Hi, I’m trying to integrate my iOS app with Shortcuts.
My goal is:
In the Shortcuts app → Create a shortcut → Select an image → Share the image directly to my app for analysis.
However, when I try to add the “Share with App” / “Open in App” / “Send to App” action in Shortcuts:
My app does NOT appear in the list of available apps.
I want my app to be selectable so that Shortcuts can send an image (UIImage / file) to my app.
What I have tried
My app supports receiving images using UIActivityViewController and Share Extension.
I created an App Intents extension (AppIntent + @Parameter(file)...) but the app still does not appear in Shortcuts “Share with App”.
I also checked the Info.plist but didn’t find any permission related to Shortcuts.
The app is installed on the device and works normally.
My question
What permission, Info.plist entry, or capability is required so that my app becomes visible in the Shortcuts app as a target for image sharing?
More specifically:
Which extension type should be used for receiving images from Shortcuts?
App Intents Extension?
Share Extension?
Intent Extension?
Do I need a specific NSExtensionPointIdentifier for Shortcuts integration?
Do I need to declare a custom Uniform Type Identifier (UTI) or add supported content types so Shortcuts knows my app can handle images?
Are there any required entitlements / capabilities to make the app appear inside the “Share with App” action?
Goal Summary
I simply want:
Shortcuts → Pick Image → Send to My App → App receives the image and processes it.
But currently my app cannot be selected in Shortcuts.
Thanks in advance for any guidance!
Extensions
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I have recently added a SetFocusFilterIntent target extension to my app which is a system utility which goes into the menu bar(Application is agent = YES). I have followed the approach in the WWDC22 video introducing Focus Intent and I have created an App Groups to being able to make the Extension to communicate with my main app, however from when I did this sometimes when I run the app I do get this log line:
Couldn't read values in CFPrefsPlistSource<0x97cd34700> (Domain: group.xxx.xxx.MyApp, User: kCFPreferencesAnyUser, ByHost: Yes, Container: (null), Contents Need Refresh: Yes): Using kCFPreferencesAnyUser with a container is only allowed for System Containers, detaching from cfprefsd
Despite this the Focus mode integration is working correctly on my development Mac. However I used to Archive the app and then Copy the app to my MacBook but when I do that now my other Mac cannot open the app and it is giving me an error. If I revert this change then I can bring the app back to my other Mac as usual following the procedure: Product -> Archive.
Then from the archiver: Distribute App -> Copy App. After that I copy the app generated to the App folder of my other MacBook but it doesn't open anymore.
During the archival phase now I am even getting this warning:
MyAppFocus.appex is an ExtensionKit extension and must be embedded in the parent app bundle's Extensions directory, but is embedded in the parent app bundle's ../../../BuildProductsPath/Release/MyApp.app/Contents/Extensions directory.
How can I solve this issue?
If I rollback the commit related to this SetFocusFilterIntent new feature the app can be Copied and moved to the other Mac as before.
Is this related to the extension or to the fact that I had to use this new entitlement: com.apple.security.application-groups ?
I'm trying to test the update process for an app containing an FSKit module that I'm distributing on the Mac App Store. (I'm also distributing the same app directly with Developer ID, but here I'll focus on App Store because that's the behavior I've been looking at first.) To do that I'm using an internal tester group on TestFlight and then testing an update with TestFlight. Below is the behavior I'm seeing on macOS 15.7.2 (24G325).
I've noticed that if an app update is triggered while a disk is mounted using the FSKit extension, the disk is automatically unmounted without warning (FB21287341). That's already undesirable itself in my opinion, but on top of the unmount, there are two other problems:
That unmount doesn't seem to be a "clean" unmount and doesn't call functions like synchronize (FB21287688). Now, in my case, my app only provides read-only access, so that doesn't actually matter much in my case. However, I'd imagine if I were to add write access at some point in the future, this would go from "doesn't matter" to "very bad."
I've seen a few cases where quitting or crashing the FSModule process while a volume is mounted without actually doing a clean unmount causes a lot of "disk-related actions" (for lack of a better term) to freeze (FB21305906). For example, a use of the mount(8) command or trying to mount a disk at all freezes, and opening Disk Utility stalls on a "Loading disks" spinning indicator. This happens until the Mac is rebooted. I did notice this issue once while testing updates via TestFlight a few times.
