Hello Albert!
I am experiencing some strange bugs around DeviceActivityEvents (part of the DeviceActivity framework) on iOS 26 / iOS 26.1 / iOS 26.2 beta:
When creating a DeviceActivityEvent we can assign a threshold and applicationTokens.
The idea is, that after the user has spent said threshold on said apps, eventDidReachThreshold() is called.
The property includesPastActivity is set to false.
On iOS 26 however, it happens (quite reliably after updating to a new beta seed) quite often that eventDidReachThreshold() is called immediately (after a couple of seconds) instead of waiting for the threshold to be met.
Is anyone else seeing similar issues on iOS 26 / iOS 26.1 / iOS 26.2 beta?
Only workaround I have found is to ask users to revoke and re-grant Screen Time permissions. This only holds for about two weeks though or at most until the next iOS 26 beta update is installed, so it is not a permanent solution unfortunately.
Feedback (incl. sysdiagnoses and sample project) is filed under:
FB18061981
FB18927456
One of our users has filed their own feedback request as well:
FB20817853
Thanks a lot for any help on this!
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Currently I am not finding any API to read the status of Message Filter Extension from settings. Are we planning for any future releases ?
When turning VoiceOver ON, GCController does not send button press events for "Button A" and "Button Center".
This happens when using Siri 2nd generation remote (with dedicated arrow buttons on the circle around center button) and also when using iOS remote. I didn't test it on old Siri 1st generation with touchpad without arrow buttons.
Example:
gameController.microGamepad?.allButtons.forEach { button in
button.valueChangedHandler = { [weak self] _, _, _ in
self?.buttonHandler(gameController: gameController, button: button)
}
private func buttonHandler(gameController: GCController, button: GCControllerButtonInput) {
print("BUTTON: Pressed \(button.description) isPressed=\(button.isPressed) isTouched=\(button.isTouched)")
}
#endif
VoiceOver ON (incorrect behavior):
BUTTON: Pressed Direction Pad Left (value: 0.030, pressed: 1) isPressed=true isTouched=true
BUTTON: Pressed Direction Pad Down (value: 0.079, pressed: 1) isPressed=true isTouched=true
BUTTON: Pressed Direction Pad Left (value: 0.000, pressed: 0) isPressed=false isTouched=false
BUTTON: Pressed Direction Pad Down (value: 0.000, pressed: 0) isPressed=false isTouched=false
VoiceOver OFF (correct behavior):
BUTTON: Pressed Direction Pad Left (value: 0.137, pressed: 1) isPressed=true isTouched=true
BUTTON: Pressed Direction Pad Up (value: 0.078, pressed: 1) isPressed=true isTouched=true
BUTTON: Pressed Button A (value: 1.000, pressed: 1) isPressed=true isTouched=true
BUTTON: Pressed Button Center (value: 1.000, pressed: 1) isPressed=true isTouched=true
BUTTON: Pressed Button A (value: 0.000, pressed: 0) isPressed=false isTouched=false
BUTTON: Pressed Button Center (value: 0.000, pressed: 0) isPressed=false isTouched=false
BUTTON: Pressed Direction Pad Left (value: 0.000, pressed: 0) isPressed=false isTouched=false
BUTTON: Pressed Direction Pad Up (value: 0.000, pressed: 0) isPressed=false isTouched=false
I could use for detection Direction Pad Left/Right/Up/Down and detect position between -0.7 and +0.7 and handle it as center button press, because I use that on old Siri remote where I need to distinguish center button and arrows (for switching TV channels by Up/Down and Skip forward/back by Left/Right arrows), but for new Siri remote it would be unnecessary workaround.
Does anybody know why the center/select button is not detected when VoiceOver is ON. Is there another way of detecting it using GCController?
I don't want to use SwiftUI onTapGesture for this one particular case.
Is it an unexpected bug in tvOS APIs or is there some specific reason why center button is not handled by GCController when VoiceOver is ON?
Thanks.
We have an app under development which allows musicians to unlock contact details of people who posted about an upcoming event. The musician pays a fees to unlock this contact details.
Both the musician & the post owner are registered users. We will reveal the same contact info that the post owner used for account signup verification.
Questions:
Is this allowed? (given that we obtain consent to share contact info to other people and clearly mention this in privacy policy)
If yes, will we have to use App store in-app purchase to facilitate this transaction or are we free to use a payment processor such as Stripe.
