Hello,
I'm working on an app that makes use of Screen Time features by leveraging the Family Controls, Device Activity and Managed Settings frameworks.
The main app works fine by shielding/unshielding apps with a toggle.
When it comes to monitoring the time intervals with the Device Activity Monitor (DAM) extension (e.g. lock X apps for Y minutes), I'm experiencing several issues.
To shield/unshield apps and kick off the monitoring I perform the following instructions:
let timeInMinutes = 15
let startDate = Date(timeIntervalSinceNow: 1.0) // padding added to avoid invalid DAM ranges < 15 mins.
let endDate = startDate.addingTimeInterval(timeInMinutes * 60.0)
let components: Set<Calendar.Component> = [.day, .month, .year, .hour, .minute, .second]
let calendar = Calendar.current
let intervalStart = calendar.dateComponents(components, from: startDate)
let intervalEnd = calendar.dateComponents(components, from: endDate)
let schedule = DeviceActivitySchedule(intervalStart: intervalStart, intervalEnd: intervalEnd, repeats: false)
try deviceActivityCenter.startMonitoring(.definiteShield, during: schedule)
let managedSettingsStore = ManagedSettingsStore()
managedSettingsStore.shield.applications = selection.applicationTokens // `selection` being an instance of `FamilyActivitySelection`
The main pain points are:
After this code is performed, I would expect the Device Activity Monitor extension to start, or at least to start once I go to background. To check whether the DAM extension is running or not, I attach to the extension process manually (Product > Attach to Process by PID or Name). But I can see the extension correctly running only after 3-4 attempts of calling startMonitoring.
Even when the DAM extension runs, intervalDidStart and intervalDidEnd methods in the extension are called quite randomly - most of the times not being called at all - thus making the extension hugely unaffordable.
Please note:
I already ask for Screen Time permissions during the onboarding by calling AuthorizationCenter.shared.requestAuthorization(for: .individual), so by the time the user shields the apps, these permissions are already granted.
I already have Family Control entitlements for development and distribution, and for both the main target and the DAM extension target.
In the intervalDidEnd method, I simply call ManagedSettingsStore().clearAllSettings() and DeviceActivityCenter().stopMonitoring(). This looks like to be enough to stay way below the 6MB memory limit.
Am I doing something wrong, is there a way to fix this, or is just the Device Activity framework that is unstable?