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!
General
RSS for tagDelve 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.
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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?
I found currently there is no way to revoke sharing age to an app after I shared to it, no matter in testing or in app settings
My app is configured with the App Clip experiences, and a Clip App card pops up when an NFC tag is scanned—whether the host app is not launched, running in the background, or active in the foreground. I want to prevent the App Clip card from popping up when the host app is in the foreground; how can this be achieved?
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 ?
How should i write and not show this sensitive error?
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
General
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.
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
General
Tags:
Extensions
Entitlements
Device Activity
Screen Time
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.
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.
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
General
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.
Hey there, I’m wondering if there is a CRUD API for Apple Notes?
I just saw once that it’s possible through a Apple Script on Mac. But the problem for me is that the app should also run on iOS.
Does someone have an idea how to approach this?
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
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()
}
We have developed a Parental/Self control app using Screen time API.
We have used individual authentication to authorize the app, using the instructions here:
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/familycontrols/authorizationcenter
The problem is , that individual auth can be disabled easily , by the following steps:
enter Settings app.
in Settings app, click on the Parental/Self control app.
click to disable screen time restriction.
show the device owner's face/fingerprint. (or pin code)
Why is that a problem:
Parental control apps, or self-control apps, are about giving control to the software, To make it hard for the user to disable the restrictions.
So using the flow I have introduced above, it's super-easy for a user to disable his Parental control restrictions, which misses the entire point of Parental/Self control idea.
Furthermore, not only the user have the means to unlock his screen time restrictions, he also MUST have the means to unlock it.
This makes Screen time (with individual auth) useless:
I have a code ready to make a great parental control app for my clients, with amazing ideas, but I can't use the Screen time API unless this problem is fixed.
Why child-parent auth is not enough:
My clients are grownups people between ages of 15-40, that are interested in self-control, so they don't have iCloud child accounts.
also, the child-parent auth solution forces my clients to give some control to other person, and my clients prefer their privacy. Some of them prefer self-control and not parental-control.
What I suggest as a solution:
1: Give more options to users how to disable the Screen time restrictions. including:
a second faceID / FingerPrint (that isn't the same as the one used to unlock the device)
a second pin password.
a string password
2: Give the users the option to choose to not have the device's owner Face/Finger/Pincode ID , as a method to disable the Screen time restrictions.
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.
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.
I decode an object with NSKeyedArchiver (SecureCoding):
typealias BoolArray = Array<Array<Bool>>
let val = decoder.decodeObject(of: NSArray.self, forKey: someKey) as? BoolArray
I get the following log:
*** -[NSKeyedUnarchiver validateAllowedClass:forKey:] allowed unarchiving safe plist type ''NSNumber' (0x204cdbeb8) [/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework]' for key 'NS.objects', even though it was not explicitly included in the client allowed classes set: '{(
"'NSArray' (0x204cd5598) [/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreFoundation.framework]"
)}'. This will be disallowed in the future.
I changed by adding NSNumber.self in the list :
let val = decoder.decodeObject(of: [NSArray.self, NSNumber.self], forKey: someKey) as? BoolArray
No more warning in log.
Is there a reason for this ?
I get several warnings in log:
*** -[NSKeyedUnarchiver validateAllowedClass:forKey:] allowed unarchiving
safe plist type ''NSNumber' (0x204cdbeb8)
[/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework]' for key 'NS.objects',
even though it was not explicitly included in the client allowed classes set: '{(
"'NSArray' (0x204cd5598) [/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreFoundation.framework]"
)}'. This will be disallowed in the future.
I am not sure how to understand it:
I have removed every NSNumber.self in the allowed lists for decode. To no avail, still get the avalanche of warnings.
What is the key NS.objects about ?
What may allowed classes set: '{(
"'NSArray' be referring to ? An inclusion of NSArray.self in a list for decode ? The type of a property in a class ?
DeviceActivityReportExtension issues
Hi,
I am currently working on a project and hoping to use DeviceActivityReportExtension. I have already successfully set up the DeviceActivityMonitorExtension and that is working correctly, but can't get this to reproduce. I initially had a complex capacitor project which displayed a native UI screen which (tried to) display the screen time report though it was failing silently.
I tried a much simpler setup with a pure swift project (not an iOS dev so forgive my poor code quality) and still having an issue getting this to render on my computer. Here is a reproduction:
https://github.com/ethanmichel0/screen-time-report-bug-recreation/tree/main
Does this code work for others? and if not do you know how I can set this up? idk if my Xcode or iOS versions are incompatible (see versions in that link).
Would be super grateful for some help, thanks so much.
I have defined a class :
class Item: NSObject, NSSecureCoding {
var name : String = ""
var color : ColorTag = .black // defined as enum ColorTag: Int
var value : Int = 0
static var supportsSecureCoding: Bool {
return true
}
Its decoder includes the following print statement to start:
required init(coder decoder: NSCoder) {
print(#function, "item should not be nil", decoder.decodeObject(of: Item.self, forKey: someKey))
Another class uses it:
class AllItems: NSObject, NSSecureCoding {
var allItems : [Item]?
static var supportsSecureCoding: Bool {
return true
}
and decodes as follows
required init(coder decoder: NSCoder) {
super.init() // Not sure it is necessary
allItems = decoder.decodeObject(of: NSArray.self, forKey: mykey) as? [Item]
print(#function, allItems) // <<-- get nil
}
I note:
decoder returns nil at line 5
I have tried to change to
decoder.decodeObject(of: [NSArray.self, NSString.self, NSColor.self, NSNumber.self], forKey: mykey))
Still get nil
And, decoder of class Item is not called (no print in the log)
What am I missing ?