Hello, I'm trying to add a new Live Activity to my app showing a timer to a specific date and time. I thought I could use some TimeDataSource so that the timer would be updated automatically by SwiftUI without relying on Live Activity updates. That's not the case with .dateRange(endingAt:) though. Text(.dateRange(endingAt: targetDate), format: .components(style: .narrow)) Something like this correctly shows the timer exactly how I want it, but it never updates. Other TimeDataSource like .currentDate and .durationOffset(to:) do update automatically, but are not what I'm looking for. Am I missing something? Should I use another formatter to make it work?

Hi I developed a music app that plays offline audio and displays lyrics using Live Activities. According to ActivityKit documentation, Live Activities can be updated from the background. However, in my case, updates stop after ~30 seconds when the app goes to the background or the device is locked. Important points: The app continues running in the background (audio playback works fine using AVAudioSession with .playback) Background code execution is working as expected Only the Live Activity stops updating I am not using push updates since this is an offline app. Is there any limitation or requirement for updating Live Activities continuously in the background during audio playback? Audio Session Configuration let session = AVAudioSession.sharedInstance() try session.setCategory( .playback, mode: .default, options: [.mixWithOthers] // ✅ DO NOT interrupt other audio ) try session.setActive(true) print("✅ [AudioSession] Activated with mixWithOthers") } catch { print("❌ [AudioSession] Error: \(error)") } Live Activity Update Methods guard let activity = getLiveActivity(for: recordID) else{ print("⚠️ No Live Activity found for recordID: \(recordID)") return } guard activity.activityState == .active else { print("⚠️ Activity is not active") return } Task { let content = ActivityContent( state: state, staleDate: Date().addingTimeInterval(60 * 60 * 12), relevanceScore: 1.0 ) await activity.update(content) print("✅ Live Activity updated with ActivityContent") } }

I find these sample projects quite valuable: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/widgetkit/emoji-rangers-supporting-live-activities-interactivity-and-animations https://developer.apple.com/documentation/coredata/sharing-core-data-objects-between-icloud-users . Both use Swift 5, and it is not trivial to adopt Swift 6 with them. Any plans to update them? What is best approach for adopting Swift 6 on such sample code?

Hey everyone, We're using Push to Start Live Activities in our app (District: Movies Events Dining) where all Live Activities are entirely server-driven. At District, we've taken a unique approach to Live Activities. Since our customers often plan ahead reserving restaurant tables early in the week or booking movies days in advance we needed a way to surface timely, relevant information without requiring the app to be open. We power our Live Activities entirely from the server using Push to Start and Push to Update. This means the Live Activity is initiated and kept up to date by our backend from reservation confirmation all the way to the day of the experience. Whether it's a dining slot or a movie showtime, the Live Activity automatically appears in the notification tray with all relevant details, right when you need it no app launch required. FB Number: FB22062904 Problem: When a Push to Start payload is sent from the server, the user sees an Allow / Don't Allow prompt on their lock screen. If the user ignores this prompt (neither taps Allow nor Don't Allow), the Live Activity card stays stuck in the notification tray permanently with zero way to dismiss it programmatically. This happens because: The activity never officially "starts" on device Activity.end() cannot be called — there's nothing to end Sending an update/end push has no effect dismissal-date is not honoured in the start payload Steps to Reproduce Send a push-to-start APNs payload to a device Do NOT tap Allow or Don't Allow on the prompt Observe — card stays in notification tray indefinitely Send an end push from server — no effect Current Payload { "aps": { "timestamp": 1234567890, "event": "start", "alert": { "title": "Your table is reserved", "body": "Tap to view your reservation" }, "content-state": { ... }, "attributes-type": "ReservationActivityAttributes", "attributes": { ... } // ❌ dismissal-date has no effect here } } Expected Behaviour dismissal-date should be honoured in the push-to-start payload, so that if the user ignores the prompt, the notification auto-dismisses after the specified time — consistent with how standard Live Activity expiry works. Suggested Fix { "aps": { "timestamp": 1234567890, "event": "start", "content-state": { ... }, "dismissal-date": 1234568490 // ✅ honour this } } Impact This affects any app using server-driven Live Activities — dining reservations, movie bookings, food delivery, ride hailing, ticketing etc. Without this, there is no way to prevent permanent notification tray pollution for users who ignore the Allow prompt. Has anyone found a workaround for this? Would love to know if others are hitting the same issue.

