I'd like to add a share extension to my app (an Action app extension, I think). The extension would appear when users share a photo in the Photos app (and, ideally, Safari). If you tapped my app icon on the share sheet, iOS would pass the photo to my app and switch the user from Photos or Safari to my full app, with the shared photo(s) available for my app to work with.
I know this is possible, because Instagram (a third-party app) works exactly like this. If you look at an image in the Photos app, tap Share and then tap Instagram, iOS will background the Photos app, activate the Instagram app and let you edit and post your photo in the main Instagram app.
It seems like NSExtensionContext#open(_:completionHandler:) might do this if I add a custom URL to my main app, but the documentation for that says:
Each extension point determines whether to support this method, or under which conditions to support this method. In iOS, the Today and iMessage app extension points support this method.
That would rule out an Action, Photo Editing or Share extension. But then how does Instagram do this, and how can I achieve the same in my app?
I know that it's possible for an Action, Photo Editing or Share extension to open as a mini-app on top of the app providing the content. But coordinating the IPC for that is much, much more work (for my particular app) than just switching the user over to the app, with full access to all the functionality and data that my main app usually has access to.
Explore the integration of media technologies within your app. Discuss working with audio, video, camera, and other media functionalities.
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Hi, I'm trying to plan out development of an app and am wondering if it is possible to have user generated content automatically populate into a custom shazamkit catalogue and be able to query this catalogue non-locally?
Storing all the submissions locally would obviously not scale.
Howdy. I'm trying to access media from a users song library and receive:
<ICUserIdentityStoreACAccountBackend: 0x148f8af30> Failed to initialize active account, error=Error Domain=ICError Code=-7013 "Client is not entitled to access account store" UserInfo={NSDebugDescription=Client is not entitled to access account store}
I'm told I need to add a Media Library Access Capability. Nothing like this shows up in Xcode under Signing & Capabilities > +Capabilities. Also I can't find anything like this in my account in dev.apple.com.
How do I enable myself and a test user using another iPhone device to access my music and their music respectively?
Thanks!
Topic:
Media Technologies
SubTopic:
General
Tags:
App Tracking Transparency
Media Player
iOS
MusicKit
In iOS 18, CarPlay shows an error: “There was a problem loading this content” after playback starts. Audio works fine, but the Now Playing screen doesn’t load. I’m using MPPlayableContentManager. This worked fine in iOS 17. Anyone else seeing this error in iOS 18?
I prefer to use the album fetched from the library instead of the catalog since this is faster. If doing so, how can I check if all tracks of an album are added to the library. In this case I'd like to fetch the catalog version or throw an error (for example when offline).
Using .with(.tracks) on the library album fetches the tracks added to the library.
The trackCount property is referring to the tracks that can be fetched from the library.
The isComplete property is always nil when fetching from the library.
One possible way is checking the trackNumber and discCount properties. However this only detects that not all tracks of an album are added to the library if there is a song not added ahead of one that is. I'd like to be able to handle this edge case as well.
Is there currently a way to do this? I'd prefer to not rely on the apple music catalog for this since this is supposed to work offline as well. Fetching and storing all trackIDs when connected and later comparing against these would work, but this would potentially mean storing tens of thousands of track ids.
Thank you
Environment→ ・Device: iPad 10th generation ・OS:**iOS18.3.2
We're using AVAudioPlayer to play a sound when a button is tapped. In our use case, this button can be tapped very frequently — roughly every 0.1 to 0.2 seconds. Each tap triggers the following function:
var audioPlayer: AVAudioPlayer?
func soundPlay(resource: String, type: String){
guard let path = Bundle.main.path(forResource: resource, ofType: type) else {
return
}
do {
audioPlayer = try AVAudioPlayer(contentsOf: URL(fileURLWithPath: path))
audioPlayer!.delegate = self
try audioSession.setCategory(.playback)
} catch {
return
}
self.audioPlayer!.play()
}
The issue is that under high-frequency tapping (especially around 0.1–0.15s intervals), the app occasionally crashes. The crash does not occur every time, but it happens randomly — sometimes within 30 seconds, within 1 minute, or even 3 minutes of continuous tapping.
