Hi, We’re building an iOS app that uses the Screen Time APIs (FamilyControls and DeviceActivity) to display a user’s own usage metrics inside the app. With the appropriate permissions granted, we are successfully reading and presenting metrics such as: Total screen time Device pickups These metrics are already visible to the user inside our app. We would now like to introduce a user-initiated “Share” feature. The idea is to: Render selected Screen Time metrics into a shareable image card generated locally on device. Present the standard iOS share sheet (UIActivityViewController). Allow the user to share that image to Messages, social apps, etc., if they choose. Important clarifications: This is fully user-initiated. The app does not automatically transmit Screen Time data. The metrics are already displayed in-app with user permission. The share asset would be generated locally. No background export or server-side posting would occur unless explicitly triggered by the user via the share sheet. We are seeking clarification on whether there are any policy or API restrictions around: Rendering Screen Time-derived metrics into a user-facing share card Allowing user-initiated export of those metrics via the standard iOS share flow Are there any additional privacy requirements, entitlement constraints, or App Review considerations we should be aware of when implementing this? Thanks in advance for any guidance.

I work on an open source app called Meteorologist (https://sourceforge.net/projects/heat-meteo/). One of the sources the users are allowed to use is Apple's WeatherKit. The app is compiled by me and free to download by anybody. My developer account has the free level of WeatherKit so 500,000 calls/month and every once in a while the app actually hits that limit, shutting that weather source/service down for the app. Is there any way to ask users of the app to somehow get their own account (or already have a developer account) and can register their license so it doesn't all bump up against the one (my) "license"? If so, how would that be passed to WeatherKit? The only thought I have is that they would need to compile the code on their own and sign their own copy. Thanks for any and all feedback and thoughts. Ed

I put a test.mp3 (30 sec) file into the App Bundle. I scheduled an AlarmKit alarm with the file name test.mp3. The custom sound plays ✅ I copied the file from the App Bundle to Library/Sounds/test2.mp3. I scheduled an AlarmKit alarm with the file name test2.mp3. Instead of playing the custom sound, it falls back to the default sound ❌ According to the documentation, sounds placed in Library/Sounds should be playable: I filed report FB19779004 on August 20, but haven’t received any response yet. This functionality is critical for our use case, so could you please let me know whether this is expected to be fixed soon, or if I’m misunderstanding the intended behavior?

Hello, Recently we got a question about the event_timestamps for the phone usage report in our research project: Does the event_timestamp correspond to the start point or end point of a period of interest? For example, say the event_timestamp is 2024-07-01 23:59:59 with a duration of 86400. The user is noted to have made 2 phone calls during that event_timestamp. Did those phone calls occur in the 86400 seconds prior to that timestamp (i.e., on 2024-07-01) or in the 86400 seconds after that timestamp (i.e., on 2024-07-02)? Thanks!

Hi, I’m working on a proof of concept for a CarPlay application where I need to display multiple Points of Interest, such as EV charging stations and fuel stations. The app will also allow users to book a selected Point of Interest (for example, an EV charging slot). I understand that the app can be registered under the Navigation (turn‑by‑turn) category, but I wanted to check whether it is also possible to register it under the Driving Task category. I also want to know if i can Register for multiple Categories for my car play application.

Hi everyone, I have a question regarding the intended privacy limits of the DeviceActivityReportExtension. According to the documentation and the WWDC21 session "Meet the Screen Time API", this extension was created specifically to prevent the host application from accessing the user's underlying activity data (websites visited, app usage, screen time, etc). But I have found that my host app is actually able to reconstruct this raw activity data from the activity report. I am able to extract specific visited websites and app usage durations back into the main app. I reported this to Apple Security (Case ID: OE1100504480881 ), assuming it was a sandbox bypass. However, they closed the ticket stating that this is "expected behavior" and requires no fix. My question for Screen Time Engineers: Is the documentation incorrect? If my host app is expected to be able to read this data, is there a formal API we should be using instead of extracting it from the report extension? The current behavior contradicts the privacy limits described in the documentation, so I am confused if I should rely on this data access for my app features or if it will be patched later. Thanks.