I'm seeing a Live Activity that successfully starts via Activity.request() — activityState returns .active, a valid ActivityKit push token is issued and works correctly — but nothing ever appears on the Lock Screen, and the widget extension process never shows up in Xcode's Debug → Attach to Process list (the main app process does appear). This happens consistently across many clean rebuilds. Setup: Flutter app (using the live_activities Flutter plugin, which wraps ActivityKit) with a native iOS Widget Extension target for the Live Activity Xcode 26.5, iOS 18.7.9 on a physical iPhone XS Max Bundle ID: com.santitech.foodboda, extension: com.santitech.foodboda.FoodbodaLiveActivity NSSupportsLiveActivities = YES confirmed in both the main app's Info.plist and the extension's Info.plist (verified in the compiled .appex binary itself, not just source) App Group entitlement confirmed present in both compiled provisioning profiles via security cms -D on embedded.mobileprovision Deployment target 16.6 on both targets (Live Activities require 16.1+) Settings → [App] → Live Activities toggle confirmed ON; Low Power Mode OFF What I've already ruled out: Target membership of Swift source files — confirmed correct in File Inspector WidgetBundle only references the real Live Activity widget (removed unused Control/home-widget/AppIntent boilerplate) Info.plist NSExtensionPointIdentifier = com.apple.widgetkit-extension — correct Built a brand-new, separate, minimal test app+extension from Xcode's default template, using the exact same Attributes/ContentState/SwiftUI view code as the main app (copy-pasted verbatim) — this minimal test successfully renders on the Lock Screen on the same physical device. This proves the Swift code itself, the device, and the Apple ID/provisioning are all capable of supporting Live Activities correctly. Confirmed areActivitiesEnabled() returns true and getActivityState() returns .active on every test Tested with full app delete + device restart + DerivedData wipe between attempts — no change Question: Given that identical code works in an isolated minimal project but not in the main app's bundle ID, what could cause this specific symptom — ActivityKit registering an activity as active while WidgetKit never instantiates the extension to render it — tied to one specific app/bundle identifier rather than the device or account in general? Is there a known interaction with App Groups that have been reconfigured many times during development, or any way to fully reset WidgetKit's registration state for a specific bundle ID short of changing the bundle identifier entirely?

On earlier iOS versions Live Activity displays correctly according to mode set.  Can't find an opened issue for that version: iOS 26 device: iPhone 16

LiveActivity using colorScheme to adapt to dark mode in iOS 26 system does not work The system keeps returning. mark, unable to switch

I'm trying to nail down the correct mental model for keeping a push-to-start Live Activity updatable, and want to confirm my understanding rather than design around an assumption. Flow: my server creates the activity via push-to-start, then I capture its per-activity token (Activity.pushTokenUpdates) and send it to the server for update/end pushes. I observe Activity.activityUpdates and also prime from the Activity.activities snapshot at launch and on foreground. What I'd like to understand for each app state: Foreground / backgrounded (in memory): I capture the token reliably — is that the intended guarantee? System-terminated (jettisoned for resources): does the system relaunch the app in the background to deliver the per-activity token, and is that something I can rely on? User force-quit (swiped from the App Switcher, not reopened): what should I expect here for per-activity token delivery, and what's the recommended strategy if the app stays force-quit — e.g. stale-date on the start push for graceful expiry, or any extension-based path? Essentially: across these states, what's the supported strategy to keep a push-started Live Activity correct? Tested on iOS 18 and 26. Related question from the implementation side: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/834934