The same applies if I simply delete the app with Finder instead of updating it.
Is there a way to prevent the extension's process from terminating in this case and/or another workaround I could use without waiting for a macOS update to hopefully change this behavior?
And does observing this kind of behavior with TestFlight's update behavior suggest the same thing could happen on the App Store with its automatic updates? I'm concerned that pushing an update via the App Store will unexpectedly unmount disks or cause the system-wide issues described in FB21305906 at a random time, which is a pretty big disruption for users.
Hello,
We are trying to use the new Background Upload Extension to improve uploads of assets (Photos, Live Photos, Videos) in the background in our application.
1 - We implemented the code to upload still images.
We would like to do the same for Live Photos but we are not sure how to proceed since a Live Photo is composed of 2 resources that we would like to upload in the same job so that we keep the association between the 2
resources.
Steps:
A Live Photo is captured on the device.
Our application is notified for new content in the Photo Library and the asset is queued for upload by our application.
The system calls the background upload extension and the Live Photo is prepared for upload but we can schedule a job only for one resource (still photo or paired video) so we can not upload both resources in a single job.
2 - Is there a way to synchronise the application and the extension so that the application would not process the same data or execute the same requests than the extension. For example: our application is working with
tokens and we would like to prevent those tokens to be consumed by the application and the extension at the same
time.
3 - is there a command in xcode or terminal to start or stop the extension, something similar to what exists for processing tasks
(https://developer.apple.com/documentation/backgroundtasks/starting-and-terminating-tasks-during-development).
Hi there,
I'm trying to work on an architecture where one app exposes an API (Extension Host) that other apps can plugin to. I've been reading all I can from the docs and whatever I can find online. It seemed like iOS26 added the ability to do such a thing (at least in early builds).
Is that the case?
Has the functionality been walked back such that extensions can only be loaded in iOS from within the single app bundle?
My use case is the following:
I'm working on an agent app that desires to have 3rd party developers add functionality (think how MCP servers add functionality to LLMs). The 3rd party plugins would be provided in their own app bundles vetted by the AppStore review team, of course, and would only provide hooks, basically, the main app can use to execute functions or get state.
This is the best thread I found on the topic, and the subtext is that it needs to be in the same bundle. https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/803896?answerId=865314022#865314022
Let's say for the moment that this isn't possible using ExtensionKit. What's the best way to achieve this? Our current best alternative idea is a hidded WebKit window that runs JS/WASM but that's so hackish.
Please let me know, thanks!
I want to use FileProvder to implement the function of recovering from the recycle bin (the cloud recycle bin does not move, and after the local recycle bin is restored, the upload event is triggered again), but testing shows that the current recovery from the recycle bin is through the modifyItem event, and the CreateItem event is not triggered again to upload locally restored files
Implement the deletion of undelivered files (dateless) without moving them to the recycle bin, which currently appears to be achieved by granting file. dash permission. But it is possible for the content of a file to be manually verified by the user. How can this be solved? How can we dynamically monitor whether a file is dataless
Thank you for your reply. Could you please help answer my question
It looks like ExtensionKit (and ExtensionFoundation) is fully available on iOS 26 but there is no mention about this in WWDC.
From my testing, it seems as of beta 1, ExtensionKit allows the app from one dev team to launch extension provided by another dev team. Before we start building on this, can someone from Apple help confirm this is the intentional behavior and not just beta 1 thing?
From watching the video on App Attest the answer would appear to be no, but the video is a few years old so in hope, I thought I would post this question anyway.
There's several scenarios where I would like a notification service extension to be able to use App Attest in communications with the back end(for example to send a receipt to the backend acknowledging receipt of the push, fetching an image from a url in the push payload, a few others).
Any change App Attest can be used in by a notification service extension?
I'm trying to develop an app that broadcasts what the user sees (priorly we were using main camera access) but now we'd like to investigate and try with this option.
I have set up the BroadcastExtension, I've added the picker, I click on my button, I can see my broadcast extension in the options list in the control center, once I click start, it stops after 1 second more or less.
I'm not able to get anything in the console from my Sample Handler (prints or logs or anything).
I can see however in the console.app some misleading information (one after the other):
[INFO] -[RPRecordingManager getSystemBroadcastExtensionInfo:]_block_invoke:1333 Extension has passthrough license
[INFO] -[RPRecordingManager getSystemBroadcastExtensionInfo:]_block_invoke:1336 Extension does not have passthrough license
We have the entreprise license, the capability and I did add the capability on the extension target as well.