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
I’m working on a macOS Accessibility setup for a French-speaking user and I’ve hit a wall. (I'm not a developper and I'm trying to help my kid with dyslexia)
I successfully built a custom word prediction panel using the Panel Editor (Keyboard) in macOS Accessibility > Keyboard > Accessibility Keyboard.
Here’s what I have so far:
• The prediction panel works system-wide: I can use it to type in Finder, Safari, Notes, TextEdit, and even browser search bars.
• The panel appears above all applications and suggestions show up correctly.
• However, it does not work inside Google Docs (tested in Chrome, Safari, and Firefox). Selecting a word from the panel does nothing in the Docs editor.
I suspect this is because:
• Google Docs does not use a standard macOS text input field.
• Docs is a web app that relies on custom JavaScript editors, contentEditable elements, and canvas rendering, so macOS Accessibility APIs (AXTextField, AXInsertText, etc.) don’t register or inject text events.
• Accessibility tools like the Accessibility Keyboard rely on native macOS text input methods, which don’t hook into Google Docs’ custom editor.
Important:
I’m not a programmer. I’d like to know if there is an easy fix or option in macOS, Google Chrome, or Google Docs that would make my custom prediction panel work, before going into custom development.
Technical setup:
• MacBook Air (M2, 2022)
• RAM: 8 GB
• macOS: Sequoia 15.3.1
• Language: French (system and keyboard)
• Accessibility Keyboard: Enabled via Settings > Accessibility > Keyboard
• Custom panel: Built using Panel Editor (Keyboard), named “Philemon Prédiction”
• Browsers tested: Chrome, Safari, Firefox (same issue)
• Behavior: Panel is visible, suggestions appear, but inserting text does nothing in Google Docs
Has anyone worked around this limitation? Is there a simple setting, workaround, or accessibility option to bridge macOS Accessibility input with Google Docs’ editor?
Thanks a lot!
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
I’m using a 9th gen iPad, updated iPadOS 26 a few weeks ago, but I can’t use the 3D background, can’t find any way to use the 3D background. Is it a system issue or is it my iPad’s issue?
I have an application that binds a menu item to trigger on ⌘]. When I set the US input source, I press ⌘] in order to trigger that item. However, when I switch the input source to QWERTZ (German), the trigger changes to ⌘Ä automatically by the OS. It seems to translate keystrokes for different input sources.
The problem is that I also render the keybindings in a window in my application, and my application is not aware of this translation. Furthermore, I have other key shortcuts in my application which are not bound to menu items, and I want to make sure those get translated too.
Does AppKit expose a way to lookup what a keystroke will be when MacOS translates it, i.e. lookup ⌘Ä from ⌘] when the current layout is QWERTZ? I can't find anything in Apple's docs.
I tried converting a character to virtual key code based on the US layout and then mapping it back to a character based on the QWERTZ layout. That doesn't seem to be the same b/c that ends up converting ] to + instead which seems to be based on physical key location, different from how the keybindings are handled.
Update: I notice similar behavior for VS Code's menu bar, e.g. in their "Terminal" menu. Switching to German changes some bindings. This does not occur at all in iTerm's menu bar, I suspect b/c their menu items are specified in a different way, xib files with hard-coded key equivalents
A Summary of the WWDC25 Group Lab - Accessibility
At WWDC25 we launched a new type of Lab event for the developer community - Group Labs. A Group Lab is a panel Q&A designed for a large audience of developers. Group Labs are a unique opportunity for the community to submit questions directly to a panel of Apple engineers and designers. Here are the highlights from the WWDC25 Group Lab for Accessibility.
Accessibility Nutrition Labels are a really big step forward for the experience people have on the App Store to find apps that will work for them. How should developers get started with Accessibility Nutrition Labels?
A good starting point is to review the Accessibility Nutrition Label evaluation criteria on App Store Connect Help. It's a concise document, roughly 10 pages, and you can approach it section by section after the introduction. Even with prior experience using accessibility features like VoiceOver, the criteria offer valuable insights that might not be immediately apparent. For those newer to accessibility, a good entry point might be one of the visual feature labels, such as Dark Interface, which is a popular and frequently used feature.
Which accessibility features can I indicate support for in Accessibility Nutrition Labels?