Problem Description We are encountering a pushToken retrieval failure when creating Live Activities using the ActivityKit framework in our iOS application. Problem Symptoms Failure Rate: Approximately 40% of Live Activities created in production fail to obtain a pushToken Behavior: The Activity is created successfully, but activity.pushToken and the activity.pushTokenUpdates stream remain empty / return nothing Impact: Unable to update Live Activities via APNS Offline Issue Environment iOS Version: iOS 26.5 Device: Physical iPhone device Deployment Environment: Production environment, release build Code Sample Task { // Executed after Live Activity creation for await activity in Activity<T>.activityUpdates { ... if let activityTokenData = activity.pushToken { // Report token to APNS service reportTokenToAPNS(tokenString) } // Start async monitoring self.registerPushTokenUpdates(...) Log("actObserver: Live Activity registered successfully") } } // Async monitoring private func registerPushTokenUpdates<T: SAKActivityAttributes>(...) { Task { self.pushTokenObserveRecords.safe{ $0.append(activity.id) } Log("Monitoring pushToken updates for Live Activity <\(activity.id)>") for await data in activity.pushTokenUpdates { let pushToken = pushTokenString(with: data) // Report token to APNS service reportTokenToAPNS(pushToken) } } } System Log Evidence System logs, log and log

Hi everyone, I'm working on a Live Activity implementation for a ticketing app (written in Swift/SwiftUI with ActivityKit), and I've encountered an unexpected behavior on iOS 26.2.1 that contradicts my understanding of the documentation. What the docs say: The official ActivityKit documentation states: "The system uses the minimal presentation when more than one app has an active Live Activity." This implies the two minimal slots are intended for two different apps. There is no documented scenario where a single app occupies both minimal positions simultaneously. What I observed: On a device running iOS 26.2.1, with two active Live Activities from the same app running at the same time, both minimal views appeared on the Dynamic Island simultaneously — one attached to the island, one as a detached floating pill. Questions: Is this behavior intentional in iOS 26, or is it a regression / unintended side effect? Has the system policy changed in iOS 26 to allow a single app to occupy both minimal slots? If this is expected, is there any updated documentation or release notes that cover this change? Environment: Device: iPhone 14pro iOS: 26.2.1 Xcode: xcode26 Any insights from Apple engineers or developers who've seen this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Platform: iOS 26.5 · PassKit (semantic boarding pass) Summary When a .pkpass boarding pass uses the iOS 26 upgraded semantic format (preferredStyleSchemes: ["semanticBoardingPass", "boardingPass"]) for a real, scheduled flight that Apple's live flight data feed recognizes, the Wallet Live Activity (Lock Screen, Dynamic Island, and Wallet card "Welcome to …" copy) renders the destination city name in English, regardless of the value supplied in semantics.destinationCityName or the device's locale. On a German-locale iPhone, a flight arriving at MUC produces the grammatically broken string "Willkommen bei Munich" — German system-supplied prefix concatenated with the English city noun from Apple's flight data, instead of the expected "Willkommen in München". Steps to reproduce Build a .pkpass for any real, currently-scheduled flight whose destination city has a German-language variant (e.g. SK2657 CPH→MUC, 4Y1261 HER→MUC). Populate semantics with full iOS 26 fields including: "destinationAirportCode": "MUC", "destinationAirportName": "München", "destinationCityName": "München", "destinationLocationDescription": "Flughafen München Franz Josef Strauß" Install on an iPhone running iOS 26.1+ with Language: Deutsch, Region: Deutschland. Open the pass within Wallet's live-activity window. Expected: "Willkommen in München" Actual: "Willkommen bei Munich" What I believe is happening Apple's live flight data feed overrides the destinationCityName semantic tag with an English-only value sourced from the feed (presumably IATA / OAG). The iOS 26.1 liveDataConfiguration.excludedSemantics allow-list does not include destinationCityName or destinationAirportName, so there is currently no developer-side mechanism to either: submit a localized destination city, or opt out of the override while keeping live updates active. The PassKit destinationCityName schema is typed as a plain localizable string (single value), with no translations variant comparable to what some third-party pass APIs expose. The "localizable" annotation in the docs is misleading for this field, because pass.strings lookups are not applied to semantic values once the live flight feed supplies them. What I'd like to know Is this the intended behavior, or is destinationCityName missing from the documented excludedSemantics allow-list by omission rather than design? Is there a supported way for an airline (or a developer issuing passes on an airline's behalf) to ship localized destination city names that survive the live-data merge? If neither (1) nor (2): is there an intent to either localize Apple's flight-data city tokens by device locale, or expand excludedSemantics to cover destination/departure city + airport names in a future iOS 26.x release?