Interestingly, adding a delay of 0.2 seconds between button taps seems to prevent the crash entirely. Delays shorter than 0.2 seconds (e.g.,0.15s,0.18s) still result in occasional crashes.
My questions are:
**Is this expected behavior from AVAudioPlayer or AVAudioSession?
Could this be a known issue or a limitation in AVFoundation?
Is there any documentation or guidance on handling frequent sound playback safely?**
Any insights or recommendations on how to handle rapid, repeated audio playback more reliably would be appreciated.
My app is a camera app that supports Picture-in-Picture (PiP) mode.
Normally, when the device rotates, I get the device orientation from iOS and use it to rotate the camera feed so that the preview stays correctly aligned.
However, when the app enters PiP mode, it is considered to be in the background, and I can no longer receive orientation updates from the system.
As a result, I can’t apply rotation corrections to the camera video in PiP mode.
Is there any way to retrieve device orientation while the app is in the background (specifically during PiP mode)?
Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
The documentation of the Apple Music Feed API states that the Album object would include songs — a list of songs in the album. As per the doc, this would be an array of object Album.RelatedSong, which would include both an id and nameDefault.
Unfortunately, the album parquet files only include the song id and not the name of the song itself.
Please advise - is the documentation incorrect or are the recently posted parquet files in error?
Topic:
Media Technologies
SubTopic:
General
I am developing an app to stream and download DRM protected HLS videos based on the official “FairPlay Streaming Server SDK”.
When I play the downloaded video, it asks the server for .ts or .aac, even though I have passed the path of the downloaded video to AVURLAsset.
As a result, playback fails when the device is offline, such as in airplane mode.
This behavior depends on the playback time of the video and occurs when trying to download and play a video with a playback time of 19 hours or more.
It did not occur for videos with a playback time of 18 hours.
The environment we checked is iOS 18.3.
The solution at this time is to limit the video playback time to 18 hours, but if possible, we would like to allow download playback of videos longer than 19 hours.
Does anyone have any information or know of a solution to this problem, such as if you have experienced this type of event, or if you know that content longer than 19 hours cannot be played offline?
// load
let path = ".../xxx.movpkg" // Path of the downloaded file
videoAsset = AVURLAsset(url: path)
playerItem = AVPlayerItem(asset: videoAsset!)
player.replaceCurrentItem(with: playerItem)
// isPlayableOffline
print("videoAsset.assetCache.isPlayableOffline = \(videoAsset.assetCache.isPlayableOffline)") // true
Hello, I'm trying to create a webbrowser but currently when signed into apple music webplayer I get the following message when I attempt to play on any versions of my webbrowser:
Not available on the web
You can listen to this in the Apple Music app.
Is there a way to setup DRM (assuming this is the issue) with apple to allow my webbrowser to play this content?
I believe Apple TV is also affected.
Thank you ahead of time.
I'm experiencing an unexpected behavior with AVURLAsset and cookies. When setting cookies through AVURLAssetHTTPCookiesKey option, they seem to be sent only on the initial request but not on retry attempts.
Here's my current implementation:
let cookieProperties: [HTTPCookiePropertyKey: Any] = [
.name: "sessionCookie",
.value: "testValue",
.domain: url.host ?? "",
.path: "/",
.secure: true
]
if let cookie = HTTPCookie(properties: cookieProperties) {
let asset = AVURLAsset(url: url, options: [
AVURLAssetHTTPCookiesKey: [cookie],
])
}
According to the documentation, AVURLAssetHTTPCookiesKey should apply the cookies to all requests made by this asset. However, when the initial request fails and AVPlayer retries, the cookies are not included in subsequent requests.
Only when I store the cookie with HTTPCookieStorage.shared.setCookie, then it persists.
Questions:
Is this the expected behavior?
If not, what could be causing the cookies to not persist for retry attempts?
Is using HTTPCookieStorage.shared the recommended approach instead?
Environment:
iOS 16+
Using AVPlayer with AVURLAsset
Streaming HLS content
Any insights would be greatly appreciated.
