Hi everyone, I’m currently developing a parental control app that uses the Screen Time API (FamilyControls, ManagedSettings, DeviceActivity). I have a question regarding the customization limits of the Shield UI in ManagedSettingsUI. From the documentation, I understand that we can customize the ShieldConfiguration (background color, blur style, icon, title, subtitle, button labels, etc.). However, I’d like to clarify a few points before finalizing the design: 1. Is it allowed (or technically possible) to display custom media content, such as videos, animations, or interactive elements, inside a custom Shield? 2. Are there limitations on the text length for the title and subtitle fields (e.g. maximum number of characters, multiline support, truncation behavior)? 3. Can the Shield be personalized per user (for example, showing a different title or color scheme based on user preferences or device state)? 4. Are there App Store Review restrictions or UI guidelines that define what a Shield should or should not contain (for instance, whether the Shield can resemble a mini-app experience)? I want to ensure that the implementation fully complies with Apple’s technical and design expectations before submission. Thanks in advance for any official clarification or best practices on how far we can go with Shield customization! Best regards, Ferdinand

I'm trying to fade in the sound used in my alarm app but currently there's no way to achieve this since the alarm sound loops and if i add a fade-in at the beginning of my audio, every time the audio loops the fadein happens.

Hi, We are working to integrate the Live Caller ID Lookup feature into our app. After submitting the request form via the link: https://developer.apple.com/contact/request/live-caller-id-lookup/, we received this reply from Apple: Apple’s OHTTP relay has been configured to talk to your OHTTP gateway. Now Live Caller ID Lookup should work for your application extension when distributed through App Store. However, before officially releasing our app on the App Store, we’d like to make sure the Live Caller ID Lookup feature is working as expected. To test this, we uploaded the app to TestFlight, and it successfully passed App Review. However, the test failed — we observed that the system tries to fetch the config from http://www.example.com/config instead of our actual configuration URL. Questions: Is this expected behavior when using TestFlight? Does the Live Caller ID Lookup feature only become active after full public release on the App Store? Is there any recommended way to test this feature before public release? Thank you!

I see many anti-theft apps already released in the App Store that have a feature to immediately play a loud sound when the charger gets unplugged. I can't find an API to make it work if the app is backgrounded, which is the main point. How can I achieve this?

Speech Framework I've been checking for SFSpeechRecognitionMetadata to determine the end of a sentence when using Voice Recognition. Yet it doesn't detect small pauses but only large ones, so that I've transcribed basically an entire paragraph before going onto the next one. Besides implementing your own timer, are there any other ways to have more natural pauses to detect the end of sentences, similar to the browser's Web Speech recognition? Since it's in Safari, I assume there should be some similar feature that can be equivalent in MacOS.

I am still struggling to nail down the screen time between monitoring and showing it in a DeviceActivityReport. It's always off by a couple of percentage points, which results in a difference of a couple of minutes between the time shown for my total screen time in DeviceActivityReport and DeviceActivityMonitor with a threshold set for all apps/websites/categories. In the report, I am looping through all segment (there is only 1 segement using .daily segment interval for a given day) then loop through all categories and all apps within each category and sum up all totalActivityDuration for each app. Based on avaiable documentation, that should corrolate to DeviceActivityMonitor threshold but it doesn't. Are there any differences in how these 2 places count screen time? Are there any apps/core ios services which are excluded from DeviceActivityMonitor. Would appreciate any help at all, I'm losing my mind here. My current suspicion is that Apple Developer documentation is counted twice. i.e. this website https://developer.apple.com/documentation/deviceactivity/deviceactivitymonitor shows up in usage as an App with bundleId of apple.developer.wwdc-release and time spent there is counted twice, against this bundleId AND Safari. I don't know why it's not counted as a webdomain.

Is there any way I can get updates when I change CarPlay style settings? I've tried CPSessionConfigurationDelegate.contentStyleChanged and CPTemplateApplicationSceneDelegate.contentStyleDidChange, but they always produce the same result. When I choose: Automatic -> I receive light in case of daylight; Always Dark and Always Show Dark Map toggle on -> dark Always Dark and Always Show Dark Map toggle off -> light. But it seems to be wrong, b/c CarPlay's toolbar is still dark, and I receive light. Is there a way to get a dark style when choosing Always Dark and Always Show Dark Map toggle off? Or at least get updates when the Always Show Dark Map toggle changes?