The accessibility features covered include support for assistive technologies like VoiceOver and Voice Control, media enhancements such as captions and audio descriptions, and display accommodations. These display accommodations cover options like larger text, dark interface, differentiating without color alone, sufficient contrast, and reduced motion.
With the new Accessibility Nutrition Labels, will app store reviewers validate what we select?
The Accessibility Nutrition Label can be edited at any time without requiring a new app submission. However, if an app inaccurately claims feature support, App Review may contact the developer and request an update to the label or the app.
Are there any updates to tools for analyzing the accessibility of our apps?
Although there aren't new updates this year, continued support for Accessibility Audits is available through Xcode's built-in Accessibility Inspector. XCTest also supports accessibility audits, enabling developers to test app accessibility with every build. These audits analyze aspects like contrast, dynamic type, text clipping, element labels, and more within each view. For a deeper dive, the "Perform accessibility audits for your app" session from WWDC 2023 is a valuable resource.
What are accessibility features you wish more people integrated?
Accessibility features encompassing user input labels optimized for voice control, keyboard navigation and shortcuts, and dynamic type support could be more used to benefit users.
What were some of the biggest accessibility challenges your team encountered while developing Liquid Glass?
Apple is known for its innovation and strives to deliver a high-quality experience for everyone. Accessibility is considered a core component of visual design from the outset. For example, the Liquid Glass design inherently supports reduced transparency and increased contrast. As design continues to evolve, user feedback submitted through Feedback Assistant is invaluable.
How does Liquid Glass respond to contrast? Especially for text and low contrast environments.
Content legibility is a crucial aspect of the Liquid Glass design. It inherently supports accessibility features like reduced transparency and increased contrast. Your feedback during the beta period and beyond is essential to ensuring Liquid Glass provides a great experience within your apps.
What are some Apple apps that stand out for their accessibility?
Apps like Keynote in the iWork suite offer groundbreaking VoiceOver features to enhance creative productivity for all users. Assistive Access makes core apps such as Messages, Photos, Camera, Phone, and Music more accessible. Podcasts provides transcripts to broaden its reach, and frameworks like SwiftUI ensure that apps built with the latest UI frameworks have excellent built-in accessibility.
My app uses CoreData based on iOS 13.0 combined with iCloud to store data. This function automatically manages the data collaboration between CoreData and iCloud. Some users have reported that after going abroad, their original data disappeared, and when they returned to China, the data could be displayed normally again. I'm located in Mainland China. I've learned that iCloud data in China is all stored in Guizhou-Cloud Big Data (the data center in Guizhou). Could this problem be caused by display abnormalities resulting from the switching of the iCloud data storage centers accessed in different regions?
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
Accessibility Voiceover is not treating navigation bar left button as first focused element.
If we navigate from A->B then the focus is going to first element inside the B view not to the back button or B view's navigation title.
If we post accessibility notification, in onAppear of B, focus is not shifting. but it will read back button first, and then read the B view's content item. it does't focus to back button in swiftUI.
how should I do? if I want to focus on the navigation item back button or navigation title.
my understanding is the system prioritizes the first focusable element in the view hierarchy. but The navigation bar (including the close button and title) is managed separately by the system. It is not part of the main view hierarchy, so it does not automatically receive focus unless explicitly set. if my thoughts are right, it seems a little strange.
Why did you design it this way? Can you tell me your thinking?
Thanks
We have an electron app developed for Mac. We would like to restore the user data previously saved in downloads once user installs the app from store and first launch. But MAS has restrictions with ""com.apple.security.files.downloads.read-write". We have enabled the user access in Entitlement files and request user permission before access What options can be user to auto restore the data from downlodas?
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
Please refer to Feedback report: FB19701007
The Personal Voice file created in English changes to either Spanish or Chinese and no longer works properly. This has been happening since Beta 1 of iOS/iPadOS 26.
I have been unable to pinpoint what causes this to occur. Possibly downloading foreign voices to a device or using different voices via AVSpeechSynthesizer.