We are using Live Activities in our iOS app to show real-time flight information on the Lock Screen and Dynamic Island. Our implementation currently works as follows: The Live Activity is created using the push-to-start token. After the Live Activity is started, our backend receives and uses the Live Activity update token to send updates to the Live Activity through APNs. The Live Activity content is updated through push notifications from our backend. These updates include flight status changes such as check-in status, boarding status, gate changes, delay updates, arrival status, and other journey-related states. We are observing an issue where some Live Activity state updates are not reflected on the device. From our backend logs, the APNs request is successfully sent, but in some cases the update does not appear to be received by the device, and the Live Activity remains in an older state. We understand from Apple documentation and platform behavior that Live Activity push updates may be subject to system-level throttling or delivery limitations. We would like to confirm the expected behavior and understand the recommended approach. Could you please help clarify the following? Are Live Activity update pushes subject to throttling by iOS/APNs even when the backend sends the update successfully? If APNs accepts the request successfully, is there still a possibility that the update may not be delivered to the device or may not update the Live Activity because of system-level throttling, device state, power conditions, network conditions, or Live Activity limits?

We are implementing starting an activity via Push-To-Start. For the most part it works great, however we have run into a few edge cases. Currently, we send the "start activity" push notification and it creates the Activity as expected. If the app doesn't send an update token w/in a configured time, we assume the activity didn't start and try to start the activity again. Occasionally we get into a situation where there have been multiple activities started, but it should really only be one. Here is my theory: We store an auth token in the keychain for all REST endpoints if the phone has been restarted and not unlocked, the app doesn't have access to the auth token and fails to send the update token to our backend. Are there any best practices on how to manage PTS and UPDATE tokens? (updating these w/o authentication seems problematic)

I have a live activity and even after a couple of times that it has shown on my lock screen it keeps prompting the user to tap on Don't Allow or Allow. Can someone help me understand why this is happening? I would like my users to only hit Allow once and not be prompted again, otherwise they would not be registered for updates, since update token only generates after selecting Allow.

I'm adding live activities to my app and I'm trying to use push notifications to fully remotely start them and end them. The pushToStartTokenUpdates sequence gives start tokens exactly as expected, and triggers even when the app is fully terminated when a new live activity starts. However, the pushTokenUpdates sequence is far less predictable and seems to never trigger when the app is fully terminated. Even when the app is just backgrounded, it's still finicky. I send the "input-push-token": 1 as part of the aps payload too to begin the live activity, but that seems to have little to no effect. Is there any way to ensure that we can receive a push token specifically to update the live activity after it starts? It seems to me that if a live activity can be started via push even when the app is fully terminated, and live activities are meant to reflect active information, then the mechanism to update it via a new token should also be able to work when the app is terminated. Both sequences are subscribed to within the AppDelegate upon initial app launch. This is what my code looks like at the moment: func application(_ application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplication.LaunchOptionsKey: Any]?) -> Bool { Task { for await newToken in Activity<WidgetAttributes>.pushToStartTokenUpdates { let tokenString = newToken.map{ String(format: "%02x", $0) }.joined() // send to server } } Task { for await activity in Activity<WidgetAttributes>.activityUpdates { Task { for await token in activity.pushTokenUpdates { let tokenString = token.map { String(format: "%02x", $0) }.joined() // send to server } } } } } } Thanks in advance for any insights!