I would love to partake in beta testing and reporting issues and bugs! Let me know what you got
Topic:
Developer Tools & Services
SubTopic:
Apple Developer Program
Tags:
Developer Tools
Interface Builder
Extensions
App Store
We use File Provider Extension in our main app, and it is working fine.
We always call "NSFileProviderManager.add(_:completionHandler:)" function to start the extension, and "NSFileProviderManager.disconnect(reason:options:completionHandler:)" to temporarily quit the extension with the reason which will be shown in the Finder at the top of the FP domain folder.
But sometimes, when the main app calls the above functions, the following issue cases occur, and the extension does not start/stop:
The completionHandler function doesn't get called (As we noticed, we waited for 2 minutes. Then, we restarted the main app.)
One of the following errors returned: i) "The application cannot be used right now", ii) "Couldn't communicate with the helper application", iii) "No valid file provider found with identifier"
Here, the important thing is that restarting the main app once or twice clears the issue, and the extension starts.
But it is frustrating to restart the app each time we get this issue.
We want to know the following things:
Why and when do the above issues occur?
Why do they occur only sometimes, and how does the app restart clear the issue?
How do we resolve them without restarting the main app?
This has become a critical issue, so a detailed explanation would be greatly appreciated. TIA.
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Core OS
Tags:
Files and Storage
Extensions
macOS
File Provider
Hi, I have an iOS project with the following app targets:
main iOS application
a notification service extension
5 static libs containing some swift files with public methods
1 dynamic framework with above static libs as dependencies.
The framework only contains 2 files - a default .h file and 1 .exp file. This exports file contains mangled-names of all the public methods that are exposed by the 5 static libs present as framework's dependencies. I obtained these symbols using the nm command for each static lib.
The main iOS app target has 2 dependencies - the framework and the notification extension.
The notification extension only depends on the framework.
This setup works perfectly fine. I wanted to understand:
If using the exports file is the only way to make this setup work?
If not, what else can I do?
What way does Apple recommend?
According to my requirements, I only need at-most 2-3 functions to be exposed by the framework - thus using a exports file just for that seems to bug me.
Thank you.
I'm developing a custom file system using FSKit. After testing some example projects on github and have encountered an issue where the removeItem(_:named:fromDirectory:) method in my FSVolume.Operations implementation is not being invoked when attempting to delete files or directories through Finder or the command line.
Environment:
macOS: macOS 26.1
Xcode: 16.2 / 17A400
Sample Project:
https://github.com/KhaosT/FSKitSample
https://github.com/debox-network/FSKitBridge
My volume implements the required FSVolume.Operations protocol with the following removeItem implementation:
func removeItem(
_ item: FSItem,
named name: FSFileName,
fromDirectory directory: FSItem
) async throws {
logger.info("remove: \(name)")
if let item = item as? MyFSItem, let directory = directory as? MyFSItem {
directory.removeItem(item)
} else {
throw fs_errorForPOSIXError(POSIXError.EIO.rawValue)
}
}
Steps to Reproduce:
Mount the custom FSKit-based file system
Create files using Finder or terminal (works correctly - createItem is called)
Attempt to delete a file using:
Terminal command: rm -rf /path/to/mounted/file
option+cmd+delete force to delete file
Expected Behavior:
The removeItem(_:named:fromDirectory:) method should be called, logging "remove: [filename]" and removing the item from the directory's children collection.
Actual Behavior:
The removeItem method is never invoked. No logs appear from this method. The deletion operation either fails silently or returns an error, but the callback never occurs.
Are there specific volume capabilities or entitlements required for removeItem to be invoked or are there any known issues with deletion operations in the current FSKit implementation?
Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.