I am developing an app that uses MusicKit to play music and then I need to have spoken words played to the user, while ducking the audio coming from MusicKit (application music player)
the built in Siri voices are not off sufficient quality so I am using an external service to create an mp3 file and then play this back using AVAudioSession
Sample code below
the problem I am having is that .duckOthers is not ducking the Application Music Player output
Is this a bug or am I doing this wrong?
// Configure audio session for system-wide ducking
try AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setCategory(.playback, mode: .spokenAudio, options: [.duckOthers, .mixWithOthers])
try AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setActive(true)
// Set the ducking level to maximum
try AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setPreferredIOBufferDuration(0.005)
// Create and configure audio player
self.audioPlayer = try AVAudioPlayer(data: audioData)
self.audioPlayer?.delegate = self
self.audioPlayer?.volume = 1.0 // Ensure full volume for speech
self.audioPlayer?.prepareToPlay()
// Set the audio player's settings for maximum clarity
self.audioPlayer?.enableRate = false
self.audioPlayer?.pan = 0.0 // Center the audio
self.audioPlayer?.play()
Hi there,
Can anyone tell me how to possibly get approved as an Apple News Publisher in 2025?
We attempted in 2024, but received this message from Apple support:
"Thank you for your interest in Apple News. At this time, we're not accepting new applications."
When I inquired further, I got this second response:
"Apple News is no longer accepting unsolicited applications. To learn more about Apple News requirements, visit the Apple News support page. If you have any feedback, please use this form to send us your comments. Keep in mind that while we read all feedback, we are unable to respond to each submission individually."
My questions are:
Is this still the case? (Especially when you are a legit local news outlet)
Is there a link to apply as a news publisher? I don't seem to have that option at all.
Thanks for any feedback.
I'm working on adding CarPlay support to an audio app and am running into an issue. Occasionally, when a user opens the app from CarPlay while the main app scene is either not connected or is currently in the background, I will receive an error when attempting to activate the audio session. The code below mimics my setup:
do {
try AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setCategory(.playback, mode: .spokenAudio)
try AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setActive(true)
} catch {
print(error) // NSOSStatusErrorDomain - 560557684: Session activation failed
}
That error code maps to AVAudioSession.ErrorCode.cannotInterruptOthers.
Once in this state, all subsequent attempts to play different pieces of content will fail. However, things will start working normally if the user opens the app on their phone and tries again from CarPlay (while the app is in the foreground on their phone).
I'm not sure why it would behave this way and want to note that I do have the audio background mode capability enabled.
Has anyone else encountered this? Are there any workarounds or changes I could make to prevent this from happening?
Hello,
I'm observing an intermittent memory leak being reported in the iOS Simulator when initializing and starting an AVAudioEngine. Even with minimal setup—just attaching a single AVAudioPlayerNode and connecting it to the mainMixerNode—Xcode's memory diagnostics and Instruments sometimes flag a leak.
Here is a simplified version of the code I'm using:
// This function is called when the user taps a button in the view controller:
#import "ViewController.h"
@interface ViewController ()
@end
@implementation ViewController
- (void)viewDidLoad {
[super viewDidLoad];
}
- (IBAction)myButtonAction:(id)sender {
NSLog(@"Test");
soundCreate();
}
@end
// media.m
static AVAudioEngine *audioEngine = nil;
void soundCreate(void)
{
if (audioEngine != nil)
return;
[[AVAudioSession sharedInstance] setCategory:AVAudioSessionCategoryAmbient error:nil];
[[AVAudioSession sharedInstance] setActive:YES error:nil];
audioEngine = [[AVAudioEngine alloc] init];
AVAudioPlayerNode* playerNode = [[AVAudioPlayerNode alloc] init];
[audioEngine attachNode:playerNode];
[audioEngine connect:playerNode to:(AVAudioNode *)[audioEngine mainMixerNode] format:nil];
[audioEngine startAndReturnError:nil];
}
In the memory leak report, the following call stack is repeated, seemingly in a loop:
ListenerMap::InsertEvent(XAudioUnitEvent const&, ListenerBinding*) AudioToolboxCore
ListenerMap::AddParameter(AUListener*, void*, XAudioUnitEvent const&) AudioToolboxCore
AUListenerAddParameter AudioToolboxCore
addOrRemoveParameterListeners(OpaqueAudioComponentInstance*, AUListenerBase*, AUParameterTree*, bool) AudioToolboxCore
0x180178ddf
Dear Apple Developer Community,
I'm encountering a critical issue with the MusicLibrary.shared.createPlaylist() method in MusicKit that's affecting our app's core functionality. Despite implementing all recommended authorization checks, the app consistently freezes for some users when this method is called.
