing an internal phone application using CallKit. I am experiencing an issue with the behavior of remoteHandle settings in iOS 26 and would appreciate any insights you can provide towards a solution. 1. Problem Description When an iPhone running iOS 26 is in a sleep state and receives a VoIP incoming call where remoteHandle is set to nil or an empty string (@""), we are unable to transition to our application (the UIExtension provided by the provider) from the CallKit UI's "More" (…) button after answering the call. 2. Conditions and Symptoms OS Version: iOS 26 Initial State: iPhone is in a sleep state Call Type: An unsolicited(unknown number) VoIP incoming call where the CXCallUpdate's remoteHandle is set to either nil or [[CXHandle alloc] initWithType:CXHandleTypePhoneNumber value:@""] Symptoms: After answering the VoIP call by sliding the button, selecting the "More" (…) button displayed on the CallKit screen does not launch our application's UIExtension (custom UI), and the iPhone instead stay to the CallKit screen. 3. Previous Behavior (Up to iOS 18) Up to iOS 18, even when remoteHandle was set to an empty string using the following code, the application would transition normally from "More" after answering an incoming call from a sleep state. CXCallUpdate *update = [[CXCallUpdate alloc] init]; update.remoteHandle = [[CXHandle alloc] initWithType:CXHandleTypePhoneNumber value:@""]; [provider reportNewIncomingCallWithUUID:uuid update:update completion:completion]; 4. Unsuccessful Attempts to Resolve The issue remained unresolved after changing the handling for unsolicited(unknown number) incoming calls as follows: CXCallUpdate *update = [[CXCallUpdate alloc] init]; update.remoteHandle = nil; // Set remoteHandle to nil [provider reportNewIncomingCallWithUUID:uuid update:update completion:completion]; 5. Workaround (Temporary) The problem can be resolved, and the application can transition successfully, by setting a dummy numerical value (e.g., "0") for the value in remoteHandle using the following code: CXCallUpdate *update = [[CXCallUpdate alloc] init]; update.remoteHandle = [[CXHandle alloc] initWithType:CXHandleTypePhoneNumber value:@"0"]; // Set a dummy numerical value [provider reportNewIncomingCallWithUUID:uuid update:update completion:completion]; 6. Additional Information If remoteHandle is correctly set with the caller's number (i.e., not an unsolicited(unknown number) call; e.g., value:@"1234567890"), the application transitions normally from the "More" button after answering an incoming call from a sleep state, even in iOS 26. The above issue does not occur when answering incoming calls while the iPhone is in an active state (not sleeping). 7. Questions Have there been any other reports of similar behavior? Should this be considered a bug in CallKit for iOS 26? Should I make file a new Feedback report? Is there a suitable method to resolve this issue when the caller ID is unsolicited (nil or an empty string)? This problem significantly impacts user operations as end-users are unable to perform essential in-app actions such as hold or transfer after answering an unsolicited(unknown number) call from a sleep state. We are eager to find an urgent solution and would appreciate any information or advice you can provide. Thank you for your assistance.
5
0
453
3w
FamilyControls on Mac Catalyst — can’t authorize due to sandbox; does this make ManagedSettings/DeviceActivity unusable?
Hi DTS / Apple engineers, We’re attempting to extending our screen time app target to Mac Catalyst. On iOS, FamilyControls works as expected (AuthorizationCenter + FamilyActivityPicker, then ManagedSettings shields + DeviceActivity monitoring/reporting). On Mac Catalyst: The project builds with FamilyControls/DeviceActivity/ManagedSettings capabilities enabled. But attempting to request FamilyControls authorization (or present FamilyActivityPicker) fails at runtime. We see errors similar to: Failed to get service proxy: The connection to service named com.apple.FamilyControlsAgent was invalidated: failed at lookup with error 159 - Sandbox restriction. And our app stays authorizationStatus == .notDetermined, with the request failing. We saw an Apple engineer suggestion to “disable App Sandbox”, but Mac Catalyst apps appear to always be sandboxed, so we can’t disable it. Questions: Is FamilyControls authorization supported on Mac Catalyst today? If so, what entitlement/capability is required specifically for Catalyst/macOS? If FamilyControls auth cannot succeed on Catalyst, does that mean ManagedSettings shields and DeviceActivity monitoring/reporting are effectively unusable on Catalyst (since they depend on that authorization)? Is there an Apple‑recommended approach for a Catalyst “portal” app that mirrors an iOS child device’s restrictions, or is local enforcement on Catalyst intentionally unsupported? Any guidance (and any official docs that clarify current platform support) would be hugely appreciated.
