I’m looking for clarification on what iOS currently allows third-party apps to do in these areas:
Siri integration and background voice activation: Can an iOS app implement a custom voice assistant that responds to a wake phrase such as “Hey Nowa” and performs app tasks through voice commands? Could it listen while the app is terminated or the iPhone is locked, similar to Siri?
Call recordings: Is there a supported way for an iOS app to access recordings of phone calls made on the user’s iPhone and make them available within the app? I couldn’t find documentation for an API that provides access to these recordings.
SMS access: Is there a supported way for an iOS app to access and fetch all SMS and iMessage conversations stored in the user’s Messages app, so they can be viewed within our app?
As far as I understand, iOS may not allow these capabilities for third-party apps, but I’d appreciate clarification. If any are supported, could you please point me to the relevant Apple documentation?
I can’t answer two out of your three questions. Hopefully someone else will chime in on the last one.
Call recordings: Is there a supported way for an iOS app to access recordings of phone calls …
No.
SMS access: Is there a supported way for an iOS app to access and fetch all SMS and iMessage conversations
No [1].
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Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
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[1] TelephonyMessagingKit seems promising but it’s not the droid you’re looking for. It allows a messaging app to act as the default messaging app, that is:
- Send messages using the iPhone’s built-in messaging facilities
- Receive messages using those same facilities
but that doesn’t do what you want to do, namely, leave Messages as the default messaging app but gain access to those messages.
It also comes with some significant deployment restrictions.