I have an iOS app with ExtensionFoundation. It runs well on my local device, but when I upload on the AppStore it gets rejected with:
Validation failed
Invalid Info.plist value. The value of the EXExtensionPointIdentifier key, AsheKube.app.a-Shell.localWebServer, in the Info.plist of “a-Shell.app/Extensions/localWebServer.appex” is invalid. Please refer to the App Extension Programming Guide at https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/General/Conceptual/ExtensibilityPG/Action.html#/apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40014214-CH13-SW1. (ID: ae8dd1dd-8caf-4a48-9651-7a225faed4eb)
The Info.plist in my Extension is:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>EXAppExtensionAttributes</key>
<dict>
<key>EXExtensionPointIdentifier</key>
<string>com.example.example-extension</string>
</dict>
</dict>
</plist>
so the Info.plist that causes the issue has been automatically generated by Xcode. I can access it as well, and it says:
{
"BuildMachineOSBuild" => "25A354"
"CFBundleDevelopmentRegion" => "en"
"CFBundleDisplayName" => "localWebServerExtension"
"CFBundleExecutable" => "localWebServer"
"CFBundleIdentifier" => "AsheKube.app.a-Shell.localWebServerExtension"
"CFBundleInfoDictionaryVersion" => "6.0"
"CFBundleName" => "localWebServer"
"CFBundlePackageType" => "XPC!"
"CFBundleShortVersionString" => "1.0"
"CFBundleSupportedPlatforms" => [
0 => "iPhoneOS"
]
"CFBundleVersion" => "1"
"DTCompiler" => "com.apple.compilers.llvm.clang.1_0"
"DTPlatformBuild" => "23A339"
"DTPlatformName" => "iphoneos"
"DTPlatformVersion" => "26.0"
"DTSDKBuild" => "23A339"
"DTSDKName" => "iphoneos26.0"
"DTXcode" => "2601"
"DTXcodeBuild" => "17A400"
"EXAppExtensionAttributes" => {
"EXExtensionPointIdentifier" => "AsheKube.app.a-Shell.localWebServer"
}
"MinimumOSVersion" => "26.0"
"NSHumanReadableCopyright" => "Copyright © 2025 AsheKube. All rights reserved."
"UIDeviceFamily" => [
0 => 1
1 => 2
]
"UIRequiredDeviceCapabilities" => [
0 => "arm64"
]
}
What should I do to be able to upload on the AppStore?
class ShieldActionExtension: ShieldActionDelegate {
override func handle(action: ShieldAction, for application: ApplicationToken, completionHandler: @escaping (ShieldActionResponse) -> Void) {
// Handle the action as needed.
switch action {
case .primaryButtonPressed:
if let url = URL(string: "blockfocusapp://") {
let extensionContext = NSExtensionContext()
extensionContext.open(url, completionHandler: nil)
}
//
completionHandler(.defer)
case .secondaryButtonPressed:
let userDefaults = UserDefaults(suiteName: "group.in.appsquare.FocusApp.shieldExt")
userDefaults?.set(false, forKey: "shouldOpenMainApp")
completionHandler(.defer)
@unknown default:
fatalError()
}
}
override func handle(action: ShieldAction, for webDomain: WebDomainToken, completionHandler: @escaping (ShieldActionResponse) -> Void) {
// Handle the action as needed.
completionHandler(.close)
}
override func handle(action: ShieldAction, for category: ActivityCategoryToken, completionHandler: @escaping (ShieldActionResponse) -> Void) {
// Handle the action as needed.
completionHandler(.close)
}
}
I want to be able to open my app from ShieldActionExtension
In third-party keyboard app, the app is crashed when call [[UIInputViewController textDocumentProxy] keyboardAppearance].
Environment)
iOS 26
crash dump call stack
Thread 0 Crashed: 0 libobjc.A.dylib 0x0000000198433008 objc_msgSend + 8
1 UIKitCore 0x00000001a1cea570 -[_UITextDocumentInterface _controllerState] + 68
2 UIKitCore 0x00000001a1ceaef0 -[_UITextDocumentInterface documentIdentifier] + 20
3 ThirtPartyKeyboardApp 0x0000000104aad190 -[NKBKeyboardViewController _updateThemeCenterAppearanceModeIfNeeds] + 56 (NKBKeyboardViewController.m:164)
Description :
Our app helps users connect to Wi-Fi hotspots. We are trying to adapt our code to iOS 26 Hotspot Authentication and Hotspot Evaluation application extensions.
When filtering hotspots in the filterScanList callback, we need to fetch support information from a remote server to determine which hotspots are supported. However, attempts to use URLSession or NWTCPConnection in the extension always fail.
When accessing a URL (e.g., https://www.example.com), the network log shows:
Error Domain=NSURLErrorDomain Code=-1003 "A server with the specified hostname could not be found."