I run an app in Xcode on my device that prints to the console info about the installed voices. Initially after creation here is the output:
Voice Identifier: com.apple.speech.personalvoice.16173F8D-DFB0-4024-98CC-69D965FD96A4
Language: en-US
Then I hear a Spanish accent and find this:
Voice Identifier: com.apple.speech.personalvoice.16173F8D-DFB0-4024-98CC-69D965FD96A4
Language: es-MX
Currently it isn't working and here is the output:
Voice Identifier: com.apple.speech.personalvoice.16173F8D-DFB0-4024-98CC-69D965FD96A4
Language: zh-CN
Note that the voice file on all three above is the same. No matter what the user does, the created voice file should never be able to change languages. On my test devices I reset them all by erasing all content and settings and creating a new English Personal Voice and the issue persists.
A side issue is the toggle share across devices doesn't remain off if turned off. I tried to not share to see if that could be the cause, but the toggle turns on automatically. It won’t remain off.
I'm looking into how to programmatically control color filters in the Accessibility settings under "System Settings" -> "Accessibility" -> "Color Filters"--in particular the "Intensity" and "Filter type" settings.
As far as I have gathered, changing this setting can only be accomplished using the CoreGraphics APIs or Accessibility APIs (I've poked around GitHub, Stack Overflow, and queried some LLMs), but there doesn't seem to be a clear cut example for doing this using public facing APIs, without ripping off source code from another project wholesale or using private APIs.
My goal is to overlay a color filter at either a per-application or system level to help with accessibility. If there's a way to overlay this capability on an application-by-application basis as a third-party developer, that would be the most ideal scenario. For example, modifying the look and feel/UX for Launchpad, Photos, etc, as a third-party developer without accessing the source code of the application that I'm modifying the look/feel for (with appropriate user consent of course).
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
I use AttributedString to create a string containing a link. And I set the AttributedString to UILabel. How should I set up the Accessibility feature to make sure that
I can keyboard focus on the substring with link and use keyboard operation to open the link
I can VoiceOver the whole string and VoiceOver the substring with link to open the link
Thanks a lot.
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
I’m trying to enroll in the Apple Developer Program as an individual. I’ve gone through the steps on the website and started the purchase process. However, after a couple of days when I return to the site, it doesn’t remember my progress — I have to start the enrollment from scratch every time.
Is this expected behavior? Am I missing a step to save my progress or complete the enrollment properly?
Any help or guidance would be appreciated. Thank you!
Has the NEHotspotNetwork framework removed the fetchAvailableNetworksWithCompletionHandler API? xcode version: 16.2 ios sdk: 18.2
I want to get wifi's list by NEHotspotNetwork framework, but i didn't find any useful infomation about it
The Text view seems to automatically prevent orphaned words on screen, but barring exceptional circumstances such as the font size being too large.
I couldn't find any documentation on this behaviour, how to configure, and would also be very interested in how it's implemented?
Thanks!
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
I am encountering the following issue while working with app group preferences in my Safari web extension:
Couldn't read values in CFPrefsPlistSource<0x3034e7f80> (Domain: [MyAppGroup], User: kCFPreferencesAnyUser, ByHost: Yes, Container: (null), Contents Need Refresh: Yes): Using kCFPreferencesAnyUser with a container is only allowed for System Containers, detaching from cfprefsd.
I am trying to read/write shared preferences using UserDefaults with an App Group but keep running into this error. Any guidance on how to resolve this would be greatly appreciated!
Has anyone encountered this before? How can I properly configure my app group preferences to avoid this issue?
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
Tags:
Swift Packages
Messages
Xcode
Group Activities
Hello everyone,
Our community dues payment app only facilitates real-world maintenance-dues payments directly to property managers’ bank accounts. However, during testing it was likely flagged by the AI-driven review system for a metadata criterion and rejected under Guideline 3.1.1 (“Paid digital content must use IAP”).
Meanwhile, hundreds of similar apps remain live on the App Store using the exact same model:
The app is completely free
No digital content or subscriptions are sold
Dues payments are made via bank transfer or credit card directly to the manager
Has anyone else encountered this? How did you overcome the metadata check in the AI-driven review process?
Thanks!
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
I’m requesting access to the Family Controls API for an iOS app currently in development. I’ve submitted the request through the official form here:
https://developer.apple.com/contact/request/family-controls-distribution
However, after submitting, I receive no confirmation email or support ticket ID. The page only shows a “Thank you for requesting the API” message, and I’m left without a way to track or confirm the request.
This entitlement is essential for my app’s functionality, and I need to move forward with development and testing. Can someone from the Apple team please confirm receipt of the request and provide guidance on the next steps or estimated timelines?