Widgets & Live Activities

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Discuss how to manage and implement Widgets & Live Activities.

WidgetKit Documentation

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The Flashlight Burnout
Often times myself and others have left flashlight on by accident. Burning it out for sometime of being in pocket or left on table the light stays on the whole time because of just not realizing it was on. The front of phone shows flashlight icon is white when light is on, but this is not good enough! The icon needs to be a bright red or some other color so user can see that the light is actually still on. This would help alot , ty
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66
Sep ’25
privacySensitive on lockScreen does not seem to work...
Documentation seems to say that privacySensitive is supposed to redact on the lockScreen. I've disabled "Allow Access when locked" for "Lock Screen Widgets" just in case. It does not work for me. If I add "redacted(reason:) into the view hierarchy it redacts all the content all the time including on the home screen. I've read articles. I gone through a lot of documentation. None of them seem to give the magic formula for redacting sensitive content on the lock screen. I'm using iOS 18.7 on a real iPhone 14 Pro Max.
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134
Sep ’25
Unable to activate ActiveKit
Appears during code compilation Provisioning profile "iOS Team Provisioning Profile: ..*" doesn't include the com.apple.developer.ActivityKit entitlement, Has anyone encountered or resolved a similar issue where the ActiveKit feature was not found in the developer's identifier, despite not being activated in the developer's system?
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81
Sep ’25
Unable to activate ActivityKit
Appears during code compilation Provisioning profile "iOS Team Provisioning Profile: ..*" doesn't include the com.apple.developer.ActivityKit entitlement, Has anyone encountered or resolved a similar issue where the ActiveKit feature was not found in the developer's identifier, despite not being activated in the developer's system?
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68
Oct ’25
App Intent Parameter (AppEntity) not registering
I'm currently testing this on a physical device (12 Pro Max, iOS 26). Through shortcuts, I know for a fact that I am able to successfully trigger the perform code to do what's needed. In addition, if I just tell siri the phrase without my unit parameter, and it asks me which unit, I am able to, once again, successfully call my perform. The problem is any of my phrases that I include my unit, it either just opens my application, or says "I can't understand" Here is my sample code: My Entity: import Foundation import AppIntents struct Unit: Codable, Identifiable { let nickname: String let ipAddress: String let id: String } struct UnitEntity: AppEntity { static var typeDisplayRepresentation: TypeDisplayRepresentation { TypeDisplayRepresentation( name: LocalizedStringResource("Unit", table: "AppIntents") ) } static let defaultQuery = UnitEntityQuery() // Unique Identifer var id: Unit.ID // @Property allows this data to be available to Shortcuts, Siri, Etc. @Property var name: String // By not including @Property, this data is NOT used for queries. var ipAddress: String var displayRepresentation: DisplayRepresentation { DisplayRepresentation( title: "\(name)" ) } init(Unit: Unit) { self.id = Unit.id self.ipAddress = Unit.ipAddress self.name = Unit.nickname } } My Query: struct UnitEntityQuery: EntityQuery { func entities(for identifiers: [UnitEntity.ID]) async throws -> [UnitEntity] { print("[UnitEntityQuery] Query for IDs \(identifiers)") return UnitManager.shared.getUnitUnits() .map { UnitEntity(Unit: $0) } } func suggestedEntities() async throws -> [UnitEntity] { print("[UnitEntityQuery] Request for suggested entities.") return UnitManager.shared.getUnitUnits() .map { UnitEntity(Unit: $0) } } } UnitsManager: class UnitManager { static let shared = UnitManager() private init() {} var allUnits: [UnitEntity] { getUnitUnits().map { UnitEntity(Unit: $0) } } func getUnitUnits() -> [Unit] { guard let jsonString = UserDefaults.standard.string(forKey: "UnitUnits"), let data = jsonString.data(using: .utf8) else { return [] } do { return try JSONDecoder().decode([Unit].self, from: data) } catch { print("Error decoding units: \(error)") return [] } } func contactUnit(unit: UnitEntity) async -> Bool { // Do things here... } } My AppIntent: import AppIntents struct TurnOnUnit: AppIntent { static let title: LocalizedStringResource = "Turn on Unit" static let description = IntentDescription("Turn on an Unit") static var parameterSummary: some ParameterSummary { Summary("Turn on \(\.$UnitUnit)") } @Parameter(title: "Unit Unit", description: "The Unit Unit to turn on") var UnitUnit: UnitEntity func perform() async throws -> some IntentResult & ProvidesDialog { //... My code here } } And my ShortcutProvider: import Foundation import AppIntents struct UnitShortcuts: AppShortcutsProvider { static var appShortcuts: [AppShortcut] { AppShortcut( intent: TurnOnUnit(), phrases: [ "Start an Unit with \(.applicationName)", "Using \(.applicationName), turn on my \(\.$UnitUnit)", "Turn on my \(\.$UnitUnit) with \(.applicationName)", "Start my \(\.$UnitUnit) with \(.applicationName)", "Start \(\.$UnitUnit) with \(.applicationName)", "Start \(\.$UnitUnit) in \(.applicationName)", "Start \(\.$UnitUnit) using \(.applicationName)", "Trigger \(\.$UnitUnit) using \(.applicationName)", "Activate \(\.$UnitUnit) using \(.applicationName)", "Volcano \(\.$UnitUnit) using \(.applicationName)", ], shortTitle: "Turn on unit", systemImageName: "bolt.fill" ) } }
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98
Oct ’25
in OS26, X Large circle uses small circle size for the maximum image sizes
Create a static widget kit based widget for watchKit. Use swiftUI and an image. IE on 42mm you can import a 141x141 image at 2x. Import a 141x141 image in the widget and load it in swiftUI. In watchOS 11.x simulator the image will allow up to the size for X Large circles, and on os26, it will not load and complain the image is too large and report the area for the smaller circle, IE 89x89 @ 2x for 41mm Also submitted a "feedback" ticket FB20506200 This is a big issue b/c the size difference for X large circles v the smaller circles is really large. To get existing images to load I am having to resize them down 75-80% on OS26 in the X Large complication.
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74
Oct ’25
LiveActivityIntent call perfrom inconsistently
When I set Alarm with fixed schedule(Alarm.Schedule.fixed(date)) LiveActivityIntent just work inconsistently it sometimes call perfrom but cannot call other's such as NotificationCenter.default.post it just work fine with relativeSchedule but not for fixed schedule i want to know why it happen tested code is under below struct StopIntent: LiveActivityIntent { static var supportedModes: IntentModes = [.foreground(.immediate)] func perform() throws -> some IntentResult { guard let id = UUID(uuidString: alarmID) else { NotificationCenter.default.post(name: .Alarm.stoped, object: alarmDataString) throw TestAlarmManager._Error.badAlarmID } Task { @MainActor in try TestAlarmManager.shared.stopAlarm(id) NotificationCenter.default.post(name: .Alarm.stoped, object: alarmDataString) } return .result() } static var title: LocalizedStringResource = "Stop" static var description = IntentDescription("Stop an alert") @Parameter(title: "alarmID") var alarmID: String @Parameter(title: "alarmDataString") var alarmDataString: String init(alarmID: UUID, alarmDataString: String) { self.alarmID = alarmID.uuidString self.alarmDataString = alarmDataString } init() { self.alarmID = "" self.alarmDataString = "" } }
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117
Oct ’25
What should your server do when apns returns a 410 Unregistered error for your token?