When accessing a raw IP address, the log shows:
[1: Operation not permitted]
Interestingly, NWPathMonitor shows the network path as satisfied, indicating that the network is reachable.
Question:
Are there any missing permissions or misconfigurations on our side, or are we using the wrong approach? Is there an official recommended way to perform network requests from an NEHotspotEvaluationProvider extension?
If the extension uses manifest v3 and a background script in the form of a service worker, then in Safari it is not possible to open the background script debugging window. If I expand the Developer menu in Safari, there is nothing under Web Extension Background Data (or disappear after click), which is an error. In other browsers (Edge, Chrome, Opera, Firefox) this works correctly.
If I switch the background script back to non-persistent script mode, everything works fine and from the Developer menu and the Web Extension Background Data submenu I am able to open the background script debugging window for the extension. Am I doing something wrong?
I built a couple of app intents for macOS, which generally work great. However, I'm struggling with configuring an app intent that takes a parameter, so that it doesn't require the app to launch before presenting people with the list of options.
If the app is running and I run the intent in Spotlight, I can see the message defined by the intent's parameterSummary and I can select a parameter from the list of entities.
If the app is not running, it is launched first and only then the intent message fully populates in Spotlight and allows parameter selection.
What I've tried:
Support background or deferred mode in the intent.
Conformed the entities to IndexedEntity.
Conformed the entity query to EnumerableEntityQuery, implementing suggestedEntities and allEntities.
Conformed the entity query to EntityStringQuery.
Donated the intent to Spotlight on app launch.
Donated the entities to Spotlight on app launch, both using indexSearchableItems and indexAppEntities. Not sure if both are required or if the latter is just a more convenient version of the former.
Do I have to conform to or implement something else?
Do I need to work with an app intent extension? If so, would I put all app intent code into the extension instead of the main app?
Is this a system bug I should file?
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Widgets & Live Activities
Tags:
Extensions
macOS
Core Spotlight
App Intents
We are observing an issue where the iOS Notification Service Extension (NSE) is terminated by the system during startup, before either didReceive(_:withContentHandler:) or serviceExtensionTimeWillExpire(_:) is invoked. When this occurs, the notification is delivered without modification (for example, an encrypted payload is shown to the user). System logs frequently contain the message “Extension will be killed because it used its runtime in starting up”.
During testing, we observed that CPU-intensive operations or heavy initialization performed early in the extension lifecycle — especially inside init() or directly on the main thread in didReceive often cause the system to kill the NSE almost immediately. These terminations happen significantly earlier than the commonly observed ~30-second execution window where the OS normally invokes serviceExtensionTimeWillExpire(_:) before ending the extension. When these early terminations occur, there is no call to the expiry handler, and the process appears to be forcefully shut down.
Moving the same operations to a background thread changes the behavior: the extension eventually expires around the usual 30-second window, after which the OS calls serviceExtensionTimeWillExpire(_:).
We also observed that memory usage plays a role in early termination. During tests involving large memory allocations, the system consistently killed the extension
once memory consumption exceeded a certain threshold (in our measurements, this occurred around 150–180 MB). Again, unlike normal time-based expiration, the system did not call the expiry handler and no crash report was produced.
Since Apple’s documentation does not specify concrete CPU, memory, or startup-cost constraints for Notification Service Extensions or any other extensions beyond the general execution limit, we are seeking clarification and best-practice guidance on expected behaviors, particularly around initialization cost and the differences between startup termination.
NSE Setup:
class NotificationService: UNNotificationServiceExtension {
static var notificationContentHandler: ((UNNotificationContent) -> Void)?
static var notificationContent: UNMutableNotificationContent?
static var shoudLoop = true
override func didReceive(_ request: UNNotificationRequest,
withContentHandler contentHandler: @escaping (UNNotificationContent) -> Void) {
NotificationService.notificationContentHandler = contentHandler
NotificationService.notificationContent =
request.content.mutableCopy() as? UNMutableNotificationContent
NotificationService.notificationContent!.title = "Weekly meeting"
NotificationService.notificationContent!.body = "Updated inside didReceive"
// Failing scenarios
}
override func serviceExtensionTimeWillExpire() {
NotificationService.shoudLoop = false
guard let handler = NotificationService.notificationContentHandler,
let content = NotificationService.notificationContent else { return }
content.body = "Updated inside serviceExtensionTimeWillExpire()"
handler(content)
}
}