0
0
115
4w
iOS fails to fetch AASA file for IDNs
Subject: iOS Fails to Fetch AASA File for Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) in Unicode or Punycode Format Dear Apple Developer Relations Team And Community Members, We are reporting a critical bug in the iOS Associated Domains feature that prevents Universal Links from working for apps using Internationalized Domain Names (IDN). Problem Description: The iOS operating system does not attempt to download the apple-app-site-association (AASA) file for domains containing non-ASCII characters (e.g., diacritics, Cyrillic). This failure occurs regardless of whether the domain is specified in the app's entitlements in its human-readable Unicode format (e.g., montréal.ca) or its encoded Punycode format (e.g., xn--montral-fya.ca, xn--e1afka0abm4b.xn--p1ai). Without fetching and validating this file, Universal Links are not activated, and the system fails to establish a connection between the website and our app. Steps to Reproduce: Create an app with the Associated Domains entitlement enabled. Add an IDN to the entitlement. We tested both formats: Format A (Unicode): applinks://montréal.ca Format B (Punycode): applinks://xn--montral-fya.ca Host a valid AASA file on our server at the correct, accessible well-known URLs for both domain representations: For montréal.ca: https://montréal.ca/.well-known/apple-app-site-association and https://xn--montral-fya.ca/.well-known/apple-app-site-association Install the app on a device running the latest iOS version. Monitor network traffic using a tool like Charles Proxy. Observed Result: No HTTP GET request is made to any of the AASA URLs for the domains montréal.ca (in either Unicode or Punycode format) upon app installation. The system does not initiate the domain validation process. In contrast, for a standard ASCII domain (e.g., applinks://example.com), the AASA fetch is triggered immediately and is observed in the network log. Expected Result: iOS should correctly resolve the Internationalized Domain Name (whether specified in Unicode or Punycode format in the entitlement) and perform an HTTP GET request to fetch the AASA file from the /.well-known path, identical to its behavior for ASCII domains. Evidence & Configuration: Our server is configured correctly: SSL certificates are valid, the AASA file is served with the correct application/json MIME type, and is directly accessible via a browser or curl. The AASA file's syntax has been validated and is correct. The issue is reproducible on the latest versions of iOS. Impact: This bug blocks a core platform feature for millions of users in regions that use non-Latin scripts (e.g., France, Russia, China, Arab states). It makes it impossible to use Universal Links with our primary domains, severely degrading the user experience and forcing us to seek suboptimal workarounds like registering separate ASCII domains. Request: We kindly request that you investigate and log this issue as a bug in iOS and forward it to the appropriate engineering team for a fix in an upcoming update. We are prepared to provide any additional information, demo projects, or server access to assist in diagnostics. Thank you for your attention to this serious matter.
5
0
467
Jan ’26
App Clip Advanced Card with URL Redirects - Custom Branding Per Location
Hello Apple Developer Community, I'm working on implementing App Clips for a restaurant platform and need guidance on configuring custom App Clip experiences using URL redirects. Context: We have multiple restaurant locations, each needing branded App Clip cards (custom image, title, subtitle). With hundreds of tables across many venues, creating individual App Clip experiences for each table in App Store Connect isn't scalable. Currently: Using a single, generic App Clip experience for all locations => https://example.com Desired Flow: Customer scans QR code at restaurant table ↓ https://example.com/123 ↓ iOS fetches URL ↓ Server responds with 302 redirect ↓ https://example.com/brands/le-pain-quotidien?venue=abc123 ↓ iOS displays App Clip card with "Le Pain Quotidien" branding ↓ User taps "Open" → App Clip launches with correct context What I've Tried: Configured multiple App Clip experiences in App Store Connect Implemented 302 redirects from short URLs to branded URLs Tested various redirect configurations without success Questions: Does iOS fetch and follow redirects before displaying the App Clip card, or does it only use the originally scanned URL? What App Clip experience URLs should be configured in App Store Connect for this redirect scenario? Are there specific HTTP headers or redirect requirements for iOS to properly recognize the final destination? Should the App Clip experience be registered for example.com/123 or example.com/brands/le-pain-quotidien? Reference: Apple's documentation suggests this is possible: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/AppClip/configuring-the-launch-experience-of-your-app-clip#Use-short-URLs-or-redirects Has anyone successfully implemented custom App Clip cards using URL redirects? Any guidance on the correct configuration approach would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
2
0
121
Jan ’26
URL(fileURLWithPath:) behavior change in iOS 26 - Tilde (~) in filename causes unexpected path resolution
Environment: Xcode 26 iOS 26 Also tested on iOS 18 (working correctly) Description: I'm experiencing a behavior change with URL(fileURLWithPath:) when the filename starts with a tilde (~) character. On iOS 18, passing a filename like ~MyFile.txt to URL(fileURLWithPath:) treats the tilde as a literal character. However, on iOS 26, the same code resolves the tilde as the home directory, resulting in unexpected output. Minimal Example: let filename = "~MyFile.txt" let url = URL(fileURLWithPath: filename) print(url.lastPathComponent) Expected Result (iOS 18): ~MyFile.txt Actual Result (iOS 26): 924AF0C4-C3CD-417A-9D5F-733FBB8FCF29 The tilde is being resolved to the app's container directory, and lastPathComponent returns the container UUID instead of the filename. Questions: 1. Is this an intentional behavior change in iOS 26? 2. Is there documentation about this change? 3. What is the recommended approach for extracting filename components when the filename may contain special characters like ~? Workaround: Using NSString.lastPathComponent works correctly on both iOS versions: let filename = "~MyFile.txt" let result = (filename as NSString).lastPathComponent // Returns: "~MyFile.txt" ✅ Is this the recommended approach going forward?