For our Live Activity Tokens, when we fire a payload, often apns is returning a response of 410 unregistered. Docs are saying: The device token is inactive for the specified topic. There is no need to send further pushes to the same device token, unless your application retrieves the same device token, refer to Registering your app with APNs Questions: Why does this happen? Does it only happen because the user changed their permission? Or there are other reasons? And when it does happen, what should we do about it? A. Should we keep the token on the server? Because perhaps the user will change their permission and the token becomes valid? That could leave us with lots of invalid tokens and us firing at them unnecessarily. Docs do say: Don’t retry notification responses with the error code BadDeviceToken, DeviceTokenNotForTopic, Forbidden, ExpiredToken, Unregistered, or PayloadTooLarge. B. Or should we remove the token from the server? That then requires app to re-register the token. But the problem with that is: When I went into App's settings from OS settings and toggled push notifications to on, the app was not launched into the background nor killed i.e. it requires explicit app launch by the user to re-register itself which isn't ideal... It means a user may turn on notifications from the OS settings and then assume that their push notifications should be back in business, but that won't happen if you toggle things from OS settings.
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174
Nov ’25
Mac OS 26.1 Crash widget when create UIWindow
Hello, Users are reporting that widgets in my iOS app running on Mac OS are starting to crash after updating to MacOS 26.1. Everything works fine on iOS 26.1 and MacOS 15.6. The same bugs I found in iOS 26 beta 4, but then Apple fixed them in iOS 26RC and now they're back in macOS. Any suggestions? Crash report: Process: WidgetWebWidgetExt [23580] Path: /Volumes/VOLUME/*/WidgetWeb.app/PlugIns/WidgetWebWidgetExt.appex/WidgetWebWidgetExt Identifier: app.vitalek.widgetapp.web.WidgetWebExt Version: 7.5 (5796) AppVariant: 1:MacFamily20,1:18 Code Type: ARM-64 (Native) Role: unknown Parent Process: launchd [1] Coalition: app.vitalek.widgetapp.web.WidgetWebExt [28539] User ID: 501 Date/Time: 2025-11-04 11:47:19.0746 -0500 Launch Time: 2025-11-04 11:47:18.8035 -0500 Hardware Model: Mac14,6 OS Version: macOS 26.1 (25B78) Release Type: User Crash Reporter Key: 39D39455-7F69-746C-2A1D-7A6086F25541 Incident Identifier: 7AC31574-73A4-4320-B17A-C2819252EEDA Sleep/Wake UUID: 1535756C-44D8-497F-A288-07E53CD9B9E4 Time Awake Since Boot: 18000 seconds Time Since Wake: 7417 seconds System Integrity Protection: enabled Triggered by Thread: 0, Dispatch Queue: com.apple.main-thread Exception Type: EXC_CRASH (SIGABRT) Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000 Termination Reason: Namespace SIGNAL, Code 6, Abort trap: 6 Terminating Process: WidgetWebWidgetExt [23580] Application Specific Information: abort() called Thread 0 Crashed:: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread 0 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x1926e75b0 __pthread_kill + 8 1 libsystem_pthread.dylib 0x192721888 pthread_kill + 296 2 libsystem_c.dylib 0x192626850 abort + 124 3 libc++abi.dylib 0x1926d5858 __abort_message + 132 4 libc++abi.dylib 0x1926c44d4 demangling_terminate_handler() + 304 5 libobjc.A.dylib 0x1922f0414 _objc_terminate() + 156 6 libc++abi.dylib 0x1926d4c2c std::__terminate(void (*)()) + 16 7 libc++abi.dylib 0x1926d8394 __cxxabiv1::failed_throw(__cxxabiv1::__cxa_exception*) + 88 8 libc++abi.dylib 0x1926d833c __cxa_throw + 92 9 libobjc.A.dylib 