Explore best practices for creating inclusive apps for users of Apple accessibility features and users from diverse backgrounds.

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Implementing App Clips with .NET MAUI
We have an iOS App built in .NET MAUI (Multi-platform App UI). This is a web view App. We wish to integrate APP Clips into this App. But we are unable to do it, due to less available resources online on such implementation. We do not wish to share code between .NET MAUI App and App clips. We understand it is not possible to add APP Clips without a parent swift/Xcode app. As an alternative solution we were thinking to Create a new APP in APP Store Connect using XCode/swift and integrate app clips to it. This parent app when downloaded by users will only redirect users to our MAIN .NET MAUI app to app store connect. We need to know if such apps will be approved by APPSTORE Connect? Please guide us on this. Also please do let us know if you have any other solution to integrate App clips to a .NET MAUI App
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116
Jun ’25
Separate bluetooth keyboard and bluetooth scanner inputs
Hi, I have an iOS app where bluetooth scanner and bluetooth keyboard both should work simultaneously. I have used 'pressesBegan' method to fetch the characters which are coming from the bluetooth keyboard. This method is fetching all the bluetooth keyboard inputs correctly. But this method is also called when the characters are coming from the bluetooth scanner. In the 'pressesBegan' method, I have to separate the inputs which are coming from the bluetooth keyboard and are coming from bluetooth scanner. They both have some different use in the app. I have already tried with the fetching speed of the characters, but no luck in case of high speed typing. So characters fetching speed will not work in our case. Is there any way to separate the inputs based on some other factorials? Or any other info in the 'pressesBegan' method which can separate the input that it is coming from scanner or is coming from keyboard. Any suggestion regarding this will be helpful. Thanks in advance.
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404
Jan ’25
Thai input glitch after Command + Delete in macOS beta
Issue: When using the shortcut Command + Delete to clear a line of text, the next character I type in Thai unexpectedly appears as an English character, even though the input source is still set to Thai. After that, subsequent characters return to Thai as expected. Details: Affected apps: Notes, Messages, and some other native apps Not affected: Browser text fields (Safari, Chrome, etc.) Does not occur when using Option + Delete or just Delete macOS [insert beta version + build number] Mac model: [insert model] Input sources: Thai – Kedmanee, English – U.S. Steps to reproduce: Open Notes (or Messages). Switch to Thai input. Type a few Thai words. Press Command + Delete. Type again — the first character shows up in English. Expected: First character should remain in Thai, consistent with the active input source. Actual: First character shows as English, then input switches back to Thai.
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800
Aug ’25
CFPrefsPlistSource Read Error with App Group Preferences
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?
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714
Feb ’25
Japanese “Hattori” TTS voice missing from Settings > General > Read & Speak > Voices > Japanese on iOS 26
Japanese “Hattori” TTS voice missing from Settings > General > Read & Speak > Voices > Japanese on iOS 26 Steps: Open the path above → “Hattori” is not listed and cannot be downloaded Expected: Hattori is available to download and select Actual: Hattori is absent from the catalog Regression: Was available on iOS 18.x on the same device
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395
Sep ’25
Seeking API Support for Marking Substrings as Headings in NSTextView for VoiceOver
I'm developing a document editor for macOS using AppKit, which supports structured content such as titles and multiple heading levels—similar to what you see in the Pages app. I'm looking for a way to programmatically mark a specific substring within an NSTextView as a heading, so that VoiceOver can recognize it and announce it appropriately (e.g., by saying “heading” before reading the text). This would be similar in spirit to how NSAccessibilityLinkTextAttribute works for links. Is there an existing accessibility text attribute or recommended approach to achieve this behavior for headings? If not, I’d appreciate any guidance or suggestions on how best to implement this in a VoiceOver-friendly way. Thank you in advance for your help! Best regards,
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May ’25
A Summary of the WWDC25 Group Lab - Accessibility
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.
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872
Jul ’25
Make Accessibility Focus move to UIPickerView when tapping on UITextField (Full Keyboard Access)
I have a UITextField in my application for entering a state. If I tap on it, a UIPickerView pops up and let's the user select a state (but they can still type too). The issue relates to Full Keyboard Access. If we select the UITextField using an external keyboard, the UIPickerView appears, but in order to get to it the user has to tab through the whole view controller to get to the UIPickerView at the end. What would be nice is to a) move focus directly to the UIPickerView (have it highlighted in blue and scrollable right away with keyboard) or b) make the UIPickerView the next view that's accessible when tabbing over or using the arrow keys. I've tried using: UIAccessibility notifications (both .screenChanged and .layoutChanged, with and without a delay). This ended up only announcing the view, but didn't help with full keyboard access. Making the UIPickerView a first responder when it appears. Attempting to change the accessibilityElements order (but with so many views and views within views, this isn't really a viable option either). Pressing tab + -> (tab and right arrow button) will quickly take the user to the end of the chain of accessibility elements, in other words, to the UIPickerView. But there has to be a cleaner way of just automatically setting the focus to the UIPickerView or making it the next element by pressing the arrow key.
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397
Mar ’25
The accessibility app keeps opening by itself on my iPhone 12 Pro. Can anyone please help me?
It’s very annoying but on my iPhone 12 Pro I keep getting the accessibility app with the microphone on and it keeps opening the app by itself and it’s a blank screen and every time I close it it just reopens. I don’t know why it keeps doing this, but it drives me crazy. Does anyone know what else to do? I also have the beta iOS 26 but it’s been doing this even with the past update.
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Jun ’25
Accessibility & Inclusion
We are developing Apple AI for foreign markets and adapting it for iPhone models 17 and above. When the system language and Siri language are not the same—for example, if the system is in English and Siri is in Chinese—it can cause a situation where Apple AI cannot be used. So, may I ask if there are any other reasons that could cause Apple AI to be unavailable within the app, even if it has been enabled?