I am developing an iOS app using ActivityKit Live Activities with interactive buttons based on LiveActivityIntent. The implementation works correctly: LiveActivityIntent.perform() executes correctly. The Live Activity updates visually. MediaPlayer actions are triggered successfully. The app does not open when tapping the buttons. Repeated taps correctly update the Live Activity state. However, I observed a behavior difference on the Lock Screen: Now Playing controls keep the Lock Screen awake while interacting repeatedly. Apple Stopwatch/Timer controls also keep the Lock Screen awake while interacting. My app’s Live Activity fades to black after around 5–7 seconds even while the user continues tapping the Live Activity buttons. I also tested a third-party timer app with Live Activity buttons and observed the same fade-to-black behavior. I additionally tested: repeated Activity.update(...) calls after each tap; visual state updates after every interaction; multiple consecutive interaction updates. None of these prevented the Lock Screen from dimming/fading to black. So my question is: Is this expected behavior for third-party Live Activities using LiveActivityIntent? Or is there any recommended way to keep the Lock Screen interaction session active while the user is continuously interacting with Live Activity buttons? I am especially interested from an accessibility perspective, because short interaction windows can make repeated Lock Screen interactions more difficult for users with motor impairments or slower interaction patterns.

Our application currently supports Live Activities. We’re working on adding a new Widget and are weighing some architectural decisions regarding whether we should add it to the same extension target that our Live Activity lives in or create a new extension that would expose it and other widgets we plan to create in the future. In the Add Support for Live Activities documentation, it suggests adding Live Activity code to the existing widget extension to facilitate code reuse. Beyond code sharing, we’re trying to determine if there are downsides to isolating new Widget(s) into their own extension. Specifically, we are concerned about process isolation and how a failure/crash in one might impact the other. Assuming they did live in the same extension, we’re hoping to better understand some of the finer details as presented by the following questions: If a Widget (e.g., via the TimelineProvider) causes the extension process to crash, what is the guaranteed behavior for a currently running Live Activity? Is the relaunch and restoration of a Live Activity after an extension crash guaranteed, or is it best-effort? Is there a distinction in crash isolation between a TimelineProvider failure and a View rendering crash? Are there any known scenarios where a Widget crash could cause a Live Activity to be permanently dropped? Does keeping them in the same extension affect the memory budget, or does each 'instance' receive its own allocation? In short: we're looking to ensure that an issue with a Widget doesn't inadvertently affect a Live Activity (or vice-versa) when they live in the same WidgetsBundle within the same extension and are seeking guidance on whether it makes sense to keep them together or continue down the path of separate extensions in the interest of process safety. Any pointers to other documentation or known behavior would be greatly appreciated!

Hi everyone, I have a question about Live Activity start tokens and update tokens. After reading the documentation, it is still not very clear to me how often these tokens are invalidated, and whether their expiration is time-based or event-based. My current understanding is that the update token is generated when the Live Activity starts, and that it becomes invalid when the activity ends or is dismissed by the user. What I am not clear on is whether the update token can also become invalid at any point while the Live Activity is still active. I have a similar question about the start token. I have noticed that it is generated on the initial app launch, but I have also seen it get regenerated at what seems like random times. I would like to better understand what events or conditions cause a new start token to be issued. Is there any official guidance on the lifecycle of these tokens, specifically: whether they expire based on time, whether they are only invalidated by specific events, and what conditions trigger regeneration of the start token or update token? Any clarification would be appreciated. Thanks.

On iOS 26, when using .activityBackgroundTint modifiers to change the background color in the Activity Kit, the changes do not appear to apply correctly in Smart Stack. While the color changes as expected, the background is rendered as simply transparent without a glass effect which reduces readability. The glass effect is applied only when activityBackgroundTint is not used.

Our app runs offline-first focus sessions using FamilyControls / ManagedSettings shielding and DeviceActivity monitoring. The in-app session timer is protected against wall-clock manipulation by using monotonic elapsed time, and the shield remains active correctly when the user manually changes the iPhone clock. However, the Live Activity and Dynamic Island countdown appear to use the device's wall clock for their timer rendering. If the user changes the device time from Settings during an active session, the Live Activity / Dynamic Island countdown immediately jumps forward or backwards, even though the underlying session has not changed. Is there a recommended ActivityKit approach for rendering a Live Activity / Dynamic Island countdown that is resistant to manual device clock changes? If not, is this an expected limitation of Live Activity timer rendering? And is there any supported way for the host app or widget extension to detect wall-clock manipulation so the Live Activity can be corrected, dismissed, or replaced with a safer non-countdown state?