0x1922e6580 objc_exception_throw + 448 10 Foundation 0x19495122c -[NSAssertionHandler handleFailureInMethod:object:file:lineNumber:description:] + 288 11 UIKitMacHelper 0x1b0240c80 -[UINSApplicationDelegate init] + 1348 12 UIKitMacHelper 0x1b02406d8 __41+[UINSApplicationDelegate sharedDelegate]_block_invoke + 48 13 libdispatch.dylib 0x19257eac4 _dispatch_client_callout + 16 14 libdispatch.dylib 0x192567a60 _dispatch_once_callout + 32 15 UIKitMacHelper 0x1b02405dc +[UINSApplicationDelegate sharedDelegate] + 324 16 UIKitCore 0x1ca488518 -[UIScene setTitle:] + 188 17 UIKitCore 0x1ca487e90 -[UIScene initWithSession:connectionOptions:] + 1084 18 UIKitCore 0x1cb2a6a54 -[UIWindowScene initWithSession:connectionOptions:] + 92 19 UIKitCore 0x1ca66b44c -[_UIScreenBasedWindowScene initWithScreen:session:lookupKey:] + 292 20 UIKitCore 0x1ca66aff4 +[_UIScreenBasedWindowScene _unassociatedWindowSceneForScreen:create:] + 408 21 UIKitCore 0x1cb09171c -[UIWindow _uiWindowSceneFromFBSScene:] + 704 22 UIKitCore 0x1cb0918cc -[UIWindow _initWithFrame:debugName:scene:attached:] + 92 23 UIKitCore 0x1cb091e68 -[UIWindow _initWithOrientation:] + 56 24 UIKitCore 0x1cb091ebc -[UIWindow init] + 72 25 WidgetWebWidgetExt 0x1027eb250 0x102718000 + 864848 26 WidgetWebWidgetExt 0x1027ea418 0x102718000 + 861208 27 WidgetWebWidgetExt 0x1027f5bc8 0x102718000 + 908232 28 WidgetWebWidgetExt 0x1027f4bfc 0x102718000 + 904188 29 WidgetWebWidgetExt 0x1027cf9f4 0x102718000 + 752116 30 WidgetWebWidgetExt 0x102807c20 0x102718000 + 982048 31 libdispatch.dylib 0x19257eac4 _dispatch_client_callout + 16 32 libdispatch.dylib 0x1925696e4 _dispatch_continuation_pop + 596 33 libdispatch.dylib 0x19257c800 _dispatch_source_latch_and_call + 396 34 libdispatch.dylib 0x19257b4d4 _dispatch_source_invoke + 844 35 libdispatch.dylib 0x19259c008 _dispatch_main_queue_drain.cold.5 + 592 36 libdispatch.dylib 0x192573f48 _dispatch_main_queue_drain + 180 37 libdispatch.dylib 0x192573e84 _dispatch_main_queue_callback_4CF + 44 38 CoreFoundation 0x1927ea980 __CFRUNLOOP_IS_SERVICING_THE_MAIN_DISPATCH_QUEUE__ + 16 39 CoreFoundation 0x1927bf7dc __CFRunLoopRun + 1944 40 CoreFoundation 0x19287935c _CFRunLoopRunSpecificWithOptions + 532 41 Foundation 0x194a06890 -[NSRunLoop(NSRunLoop) runMode:beforeDate:] + 212 42 Foundation 0x194005a50 -[NSRunLoop(NSRunLoop) run] + 64 43 libxpc.dylib 0x19240ce14 _xpc_objc_main + 668 44 libxpc.dylib 0x19241ecf8 _xpc_main + 40 45 libxpc.dylib 0x19241ecd0 xpc_bs_main + 16 46 BoardServices 0x1ac51179c +[BSServicesConfiguration activateXPCService] + 72 47 ExtensionFoundation 0x237a92710 _EXRunningExtension.resume() + 1592 48 ExtensionFoundation 0x237a911a8 _EXRunningExtension.start(withArguments:count:) + 124 49 ExtensionFoundation 0x237a88f24 EXExtensionMain(_:_:) + 668 50 Foundation 0x1940065ec NSExtensionMain + 200 51 dyld 0x192359d54 start + 7184
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62
Nov ’25
Live Activity – crashes on ActivityAuthorizationInfo() and Activity.activities
Hey! I'm working on enabling remotely started live activities. I'm running into 2 crashes: Upon initializing ActivityAuthorizationInfo Upon calling Activity<...