AlarmKit custom sounds are universally broken in iOS 26.0 stable - instead of playing your custom sound, it plays a system error/timeout beep. I've spent days investigating why custom sounds result in what sounds like an error beep (like when you cancel an operation or hit a timeout) instead of the actual audio file. I can now prove this is an Apple bug, not implementation error. Evidence: Test 1: My Implementation Followed Apple's documentation exactly Tried both bundle and Library/Sounds (as documented) Result: System error beep (not my audio) Test 2: Professional Apps Tested ADHDAlarms (popular AlarmKit example by jacobsapps) https://github.com/jacobsapps/ADHDAlarms Their airhorn.mp3 custom sound: same error beep (not an airhorn) Their default sound: works perfectly Test 3: Device Testing Physical iPhone (iOS 26.0 - 23A341): broken iOS Simulator: broken Not device-specific Files are found correctly, but the actual audio file is never played. Instead, you hear what sounds like a system error/cancellation tone. What I've Eliminated Not a Library/Sounds vs Bundle issue (both broken) Not a file format issue (.mp3, .caf, .m4a all broken) Not an implementation issue (professional apps broken too) Not a device issue (simulator and device both broken) Not a file size issue (5KB to 2MB all broken) The Documentation Lie: Apple's docs for AlertConfiguration.AlertSound.named(_:) state: "Choose a file that's in your app's main bundle or the Library/Sounds folder" https://developer.apple.com/documentation/activitykit/alertconfiguration/alertsound/named(_:) Both locations are broken. Tested on: iOS 26.0 (23A341), Xcode 26.0.1, Swift 6.2 Impact: This affects any app trying to: Provide personalized wake-up sounds Use custom alarm tones Create meditation/sleep apps Differentiate from default iOS alarms Current Status: Multiple bug reports filed: FB19900024, FB18237648, FB19779004 Apple engineer claimed "fixed in latest beta" in August Still broken in iOS 26.0 stable (September) Workaround: None that I know of. You must use .default sound. For apps needing custom audio, play it with AVAudioPlayer after the alarm fires and user opens the app. Question: Has ANYONE gotten custom AlarmKit sounds working in iOS 26.0 stable? If so, plzzz help I'd be so grateful.

Hi, We have a use case where our app needs to send repeated push notifications (both normal and critical alerts) to inform the user about a critical device state and grab their attention. Since iOS doesn’t allow us to schedule local notifications beyond 30 seconds, I need to send multiple pushes from the server side. My questions are: Is there any documented limit on how many push notifications can be sent back-to-back before Apple starts throttling or restricting them? Are critical alerts treated differently from normal notifications in terms of delivery restrictions or frequency limits? Is there a recommended approach for handling scenarios where repeated urgent notifications are necessary to keep the user informed? I want to make sure I’m following Apple’s guidelines and not risking rejection during review.

Hi Apple team, We’re shipping a Live Caller ID Lookup extension on iOS 18 and have a question about the automatic refresh of configuration/PIR parameters. Questions 1. Is there any documented interval/TTL (min/max) for the system’s automatic refresh of /config and PIR parameters, or is it entirely opportunistic (battery/network/usage)? I can’t find a cadence in the IdentityLookup docs. 2. Does iOS honor server cache headers (e.g., Cache-Control/Expires) to influence when it re-fetches? 3. Which events also trigger a refresh (enable/disable in Settings, OS/app update, device reboot, token/epoch change)? 4. Are there rate limits or best-practice limits for calling refreshExtensionContext and refreshPIRParameters?

There's a list of bug reports: FB19778882 FB19813796 FB19852724 FB19767262 FB20378888 FB20379383 FB20394663 Me and many other users have issue with push notifications. To reproduce this you should do this steps: Lock iPhone and make it idle for 10+ minutes; Send any message from other device via third-party app that uses push notifications (WhatsApp, Telegram and etc.); After few attempts you can see, that messages don't deliver. They delivers immediately when I unlock iPhone or go to the app. This bug reproduces on iOS 18.7 and 27. As I think iPhone goes to deep sleep after 10+ minutes after it locked and don't get push notifications. I've tried everything: many of settings, DFU without backup, but nothing helps to resolve this issue. Pay attention, please, cause this bug is very annoying and present on iOS 18.7 (that is the last for many devices) and latest iOS 26. Thanks!