What we've already verified before calling createPlaylist():
Network connectivity is properly checked and confirmed
Apple Music authorization is explicitly requested via MusicAuthorization.request()
User subscription status is verified using MusicSubscription.current.canPlayCatalogContent
Despite these precautions, many users report that their app completely freezes when attempting to create a playlist. This is particularly concerning as playlist creation is a core feature of our application.
User-reported workarounds (with mixed success):
Some users have resolved the issue by restarting their devices or reinstalling our app
Others report success after enabling "Sync Library" in Settings → Music Unfortunately, a significant number of users are still experiencing the issue even after trying both solutions above
We've reviewed the MusicKit documentation thoroughly and ensured our implementation follows all best practices. Our app correctly handles permissions and uses the async/await pattern as required by the API.
Is there a known issue with the createPlaylist() method that might cause it to block indefinitely? Are there additional authorization steps or settings we should be checking before calling this method? Could this be related to how MusicKit communicates with Apple Music servers?
Any insights from the developer community or official guidance would be greatly appreciated as this issue is severely impacting our user experience.
Thank you for your assistance
My app Balletrax is a music player for people to use while they teach ballet. Used to be you could silence notifications during use, but now the customer seems to have to know how to use Focus mode, remember to turn it on and off, and have to check the notifications one does and doesn't want to use. Is there no way to silence all notifications when the app is in use?
I've been working with MusicKit without enrolling for a developer account and I haven't run into any issues until I noticed nil on the SysteyMusicPlayer item for some songs and I don't understand why. Are some songs blocked from the framework? Or is it somehow a limitation to not having registered MusicKit to the bundle ID? I am planning on using MusicKit properly in prod and this is just a test app for a package I'm working on.
These are the nil songs which I got from the Discovery Station: https://music.apple.com/ca/album/okay/950816298?i=950816304
https://music.apple.com/ca/album/youre-so-cool/1670485433?i=1670485446
Since iOS 18, the system setting “Allow Audio Playback” (enabled by default) allows third-party app audio to continue playing while the user is recording video with the Camera app. This has created a problem for the app I’m developing.
➡️ The problem:
My app plays continuous audio in both foreground and background states. If the user starts recording video using the iOS Camera app, the app’s audio — still playing in the background — gets captured in the video — obviously an unintended behavior.
Yes, the user could stop the app manually before starting the video recording, but that can’t be guaranteed. As a developer, I need a way to stop the app’s audio before the video recording begins.
So far, I haven’t found a reliable way to detect when video recording starts if ‘Allow Audio Playback’ is ON.
➡️ What I’ve tried:
— AVAudioSession.interruptionNotification → doesn’t fire
— devicesChangedEventStream → not triggered
I don’t want to request mic permission (app doesn’t use mic). also, disabling the app from playing audio in the background isn’t an option as it is a crucial part of the user experience
➡️ What I need:
A reliable, supported way to detect when the Camera app begins video recording, without requiring mic access — so I can stop audio and avoid unintentional overlap with the user’s recordings.
Any official guidance, workarounds, or AVFoundation techniques would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
I developed an educational app that implements audio-video communication through RTC, while using WebView to display course materials during classes. However, some users are experiencing an issue where the audio playback from WebView is very quiet. I've checked that the AVAudioSessionCategory is set by RTC to AVAudioSessionCategoryPlayAndRecord, and the AVAudioSessionCategoryOption also includes AVAudioSessionCategoryOptionMixWithOthers. What could be causing the WebView audio to be suppressed, and how can this be resolved?