Its possible to add the Declared Age Range entitlement to extensions, in particular I'm looking at a Notification Service Extension. However the DAR requestAgeRange() API takes a view controller as a parameter. Presumably therefore its not possible for a notification service extension to obtain the age range itself directly? Yes the extension can read it from shared groups if the app reads it and set it into the group. However the scenario I'm thinking of is this: App runs and gets the age range. Sets its functionality accordingly. The server sends pushes which are intercepted by the notification service extension, the extension adjusts its functionality based upon what the app wrote to shared groups The user changes the age range setting, but the app doesn't run. The extension keeps receiving pushes but its functionality is now out of sync with the age range as its not able to obtain it directly

Weatherkit stopped again providing next hour rain data for United kingdom and ireland

I want to start the mail application from the development application, but the mail application made by Apple starts. It doesn't work even if I change the default email application to Outlook. When you delete the Apple Mail app, Outlook starts. I want to automatically attach the generated pdf file to the email, but that doesn't work either. Please tell me how to code.

I'd like to set the recordingYear in my Spotlight File Importer extension but the property is missing from CSSearchableItemAttributeSet e.g. in the resulting in mdls I'd like to see: kMDItemRecordingYear = 2008; This would allow me to search in Finder by the recording year criteria. There is a recordingDate property and I tried setting it to Date that only has a year but it didn't work. It just resulted in this: kMDItemRecordingDate = "2008-01-01 00:00:00 +0000";

In the past I was always able to install every major macOS version on an external drive so that I can test my apps. But now I'm unable to install macOS Tahoe 26 on an external drive. Actually, as far as I'm aware, there are not even official links to macOS 26 installers, but only instructions on how to update to macOS 26 from an existing macOS installation. So I thought I'd install macOS 15 on a separate drive and then update to macOS 26, but whenever I run the macOS 15 installer, tell it to install on the external drive, and reboot after the setup process completes, my MacBook just boots into my main macOS partition as if nothing happened. 3 months ago I somehow managed to install macOS Tahoe beta 1 on an external drive, I don't remember how (but I don't think it was anything crazy); booting into that beta 1 partition and trying to update doesn't work either, as my MacBook again boots into my main macOS partition. I already asked help about the update problem one month ago here, but nobody replied. Could someone at Apple please provide instructions on how one is supposed to install macOS 26 on an external drive (if possible before it becomes available to the public)? Are we supposed to buy a separate Mac for every macOS version that we want to test our apps on?

When fetching Apple Savings transactions via FinanceKit, the data is missing key context about where the deposit originated from. Here’s an example transaction I retrieved: Transaction( id: 77371A0C-7122-42C7-BEBC-85BDF654AD2B, accountID: 68D9FE9D-6DA6-4A27-BB9D-19209CD29A56, transactionAmount: 1.46 USD, creditDebitIndicator: .credit, transactionDescription: "Deposit", originalTransactionDescription: "", merchantCategoryCode: nil, merchantName: nil, transactionType: .deposit, status: .booked, transactionDate: 2025-08-20 13:44:26 +0000, postedDate: 2025-08-20 13:44:26 +0000 ) As shown: transactionDescription is just "Deposit" merchantName is nil No indication of the source account In contrast, the Wallet app clearly shows context for Apple Savings account deposits, such as: "Apple Card" (daily cash) "Bank of America" (external transfer) "Interest Paid" (we do see "Interest" come through correctly) Without this metadata, third-party apps cannot replicate Wallet’s clarity about where a deposit came from. Every deposit simply appears as "Deposit", which is ambiguous. Request: Please expose additional metadata for Apple Savings account transactions, for example: sourceAccountName (e.g. “Apple Card” or “Bank of America”) transactionOriginType (cashback, external bank transfer, interest) institutionIdentifier or similar for external banks This would allow developers to show clear, Wallet-quality transaction details and avoid confusing users. Impact: The lack of source info makes Savings deposits nearly indistinguishable from one another, even though Wallet provides this context. For apps leveraging FinanceKit, this results in a poorer experience compared to Apple’s own Wallet. Thanks!

Hello, I have noticed that the ShieldConfiguration is only requested when opening a target app, and never when the application token is moved to a different shield while the target app remains in foreground. This causes problems because many times the wrong ShieldConfiguration is displayed (recycled) instead of requesting a new ShieldConfiguration. This bug has been around since the introduction of the Screen Time API in 2020 and is has not been addressed. Bug reports: FB14237883 FB17902392 Please fix asap!! Not acceptable to have bugs not being addressed for more than 5 years. Most concerning: This is still reproducing on iOS 26 beta 7!! Thanks a lot for your help.

Hi all, From what I’ve seen on forums and other sources, it appears that nothing can be done to set the contact poster programmatically. Setting the imageData property affects only the thumbnail image. Does anyone know if this is explicitly documented somewhere? I need this information for a POC document. I watched the iOS 17 keynote (where it was introduced), the Platform State of Union, and other WWDC videos, but I couldn’t find any mention of it. The Contacts framework documentation only explains what can be retrieved from this property and doesn’t mention any way to set the contact poster. If anyone has any information on this, please help! Thanks in advance!