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2w
Need app blocking permission for Screen Time Limit app - CAN'T GET ANSWER FROM SUPPORT FOR 3 WEEKS. APP HAS 100K FOLLOWERS ON SOCIAL MEDIA ALREADY
Hey everyone! I am developing a screen time limit app to help people spend less time in distracting apps. It works this way: people choose unhealthy apps for them and opposite productivity apps. In the app you can exchange time spent on healthy habits to scroll or use other distracting apps. This idea was loved by social media, and the app already has 100k followers on social media without even being launched yet. So I am waiting just for one feature permission from Apple, and they have not given me any answer since I applied 3 weeks ago. There are a lot of similar apps on the market, and this feature exists in other screen time limit apps. Why is app blocking permission needed? Time Exchange Functionality: Users independently select which apps are productive and which are distracting for them. The system blocks the "negative" apps until the user accumulates enough time in the "positive" ones. This encourages healthy device usage. Full User Control: All apps to be blocked are manually selected by the user in the settings. The extension does not impose any restrictions without explicit permission. Transparency and Security: Blocking happens locally, with no data collected about app usage. We adhere to Apple’s privacy policy. Compliance with App Store Guidelines: We understand that app blocking is a sensitive feature, but in our case it: Is used for the benefit of the user (digital detox, productivity improvement). Does not interfere with system processes or other developers’ apps. Does not misuse access to APIs. My question to the forum is: Did you have similar problems, and how did you resolve them? Are there any ways to speed up the process or contact someone from the approval team directly? Should I give up and release it on Android? I am very disappointed and frustrated. Hope to get some useful tips. Thank you very much!
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151
May ’25
When using UIScrollView and UITextView together, inserting a link causes the following text to disappear.
Since UITextView does not support the zoom function, the zoom function of UITextView with addSubview is used in UIScrollView. However, when I use the link here, the text behind it is missing. Ex) https://appstoreconnect.apple.com/login\nApple Developer Login -> The text “Apple Developer Login” does not appear. If anyone has experienced the same problem as me or knows a solution, please leave a comment. Note) It is working normally in iOS16, but the text behind the link disappears in iOS18. The text is not visible, but you can copy it and paste it to retrieve the missing text.
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245
Feb ’25
Attaching procedural audio to an ARKit SCNNode
I’m developing an ARKit application where I aim to attach procedurally generated audio to detected planes in the environment. While using a static audio file with SCNAudioSource and SCNAudioPlayer works as expected, integrating procedural audio via AVAudioSourceNode does not produce any sound, nor does it generate any error messages: Stack Overflow Post Working Implementation with Static Audio File: let audioPlayer = SCNAudioPlayer(source: audioSource) node.addAudioPlayer(audioPlayer) Attempted Implementation with Procedural Audio: // Audio generation code } let audioPlayer = SCNAudioPlayer(avAudioNode: audioNode) node.addAudioPlayer(audioPlayer) In this setup, the AVAudioSourceNode successfully generates audio when connected directly to an AVAudioEngine. However, when used with SCNAudioPlayer and attached to an SCNNode, it fails to produce sound. What doesn’t work is creating some procedural audio with an AVAudioNode, as documented here: Apple docs Additionally, I explored the WWDC18 AR game project, SwiftShot, which utilizes SCNAudioPlayer(avAudioNode:). After updating it for the latest Xcode, the graphics function correctly, but the audio does not play. I also noted that the Apple documentation mentions an audioPlayerWithAVAudioNode: method, stating: Using this initializer is typically not necessary. Instead, call the audioPlayerWithAVAudioNode: method, which returns a cached audio player object if one for the specified AVAudioNode object has already been created and is available for use. However, this method does not appear to be available in Swift. Any insights or guidance on this matter would be greatly appreciated.
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193
Apr ’25
How to Enable Group Navigation Behavior for Custom Views in VoiceOver?
In VoiceOver, when using Group Navigation style, the cursor first focuses on the semantic group. To navigate inside the group, a two-finger swipe (left or right) can be used. This behavior works for default containers like the Navigation Bar, Tab Bar, and Tool Bar. How can I achieve the same behavior for a custom view? I tried setting accessibilityContainerType = .semanticGroup, but it only works for Mac Catalyst. Is there an equivalent approach for iOS?
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416
Mar ’25
tvOS: GCController does not send button press events for "Button A" and "Button Center" when VoiceOver is On
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.
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648
Jan ’25
iOS 26 regression: `DeviceActivityEvent`: `eventDidReachThreshold` called immediately (instead of waiting till threshold is reached)
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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315
Nov ’25
Custom Keyboard Extension Not Showing in Settings for Activation
Hi everyone, I’m developing a React Native iOS app that includes a custom keyboard extension for sending stickers across apps. The project builds successfully, and the main app installs fine on my test device. However, I’m not seeing the keyboard extension appear under Settings → General → Keyboard → Keyboards → Add New Keyboard, which means I can’t activate it or grant access. At this point, I’m not even sure if the extension is actually being installed on the device along with the main app. Here’s what I’ve done so far. I created a Keyboard Extension target in Xcode, set the correct bundle identifiers and provisioning profiles, and enabled “Requests Open Access” in the extension’s Info.plist. I built and installed the app on a physical device rather than the simulator to ensure proper testing. My main questions are: how can I confirm that the extension is being installed on the device, and if it isn’t, what might prevent it from installing even though the build completes successfully? Any insights, troubleshooting steps, or guidance would be greatly appreciated.
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711
Nov ’25
False 3.1.1 Rejection: Real-World Dues Payments App
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!
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104
May ’25