I created my app. One of its functionality is receive remote notification in the background (it receives it from Firebase Cloud Messaging via APNS) and replies with device location data. This is "boat tracking and alarm" type of app. It worked well both on my iPhone (where I use the same Apple ID as on developer's account) and on my son's iPad (different Apple ID). After the first review, when app was rejected with some remarks, background remote notifications completely stopped working on my iPhone. It looks like my iPhone put the app in permanent sleep. It never receives the background notifications. It receives them though in 2 case: when I open the app (it is no longer in background) when location is changed (it wakes app in the background). But the app should also respond when the device is stable at the position (I use both: precise and Significant Location Change. In the latter case changes are very rare). Btw, I scheduled a background task, not location, and it also never gets executed, so this workaround does not work. I describe it, so any Apple engineer does not get confused, verifying that these remote notifications reach the device. NO, they never get through when app is in the background (THIS IS THE PROBLEM), not that they are never delivered (the are, in the foreground). And the proof that it is not a problem with the app or remote notification construction is: they work on another drives (iPad) with no issues. Sometimes they are very delayed, sometimes almost instant. But usually they work. they worked the same way on my iPhone (with my developer's Apple ID) before the first rejection, and I haven't messed with messaging functionality since then. Now I am over with the last hope I had. I finally got my app release in App Store. I hoped official version would release some blockade my iOS put on my app. But unfortunately not. Official version works the same way as the test one. It works fine (receiving notifications in the background) on my son's iPad and it does not receive any background notification on my iPhone (100% block rate). Can anyone help me how can I reset my apps limits, the iOS created for my app? It seems that the rejection was a sparkle here - this is just a hint. I can provide any system logs for Apple engineers from both devices (iPhone and iPad) if you would like to check this case.

ISSUE: CloudKit subscriptions are not triggering push notifications despite correct configuration. CloudKit logs show RecordSave events but NO NotificationSend events, indicating CloudKit is not attempting to send to APNS. CONTAINER: iCloud.Wunderkind.StrikeForceApp ENVIRONMENT: Tested in both Development and Production iOS 18.6.x Xcode 15.x (update with your version) Device: iPhone (not simulator) EVIDENCE: Subscriptions exist and are visible in CloudKit Dashboard Records are being created successfully (verified in logs) Device token is registered: 60eb962ff189dc5c2c0ef3e9d6643d72b4442a831bae224d2a553588b2e29139 Local notifications work correctly CloudKit logs show RecordSave but NO NotificationSend events STEPS TAKEN: Regenerated push certificates Disabled and re-enabled Push Notifications capability Deleted and recreated subscriptions Tested in both Development and Production environments Verified aps-environment entitlement matches environment Confirmed notification permissions granted SPECIFIC TEST: Creating a Challenge record with recipientRef matching my user triggers: ✅ RecordSave event in CloudKit logs ❌ No NotificationSend event ❌ No push notification received EXPECTED: CloudKit should send NotificationSend events and deliver push notifications when subscriptions match. ACTUAL: No NotificationSend events appear in CloudKit logs, no notifications delivered.

Since upgrading to Xcode 26 beta 4 and using the iOS 26 simulator for testing our app, we've stopped being able to receive device tokens for the simulator from the development APNS environment. The APNS environment is able to return meta device information (e.g. model, type, manufacturer) but there are no device tokens present. When running the same app using the iOS 18.5 simulator, we are able to register the device with the same APNS environment and receive a valid device token.

Notification coordination between iOS and watchOS is not working properly watchOS and iOS try to coordinate between phone and watch notifications. The concept here is that if there is a main app and a companion app, they could both be sending a notification, then the notification would alert on both, which is a deviation from how notification mirroring is handled if there is an iOS app but no watch app. The watch waits for the iOS notification to fire so they can determine if this is the same notification that needs to be deduped, displayed on one device but not the other, or separate notifications to be displayed both. If there is no notification on the phone, the watch will timeout after 13 seconds and alert anyway. If you have an iOS companion app, the best solution to this is to send the same notification on both devices simultaneously, and ensuring the UNNotificationRequest.identifier matches on both notifications. This will let the systems determine how to handle the notification correctly and quickly, and the notification will alert right away. https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/765669 According to the above article, "when a notification arrives on watchOS alone first, it coordinates with iOS," but in reality, it doesn't work properly. Detailed process of this phenomenon watchOS receives a notification. On watchOS, the notification is not immediately shown to the user. iOS receives a notification with the same UNNotificationRequest.identifier as in (1). The notification in (3) does not appear on either iOS or watchOS. However, the notification from (3) does appear in iOS Notification Center. Thirteen seconds after watchOS received the notification, the notification from (1) is shown to the user on watchOS. In the end, the iOS and watchOS notifications are not consolidated and each remains in its respective notification center. Up to (3) there are no issues. Starting with (4), both iOS and watchOS exhibit a lot of odd behavior. This phenomenon occurs with both local notifications and push notifications. When iOS receives the notification first, there is no problem. The notification for watch received later is processed appropriately, and the watchOS notification is not additionally displayed to the user. Expected proper process Same as above. Same as above. Same as above. The notification in (1) is integrated into the notification in (3). The notification in (3) is alerted to the user immediately. 2 sample projects to reproduce Only the main code is attached. Sample project1: local notifications Swift code for local notification app (iOS, watchOS) - App.swift.txt Sample project2: push notifications This sample project is implemented using Firebase Functions and Firebase Cloud Messaging. Swift code push notification app (iOS, watchOS) - App.swift.txt Server side JavaScript code for FirebaseFunction - index.js.txt Tested devices and OS This phenomenon occurred in both of the following patterns. Pattern 1 Xcode 26.0 iPhone 16 (iOS 26.0) Apple Watch series 10 (watchOS 26.0) Pattern 2 Xcode 16.4 iPhone 11 (iOS 18.6) Apple Watch SE 2nd gen (watchOS 11.6) Question Is this phenomenon a bug? Or is my understanding or implementation incorrect? Feedback Assistant number FB20339772