Hello Having trouble getting associated domain to work in our project. It was working when we used Branch, but our company wants to host the domain ourselves. This is a multi-scheme project, using .xcconfig files to define the correct entitlement per Build. The relevant entitlement file has: com.apple.developer.associated-domains applinks:bm.ddcas.ai in the ....{other irrelevant test associated domains....} The project Team and App ID are taken from the Identifiers screen where the Identifier capabilities has 'associated domains' ticked on. I've also checked elsewhere on AppleDeveloper/Connect to be sure. When we used Branch with domain key app links: bmstores.app.link this worked fine. With https://bm.ddcas.ai (our own host) which is publicly available and has an aasa file in both the main directory and /.well-known, typing this in safari or anything just doesn't attempt to link to the App. The iPhone is in developer mode, and using the developer menu associated domains diagnostic tool, typing https://bm.ddcas.ai results in the diagnostic saying 'The url is a Universal Link for the app with identifier **********.***etc (the app is installed on real iPhone 12, iOS 18.6.2 and my Xcode is 16.4) However, it just doesn't work if we type in https://bm.ddcas.ai and results in a Safari message of '400 not found' and the 'nginx' shows. We have read innumerable Apple Dev posts and StackOverflow posts, as well as several step by step 'how to's' online but this just isn't working. The aasa file is at https://bm.ddcas.ai/apple-app-site-association and is setup as follows: { "applinks": { "apps": [], "details": [ { "appID": "{my Team ID}.{my App ID}", "paths": [ "*" ], "components": [ { "/": "/verification", "?": { "verification_code": "[A-Za-z0-9]{6}" }, "comment": "Matches verification code path" } ] } ] } } Our Server guys say the website (bm.ddcas.ai) is public and hosted, it just doesn't have a /verification path as they say it should redirect before reaching that. Also, our Android redirect works using this site, so this appears to be something specific Apple code is looking for. What, please, are we likely to be missing as it does not seem obvious from the Apple documentation or any of the resources I have checked online. Normally we can figure anything out, but getting nowhere here so the help is appreciated.

Hello everyone, I’m running an Objective-C–based hybrid (native + web) shopping application and encountering a recurring issue on devices running iOS 18.1.1: When the app launches, it only shows a white screen with the native frame visible—no web content loads. Restarting or reinstalling the app doesn’t help. In one instance, toggling Airplane Mode on and off brought the app back to normal, but this workaround isn’t consistent. There are no crash logs, so we can’t determine if it’s caused by a network error, cache conflict, or an OS-level bug. So far, we have only seen this issue on iOS 18.1.1 devices. Because our app is a shopping platform, this significantly impacts users. Questions: Could this be related to a known bug or limitation in iOS 18.1.1? Are there recommended diagnostic steps or workarounds for a hybrid app that shows a white screen without generating crash logs? Which additional details (e.g., system logs, network traces, device configurations) might help isolate the cause? Any insights or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!

I use WeatherKit with Swift to get multiple cities weather by longitude and latitude. But I use this API in WeatherService for daily forecast: final public func weather<T>(for location: CLLocation, including dataSet: WeatherQuery<T>) async throws -> T And I found there is something wired: The date of WeatherKit::DayWeather is based on my device's timezone settings. Tokyo's Day Weather is start at UTC+8, New York' Day Weather is start UTC+8. Is there any way to set timezone correctly?

I've discovered a bug in the Phone app on iOS related to how long verdicts are displayed. When a call is identified by a third-party Caller ID app, long verdicts display correctly during the call (they auto-scroll) and in the call log (with an ellipsis at the end). However, on the call details screen, the text is strangely truncated - showing only the beginning of the string and the last word. For testing, I used this verdict: "Musclemen grow on trees. They can tense their muscles and look good in a mirror. So what? I'm interested in practical strength that's going to help me run, jump, twist, punch." I'll attach a screenshots demonstrating the problem:

I have a public and accessible .well-known/apple-app-site-association file for both my domain.com and subdomain.domain.com with "paths": ["*"] . Both example.com and blog.example.com are added in Associated domains and any link that contains domain.com and domain.com/path normally deep links into my app. I used to have an *.example.com that successfully deep linked all my subdomains into my app but now I had to remove it as some subdomains will need to link to other apps, but some should still link to the same app. I removed * but left blog.example.com as that specific subdomain still needs to deep link into my app. But now blog.example.com is not even being recognized by my app and any link starting with blog.example.com just opens in safari. What am I missing? Why is this happening ?