9
0
496
Jan ’26
Can we decode twice in the same session with unarchiver?
In a class, I call the following (edited to simplify, but it matches the real case). If I do this: func getData() -> someClass? { _ = someURL.startAccessingSecurityScopedResource() if let data = NSData(contentsOf: someURL as URL) { do { let unarchiver = try NSKeyedUnarchiver(forReadingFrom: data as Data) print((unarchiver.decodeObject(of: [NSArray.self, someClass.self /* and few others*/], forKey: oneKey) as? someClass)?.aProperty) if let result = unarchiver.decodeObject(of: [NSArray.self, someClass.self /* same other types*/], forKey: oneKey) as? someClass { unarchiver.finishDecoding() print("unarchived success") return result } else { unarchiver.finishDecoding() print("unarchiving failed") return someClass() } } catch { return nil } } I get a failure on log : unarchiving failed But if I comment out the print(unarchiver.decodeObject) - line 8, it works and I get unarchived success // print((unarchiver.decodeObject(of: [NSArray.self, someClass.self /* and few others*/], forKey: oneKey) as? someClass)?.aProperty) However, when I do exactly the same for another class (I've compared line by line to be sure), it works even with the print statement. What could be happening here ?
3
0
143
Jan ’26
Device Activity Reports are returning a blank screen in release mode
There is an inconsistent issue when views are rendered from the Device Activity Report Extension. This issue is noticeable only on release versions and it works fine in debug mode. Around 80% of the times, the Report Views return blank screen and this is only the case when a weekly/monthly filter is used. Although, it works as expected for daily report views. My questions are: How are all the Report Activity Views working fine in debug mode but not in release mode? How the daily activity filter works fine in the release mode but the weekly/monthly filters don't work? Is this because of a memory limit issue in the extension? As of now, I have the family-controls(distribution) entitlement only for the app and for the extensions I only have family-controls(development) entitlement. Do I need to request for family-controls(Distribution) entitlement even for the extensions? I have seen threads on the forum mentioning the blank screen issue associated with the DeviceActivityReport but haven't found a solution to it. Any suggestions/feedback would be of great help, thanks.
4
3
1.4k
Jan ’26
NSURL - Are Cached Resource Values Really Automatically Removed After Each Pass Through the Run Loop?
The documentation says: The caching behavior of the NSURL and CFURL APIs differ. For NSURL, all cached values (not temporary values) are automatically removed after each pass through the run loop. You only need to call the removeCachedResourceValueForKey: method when you want to clear the cache within a single execution of the run loop. The CFURL functions, on the other hand, do not automatically clear cached resource values. The client has complete control over the cache lifetimes, and you must use CFURLClearResourcePropertyCacheForKey or CFURLClearResourcePropertyCache to clear cached resource values. https://developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/nsurl/removeallcachedresourcevalues()?language=objc Is this really true? In my experience I've had to explicitly remove cached resource values via -removeAllCachedResourceValues or removeCachedResourceValueForKey: otherwise the URL contains stale values. For example on a URL that no longer exists I attempted to read NSURLIsHiddenKey and the last value was already cached. Instead of getting a NSFileNoSuchFileError I get the old cache value unless explicitly call -removeCachedResourceValueForKey: first and I'm fairly certain the value was cached on a previous run loop churn.
7
0
617
Jan ’26
iOS app not getting killed after removing from app stack manually.
I am having an app in which we are using NEHotspotHelper to detect wifi changes. when I try to kill the app and network change detected, we are seeing logs in NEHotspotHelper* module and after that we are able see the logs indicating app launched in background. [Application] application(_:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:), UIApplicationState: 2 But when I checked in the app stack, I couldn't find the app. Then I clicked icon to launch the app, it launched without splash screen as if it came from background. Need your support to understand this is expected behaviour.