>.activities array Both stack traces look like this: 0 libsystem_kernel.dylib +0xce0 _mach_msg2_trap 1 libsystem_kernel.dylib +0x4398 _mach_msg2_internal 2 libsystem_kernel.dylib +0x42b4 _mach_msg_overwrite 3 libsystem_kernel.dylib +0x40fc _mach_msg 4 libdispatch.dylib +0x1cc04 __dispatch_mach_send_and_wait_for_reply 5 libdispatch.dylib +0x1cfa4 _dispatch_mach_send_with_result_and_wait_for_reply 6 libxpc.dylib +0x107ec _xpc_connection_send_message_with_reply_sync 7 BoardServices +0xaea8 -[BSXPCServiceConnectionMessage _sendWithMode:] 8 BoardServices +0x17938 -[BSXPCServiceConnectionMessage sendSynchronouslyWithError:] 9 BoardServices +0xeef0 ___71+[BSXPCServiceConnectionProxy createImplementationOfProtocol:forClass:]_block_invoke They happen to a limited number of users, but not insignificant. Most are on iOS 18.6.2 and iOS 26.1, but there are others in the mix. I don't have a repro myself. It looks like the main thread gets blocked after we receive no response from these ActivityKit APIs. Both of these are called inside application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:. For ActivityAuthorizationInfo, we need the app to communicate with the server whether the user has live activities enabled; hence, calling this object's init as early as possible in the app. For activities array, I'd like to do some logging whenever the live activity is started or ended (for example, if activities array no longer contains any activities, we can log the activity as dismissed). For this logging to happen, as far as I understand, it has to happen inside didFinishLaunchingWithOptions since this is the only method being called upon the terminated app receiving background runtime when the live activity starts/ends remotely. After some research, one potential reason is ActivityKit APIs are just not ready to return values via xpc connection at app startup, so moving these methods to applicationDidBecomeActive could resolve the problem. That's fine for ActivityAuthorizationInfo init, but for accessing activities, there is no other place in the lifecycle to see if an activity has been dismissed (especially in the scenario where app is terminated, so we get only 30 seconds ish of background runtime). Curious if anyone has run into this or has any insights into ActivityKit API behavior.
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132
4d
How can you update a Live Activity without hitting "Allow"?
(I truly appreciate all the responses you all have written for me :bow: ) I was under the assumption that for Live Activity, in order for you to be able to update the Activity, you need an update token. And for the OS to issue you the update token, user must hit the "Allow" from the lock screen. However based on these screenshots it seems that you don't need to hit "Allow" to be able to update the Live Activity. Live Activity was updated — even without the user hitting "Allow" So now I'm wondering if: Is hitting Allow required for the update token to get issued? Or that assumption is incorrect? In our tests (when connected to Proxyman, the OS emits the update token after user hits "Allow" / "Always Allow") If you don't hit allow, are there alternate ways to update the Live Activity without having the update token? I'm guessing you could set a short stale time and then when the OS launches the app in the background you query the server and then update the Live Activity. Is that a worthy approach? I also noticed that the "The Philly Inquirer" App has 'Background App Refresh" enabled, but this happened in 2 minutes. In our architecture assessments, after reviewing Apple's docs on 'Background Processing", we didn't think of it as a viable option, because it can't guarantee if the OS is given time in the next 2 minutes or 10 hours later when the phone is getting charged again. Are any of these workarounds viable or are there alternate approaches? Our requirement is: be able to use Live Activity between 2-72hrs after app install. (I mention this because perhaps Apple may impost some restrictions for new installs) be able to update an active Live Activity within 1-2 minutes after it has began.