Hello Apple Developer Support Team, We are developing an iOS iPhone application and would like clarification on whether Apple provides any APIs or system-level support to implement parental approval workflows aligned with certain regional regulatory requirements (for example, Texas, Utah, and Louisiana). Our intended use cases are outlined below: Initial Approval (App Download Stage) We understand that, in some situations, when a minor attempts to download an app from the App Store on iPhone, iOS may require approval through Family Sharing / Ask to Buy. We would like to confirm: • Whether there is any developer-accessible API that allows an iPhone app to detect if installation was approved via parental consent. • Whether apps can receive any callback, status indicator, or system signal confirming parental approval or rejection. • Whether the Declared Age Range API or any related framework provides access to parental approval or age verification signals. Ongoing Approval for Significant Changes For regulatory compliance, we may need to request parental re-approval when introducing significant application updates (for example, adding chat functionality, social interaction features, or modifying data collection practices). We would like clarification on: • Whether iOS provides any mechanism or API that allows iPhone apps to trigger or request parental re-approval after the application has already been installed. • Whether Apple provides any built-in workflows, system prompts, or entitlement-based approaches that support this type of re-approval process. In-App Handling of Parent Approval Requirements If our backend determines that a minor user requires parental approval before continuing to use certain app features, we would like to understand: • Whether Apple provides any APIs, SDKs, or recommended frameworks that allow initiating or facilitating parental authorization from within the iPhone app. • Whether there are any callbacks, permission states, entitlement checks, or system notifications that developers can use to determine and track parental consent status. If any such capabilities exist, we would greatly appreciate links to official documentation, technical guidance, or sample implementations demonstrating how approval status can be retrieved and handled in an iOS iPhone application. Also from which iOS version this capabilities will work & how to handle lower iOS version which is not supporting. Additionally, if Apple recommends alternative compliance approaches using existing frameworks such as Family Sharing, Screen Time APIs, or Declared Age Range, we would appreciate guidance on best practices for implementation. Also, could you please clarify the minimum iOS version that supports these capabilities? We would also appreciate recommendations on how developers should manage or implement fallback handling for devices running lower iOS versions where these capabilities are not supported. Thank you for your assistance and guidance in ensuring compliance with Apple platform policies and regional regulatory requirements. Kind regards

Dear Apple Support Team, Thank you for your continued support. I would like to inquire about the behavior of CallKit. Our company provides an office PBX extension phone application (iPhone app). When the iPhone is placed into sleep mode (screen off) and our app receives an incoming call, the following sequence sometimes results in an audio playback panel appearing at the bottom of the lock screen for a few seconds after the call ends(See attachment file for detail). Sequence to reproduce the issue: Put the iPhone into sleep mode (screen off). Receive an incoming call to our extension phone app. CallKit incoming call screen appears. Answer the call. Conduct the call. End the call from the peer. iOS versions with confirmed behavior: iOS 26.0: Not observed. iOS 26.2: Observed. iOS 26.3: Not observed. This behavior does not affect the call functionality itself; however, some users report that the temporary appearance of the audio playback panel feels unusual. If there is any known reason for this behavior or any recommended workaround, we would greatly appreciate your guidance. Additionally, if this is a known issue that was addressed in iOS 26.3, we would appreciate any information you can provide regarding that as well. Thank you very much for your assistance.

Issue Description: On non-Dynamic Island devices, when the screen is on, tapping the alarm banner does not open the app or trigger any action. Steps to Reproduce: Set a regular alarm. Wait until the alarm goes off. Keep the screen on. A banner appears with options (e.g., dismiss or a secondary action). Tap anywhere on the banner area that would normally open the app. Expected Behavior: Tapping the banner should open the app. Actual Behavior: Tapping the banner has no response.

Hello, In production, a large number of users experience outgoing call reporting fails with the following error: com.apple.CallKit.error.requesttransaction Code=2 The iOS version doesn't matter, errors are present in v15-26 Details My CXProvider held as a global singleton, so it’s unlikely to be deinited. There is no explicit call to CXProvider.invalidate() in the app. If I manually invalidate the CXProvider, I observe the expected failure when trying to create an outgoing call (com.apple.CallKit.error.requesttransaction error 2). However, If I recreate the CXProvider after the error, outgoing calls are reported correctly. Many users trigger the providerDidReset delegate method (CXProviderDelegate) before this error. According to the documentation, providerDidReset can be called by the system, and we are supposed to end all active calls, but the documentation doesn't suggest recreating the CXProvider. Question Should I recreate CXProvider after providerDidReset and forget about that, or could this error be caused by something else?

On and off I've been trying to figure out how to do hang detection in-application (at least from the user's point of view). Qualitatively what I'd like to do is have a process which runs sample(1) on the application after it's been unresponsive for more than a second or so. Basically, an in-app replacement for Spin Control. The problem I've been stuck on is: how do I tell? There used to be Core Graphics SPI (CGSRegisterNotifyProc with a value of kCGSEventNotificationAppIsUnresponsive) for doing this, but it doesn't work anymore (either due to sandboxing or system-wide security changes, I can't tell which but it doesn't matter). One thought I had was to have an XPC service which would expect to receive a checkin once per second from the host (via a timer set up by the host). If it didn't, it would start sample(1). This seems pretty heavyweight to me, since it means that once per second, I'm going to be consuming cycles to check in with the service. But I haven't been able to come up with a scheme that doesn't include some kind of check-in by the target process. Are there any APIs or strategies that I could use to accomplish this? Or is there some entitlement which would allow the application to request "application became unresponsive"/"application became responsive" notifications from the window server?

Hi, As a company, we have several apps in the AppStore that contain AppClips. With the latest iOS18 it works without any problems. With all iOS26 betas so far, however, there is always the problem “ASDErrorDomain- Error 507” and the AppClip cannot be opened. You can easily test this by scanning the following QR code with the system camera: You only ever get this error instead of the option to open the AppClip. As the iOS26 beta phase is already at an advanced stage, we are naturally concerned as to whether the problem will be solved.