3
0
214
Jan ’26
App Logout / Termination Behavior When Changing Bluetooth Settings With and Without Multitasking
I would like to share an issue observed during app development. When changing Bluetooth settings from the system Settings app without using multitasking, the app does not terminate but instead logs the user out. However, when changing Bluetooth settings while using multitasking, the app terminates completely. In this context, I would like to understand: Whether there is any system behavior that causes the app to refresh or restart when Bluetooth settings are changed And why the app behavior differs in a multitasking environment, particularly in terms of app lifecycle handling Any insights into these behaviors would be greatly appreciated.
3
0
110
Jan ’26
App Clips Causing CPSErrorDomain error 2 on Non App Clip URLs
Unexpected behavior encountered when scanning NFC tags. Imagine a link shortener web service where users can create lots of different URLs that are hosted on the same domain eg, https://short.com/unique-path The service has optional App Clip capability -- users can select any of their links and have the service create an App Clip for the selected link(s). Users can encode their URLs into NFC tags and have their customers scan NFC tags. Let's take just two URLs for example: https://short.com/foo https://short.com/bar The /foo link does have an App Clip associated with it while /bar does not have it. Each link has been encoded into appropriate NFC tag. Expected behavior when scanning from an iPhone: /foo -- shows an App Clip popup. /bar -- shows a "Open in Safari" default notification. What's actually happening /foo -- opens App Clip poput with correct metadata (title, subtitle, image) which is totally expected behavior. /bar (the one that doesn't have app clip associated with it) -- opens an App-Clip-like popup with the following error: CPSErrorDomainError 2 (see attachment below) So for some reason when someone scans an NFC tag with a URL that is not an App Clip and never has been -- it always shows that error regardless whether the URL exists or does not exist. I've tried few different/random URLs (which don't have an App Clip associated with it) and all of them show the same error. Additional details: All links use the same domain and URL format: domain.com/path where path is a short string of random a-Z characters. All App Clips are created at the same iOS app. AASA is good: Cache and Debug -- both green. This issue has happened to lots of users on lots of different iPhones and iOS'. Since the issue's been happening to lots of different users on different iPhone(s)/iOS' no sysdiagnose is attached. Actually it works the same on every device/iOS we've tried. Before submitting the issue, I've found few other developers reporting the same issue. What's interesting though is none of the links I've went through comes with a definite answer and it seems like this issue just randomly comes and goes without any specific changes on the server and/or iOS app. Dropping the links of similar issues below. https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/671433 https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/665969 https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/775316 https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/764545
18
2
863
Jan ’26
How to hide the NFC reading pop-up prompt?
Dear Apple Engineers, I am using NFCNDEFReaderSession to read information from NFC tags. When calling the begin method of the session, a system dialog/popover appears at the bottom of the screen. Is it possible to suppress or disable this dialog? Thank you for your assistance. Here is my demo code: @IBAction func beginScanning(_ sender: Any) { guard NFCNDEFReaderSession.readingAvailable else { let alertController = UIAlertController( title: "Scanning Not Supported", message: "This device doesn't support tag scanning.", preferredStyle: .alert ) alertController.addAction(UIAlertAction(title: "OK", style: .default, handler: nil)) self.present(alertController, animated: true, completion: nil) return } session = NFCNDEFReaderSession(delegate: self, queue: nil, invalidateAfterFirstRead: true) session?.alertMessage = "Hold your iPhone near the item to learn more about it. session?.begin() }
1
0
96
Jan ’26
How does font caching / resources for each app work?
I'm a font developer. In the development process, I will revise a font and overwrite the OTF file that is currently enabled (registered) with macOS. If I then launch an app, it will immediately use the revised version of the font; while apps that are already loaded will continue to use the old version. This suggests that each app is loading new and separate font data, rather than getting it from some existing cache in memory. Yet macOS does have a "font cache" of some sort. Some apps, like TextEdit, seem to only load the fonts that they need to use. However, other apps, like Pages, load every enabled (registered) font on the OS!! (According to the Open Files list in Activity Monitor.) Given that /System/Library/Fonts/ is 625 Mb, and we can't disable any of it, isn't that a lot of data to be repeating? How many fonts is too many fonts? I can't find much documentation about the process.
1
0
664
Jan ’26
Can I hide the NFC App Clip card?
Dear Apple Engineers: My app utilizes the App Clip experience. I would like to prevent the App Clip card from appearing when the host app is running in the foreground. How can this be achieved? I have observed that Alipay (in China) does not display an App Clip card when the device is tapped against a tag while the app is in the foreground, which indicates that this behavior is possible. Thank you for your assistance.
0
0
66
Jan ’26