After porting code to Swift 6 (Xcode 16.4), I get a consistent crash (on simulator) when using UNUserNotificationServiceConnection It seems (searching on the web) that others have met the same issue. Is it a known Swift6 bug ? Or am I misusing UNUserNotification ? I do not have the crash when compiling on Xcode 26 ß5, which hints at an issue in Xcode 16.4. Crash log: Thread 10 Queue : com.apple.usernotifications.UNUserNotificationServiceConnection.call-out (serial) As far as I can tell, it seems error is when calling nonisolated func userNotificationCenter(_ center: UNUserNotificationCenter, willPresent notification: UNNotification, withCompletionHandler completionHandler: @escaping (UNNotificationPresentationOptions) -> Void) I had to declare non isolated to solve a compiler error. Main actor-isolated instance method 'userNotificationCenter(_:didReceive:withCompletionHandler:)' cannot be used to satisfy nonisolated requirement from protocol 'UNUserNotificationCenterDelegate' I was advised to: Add 'nonisolated' to 'userNotificationCenter(_:didReceive:withCompletionHandler:)' to make this instance method not isolated to the actor I filed a bug report: Aug 10, 2025 at 2:43 PM – FB19519575

Excited for AlarmKit! I have found two concerns that I cannot find answers for though. The volume of my alarms seems to be very quite relative to the full volume capability of the device. For example, if I turn the volume all the way up and play the audio file, the sound is very loud. However then, if I set the alarm using alarm kit with the same audio, the track played during the alerting phase is not that loud. I am afraid that it will not be loud enough in real life. Will there be future support to set the volume level of the alarm to maximum settings? When I press the volume buttons (with the app open) during an active alarm, the audio stops, but the alarm manager does not clear these events. The alarm manager does clear the alarm event if the alarm is stopped through a live activity.

We have a question regarding iOS app configuration and the Remote notifications background mode. During our testing, we observed: ＊When enabling or disabling Signing & Capabilities > Background Modes > Remote notifications, the change does not take effect on devices that already have the app installed. ＊The app continues to behave according to the old configuration. ＊Only after uninstalling the app and reinstalling it from the App Store do the new settings take effect (for example, whether the app can be woken up by silent push). ＊We also tested updating the app with a new version number (App Store upgrade flow), but the new settings still did not apply. Our questions are: 1.Is there any way to make iOS re-read the updated Signing & Capabilities (Background Modes) settings without requiring a full uninstall/reinstall? 2.Is it expected behavior that even an App Store upgrade with a new version number will not apply these changes? thanks!

When I turn the Ringtone and Alerts volume all the way up, I expect standard notifications to play at the loudest level the device allows. In theory, this should match the volume of a critical alert with its sound.volume set to 1.0 in payload. However, I’ve noticed that non-critical notifications still play quieter than critical alerts under these conditions. Critical alerts with volume: 1.0 sound noticeably louder than standard notifications, even though the Ringtone and Alerts slider is already set to maximum. And I couldn't find a documentation for this behavior anywhere. Is this expected behavior on iOS? And is there any way to make non-critical notifications play at the same maximum loudness as critical alerts? Thanks in advance for any clarification.

My app(The Smart Life app) is unable to receive push notifications. Please confirm whether APNs has received push notifications from Alibaba Cloud and whether APNs has successfully pushed notifications to the Smart Life app.The Smart Life app uses Alibaba Cloud's push notification service. The message ID pushed by Alibaba Cloud is: f7a02288-a995-47ed-b417-837461028f03 Current Symptom: Alibaba Cloud has reported that this message has been successfully pushed to APNs, but the smart life app has not received any push notifications. The feedback log from Alibaba Cloud shows that the APNs push was successful, but the smart life app did not receive any push. Because APNs do not have message receipts and Alibaba Cloud cannot obtain notification delivery status, it is recommended that I use the APNs channel message ID to submit a work order to Apple technical support for investigation. Note: All push notification permissions for the Smart Life app are enabled, and the Smart Life app is in the foreground when push notifications are sent.