In iOS 18, when a contact with multiple phone numbers called, the system clearly indicated which specific number was used—often by highlighting it in red for missed calls or tagging it as 'recent.' However, in iOS 26, this distinction is missing, and there is no way to determine which of the contact's numbers the call originated from.

Hey, I am just about to prepare my app for Swift 6, and facing the issue that UserDefaults is not Sendable. The documentation states that its thread safe, so I am wondering, why is it not marked as Sendable? Was it just forgotten? Is it safe to mark it as nonisolated(unsafe) or @unchecked Sendable?

Hello. We are facing very silent and hardly replicable issue. All UserDefaults.standard data the application saved and was using to determine the state of app is lost and app behaves as if it was freshly installed. The issue always occurs only if we leave app on background for long time or if we manually swipe the app from the background apps. In case we swipe, this issue can occur in minutes, hours or up to 2 days by our latest testing. One important factor is that the app was developed using iOS18 in which issue never occured. Next it was being tested on iOS26 and it did everytime. Any currently available version of iOS26 reported this issue, all the way up to 26.2.1 (23C71). Our application is going through major upgrade of its whole lifecycle and services so it is possible this issue is caused by a bug in development as the production version does not report this issue neither on iOS26 of any version. The following list contains how we tried to fix this issue but none of which helped. App prewarming in the background (postpone all initialization including searching UserDefaults.standard for when isProtectedDataAvailable) Calling UserDefaults.standard.synchronize() everytime after saving data despite it is not recomended Built app using different SDK's (tested on iOS18 and iOS26 SDK) Distributed the app from local machine aswell as on TestFlight itself We searched through currently opened and closed issues for third-party libraries app uses regarding 'iOS26' and 'UserDefaults', especially those who were added recently with no success. The structure using which we save data into UserDefaults.standard did not change, we have only added few more settings to save through the lifecycle of the app after update. We estimate the overall increase is merely 30% more of what it used to be in previous version. Any ideas are much appreciated. We are considering to use different or fully custom ways to store app's settings.

Do we need to take approval for any entitlement for the extension Unwanted Communication because currently I do not see my app in the Settings under SMS/Call Reporting extensions.

Currently, I have implemented Unwanted Communication Extension, But I wanted to send the reported call or message to my backed server. How can I achieve this and can I send message body to the server ?

Hello, I’m using the Screen Time API / Family Controls in my iOS app Sobre and I’m having an issue submitting a new build to TestFlight. My app setup is as follows: Main app ID: com.balthazar.sobre App extensions: Device Activity Monitor: com.balthazar.sobre.deviceactivitymonitor Shield Configuration: com.balthazar.sobre.shieldconfiguration Shield Action: com.balthazar.sobre.shieldaction On the Apple Developer portal: Family Controls (Distribution) is enabled for: the main app ID com.balthazar.sobre and all 3 extension App IDs above. App Groups are also configured for the app and the extensions. New App Store provisioning profiles have been generated for the app and all 3 extensions and are used in the latest build. When I submit the build through App Store Connect (via Fastlane / EAS), validation fails only for the Shield Action extension with this error: Invalid Info.plist value. The value of the NSExtensionPointIdentifier key, com.apple.ManagedSettingsUI.shield-action-service, in the Info.plist of “Sobre.app/PlugIns/ShieldActionExtension.appex” is invalid. DeviceActivityMonitorExtension and ShieldConfigurationExtension are accepted without any issue. My questions: What is the correct expected value for NSExtensionPointIdentifier for a Shield Action extension using the Screen Time / ManagedSettings APIs? Are there any additional entitlements or capabilities (for example, related to Managed Settings) that must be explicitly enabled for the app or the Shield Action extension in order for this extension point to be accepted by App Store Connect? Given that Family Controls (Distribution) is already granted for the main app and all extensions, is there anything else that needs to be requested or configured on my account or App IDs to use a Shield Action extension? My goal is to use Screen Time / Family Controls properly to block distracting apps and present a custom Shield UI + actions for my users, while respecting all Apple policies. Thank you in advance for your help and guidance

Hi Team, We've been developing our application with the fairly new AlarmKit. We are using the stopIntent to run some quick logic when the user stops the alarms. The stopIntent is a LiveActivityIntent and works well when the user presses the button the dismiss button on the alarm. But unfortunately we've realized some interesting behavior in the following two cases: In case the alarm fires while the user has unlocked their screen and they do things on the screen, the alarm is dismissed (and stopped), but the stopIntent is not executed. In case the alarm fires while the user has unlocked their screen and they swipe up the Live Activity banner, the alarm is also dismissed (and stopped), but again the stopIntent is not executed. I've tried to look up for some information, but could not find anything meaningful for this specific case. We're wondering if that is something that is planned to get fixed in the future, or maybe there's a workaround. We've tried also alternative - listening to alarm updates via the AlarmManager, but we are not very eager to create listener task for it, also the alarm state does not provide updates for dismissed. Thanks!

App out of memory and killed by Jetsam event seems not report to MetricKit diagnostic, it only contains crash or watch dog kill (scene create or scene update). So I want to ask to report these issues to MetricKit