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1d
Now Playing / Recently Played API
We are using the MPNowPlayingInfoCenter API to provide information to the “Now Playing” system UI. This works as expected, except that when the app is manually terminated, the information is removed from the UI. Our question is: Some apps (for example, Audible) are able to appear in the “Recently Played” section of the UI. This section seems to show a history of apps that previously provided “Now Playing” information but are not currently playing anything. We would like to know which API is used to achieve this behavior.
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75
2d
iOS26 Live Activity always display in Dark Mode
Hi, We design a Live Activity for our app.We find that in iOS26 system, the widget can not display the correct system display model(Light mode or dark mode), always display with dark mode. When our app run in other system ,such as iOS 17, iOS18 ,it work fine. I find other developer had post a topic three month ago , but it seems there is not any new response about the feedback. https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/799684?answerId=857377022#857377022 Anyone have idea? Thanks . Below is my code template: struct BroadcastLiveActivityBackgroundView: View { @Environment(\.colorScheme) var colorScheme: ColorScheme var body:some View { LinearGradient( stops: [ Gradient.Stop(color: LiveActivityColor.backgroundColors(self.colorScheme).last!, location: 0.00), Gradient.Stop(color: LiveActivityColor.backgroundColors(self.colorScheme).first!, location: 1.00), ], startPoint: UnitPoint(x: 1, y: 0), endPoint: UnitPoint(x: 0.82, y: 1.11) ) } }
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62
3d
Dynamic island on a ios app
I want to make a app that indicates that the app is recording in the background using a indicator on the dynamic island or on the top of the phone screen but i can't figure it out on Xcode. Saw a guy do it by making live activities true but can't seem to find that option in background mode in capabilities. any ideas?
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41
2d
Optional Parameter using WidgetConfigurationIntent
Hi there, I'm adding a new widget using the new WidgetConfigurationIntent which takes a number of parameters, including one which conforms to AppEntity. It is defined as an optional. When the user is configuring the widget, after one of the suggested entities is chosen, there is no way to return to a state where this value is nil. Is this possible? I'd like the user to be able to select "None" for this parameter. For now, I'm using a bool to determine whether the AppEntity parameter is used. Thanks!
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1.1k
Oct ’25
Adding a custom widget to the Capture group in Control Center
I noticed that with iOS 18, when adding a widget to the Control Center, there is now some "grouping system". I'm interested in the Capture group, which contains native widgets from Apple as well as third party apps like Instagram and Blackmagic cam, widgets in this group open the camera. My widget also opens the camera in my app, how can I add it to this group?
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342
Oct ’25
Live Activity Start Token not generating after certain days of usage for non Production builds
Live Activity Start Token not generating after certain days of usage. We have implemented Live Activity feature where the initial activity is launched by our backend. But to start that first live activity I need push to start token which is generating for few days but all of sudden after certain days it stops generating. Currently we are in development phase so we test it on multiple devices and multiple time we are doing install and uninstall. STEPS TO REPRODUCE Install the app Start token gets generated which is sent to our server After certain duration server sends the first live activity using that token user opens the app then we receive the updated token and send that token to server server uses that updated token to further update the live activity. All this works fine. But after a week of usage we are observing that we stop getting start token from APNS. Not sure where exactly the thing is breaking. We have tried with different devices and different bundle identifiers but behaviour is same for all. func generateStartToken() { Task.detached { [weak self] in guard let self else { return } await self.observeActivityPushTokenAndState() for await data in ActivityKit.Activity<LiveActivityAttribute>.pushToStartTokenUpdates { let token = data.map { String(format: "%02x", $0) }.joined() print("Activity Start token: ", token) } } } func observeActivityPushTokenAndState() { Task.detached { for await activity in ActivityKit.Activity<LiveActivityAttribute>.activityUpdates { Task { for await tokenData in activity.pushTokenUpdates { let updatedToken = tokenData.map { String(format: "%02x", $0) }.joined() print("Activity Update token: ", updatedToken) } } Task { for await content in activity.contentUpdates { let updatedContent = content.state print("Activity Updated: ", updatedContent) } } } } }
2
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148
Apr ’25