I created an APNs Auth Key in the Apple Developer portal and downloaded it successfully once. Later, due to some issues, I revoked that key. After that, I created a new APNs Auth Key. The download button appears, but when I click it, I get the message: "Auth Key can only be downloaded once. This auth key has already been downloaded." This is incorrect because: The key is newly created in my account. I have tried multiple browsers (Safari, Chrome), private/incognito mode, and even a different laptop. I have no other active APNs Auth Keys in my account. Without this .p8 file, I cannot configure push notifications for my iOS app (using Firebase Cloud Messaging). This is blocking my production release. Has anyone else experienced this? Is there a way to reset or force a fresh APNs Auth Key when this happens?

If an iOS application has a notification service extension which gets sent a push, but the user has not been prompted for notification authorization via requestAuthorization() then what is the expected behavior? Will the push get delivered to the NSE but the resulting notification not displayed? Or will the push not get delivered at all to the NSE?

We're trying to add simple notifications to our CarPlay integration that should open certain template when pressed, but the issue is that when pressing this notification on CarPlay screen nothing is invoked in the code (presumably didReceive should be invoked). All works fine with the same notification but pressed on the iPhone screen - didReceive is invoked properly. How should I handle the action when push notification is pressed on CarPlay screen?

I am developing an iOS app that uses App Store Server API (v2) for auto-renewable subscriptions. I noticed a discrepancy between the expiration date returned by the API and the date displayed in iPhone Settings > Subscriptions: App Store Server API expiresDate: 2025-09-12T12:10:25 (KST) iOS Settings > Subscriptions: 2025-09-11 (one day earlier) My understanding: The API’s expiresDate is the precise UTC timestamp. The Settings UI might display the "last full calendar day" for UX purposes. Questions: Is this behavior (UI showing one day earlier) an intentional Apple policy? If so, is there any official documentation or guideline explaining this behavior? Should developers always rely on the API’s expiresDate for subscription state management? This discrepancy is confusing for both developers and end users, so any clarification or official reference would be greatly appreciated.

In iOS 26, I can check the notification that arrives to the user when the AirPods or Apple Watch is fully charged. When tap the notification, notification only expands and does not include actions such as moving to an app. I checked the documents of UserNotification and UNNotificationServiceExtension, but I couldn't find what I wanted. I can expand by long-tapping as default, but I'm looking for a way to expand it without entering the app when I tap the notification. I wonder if there is an API that I missed or if it's not publicly supported. thank you for your support.

Dear Apple Team, I hope this message finds you well. I wanted to share a playful and innovative idea that could enhance the iPhone experience—particularly when viewing content in full-screen mode through apps like Apple TV or YouTube. Feature Concept: Hands-Free Dismissal of Notifications When the iPhone is in landscape mode, incoming notifications can interrupt the viewing experience. While Focus Mode and swipe gestures help, I thought of a more intuitive and hands-free interaction: using a light puff of air directed toward the screen to dismiss a notification. This interaction could use the microphone or other onboard sensors to detect a brief burst of air, providing a fun and natural way to maintain immersion without touching the device. If this isn’t feasible with current hardware, here are a few alternative concepts that align with the same goal: Blink to Dismiss: Using Face ID sensors to detect a quick blink as a hands-free gesture. Shake to Dismiss: A gentle shake gesture when holding the iPhone in one hand. Gaze-Based Dismissal: Notifications automatically disappear after a brief moment of eye contact. These ideas could offer both accessibility benefits and a touch of delight—making the iPhone feel even more magical and responsive. Thank you for your time and for considering this suggestion! Warm regards, Badhan Baidya

Hi all, We’re implementing in-app subscriptions in our iOS app using App Store Server Notifications V2 in the production environment. Everything is generally working well — we receive notifications such as DID_CHANGE_RENEWAL_STATUS, CANCELLATION, etc., and we log all incoming notifications into our own database. However, we've encountered a single case where the INITIAL_BUY notification was not received for a specific user. Interestingly, we did receive the later notifications (DID_CHANGE_RENEWAL_STATUS and CANCELLATION) for that same user. Here is our setup: App Store Server Notifications V2 Notification endpoint is stable and functioning normally (receives and logs other notifications) Notifications are reliably stored in our database The issue occurred only once for one user Environment: Production We've already contacted Apple Developer Support, but were informed that this issue is out of scope for direct support, and were directed to the Developer Forums. Our questions: Under what conditions might the INITIAL_BUY notification fail to be sent or delivered? Is there any known behavior or scenario where Apple may skip the INITIAL_BUY notification? Any recommendations on how to further investigate or verify whether it was sent from Apple’s side? We’ve confirmed that the notification never hit our server (no logs, no DB record), and our system was healthy at the time. Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!