Hi, We were planning on using DriverKit to develop a USB Driver on IOS for iPhone. Within the DriverKit website, it say 'IOS16.0+' which lead us to believe it was compatible with iPhones running IOS16.0+. However, it appears DriverKit is only available for iPads running iPadOS, and computers running macOS. Are there any alternatives that would allow us to create a device specific USB driver for an iPhone running IOS?
IOS alternatives to DriverKit
Hi, We were planning on using DriverKit to develop a USB Driver on iOS for iPhone. Within the DriverKit website, it says ‘iOS16.0+' which led us to believe it was compatible with iPhones running iOS16.0+.
Unfortunately, the API overlap between iOS and iPadOS means that our website doesn't do a very good job handling edge cases like an iPadOS-only API. However, this page describes exactly what parts of DriverKit are supported on iPadOS.
However, it appears DriverKit is only available for iPads running iPadOS, and computers running macOS.
Correct. DriverKit is not supported on iOS.
Are there any alternatives that would allow us to create a device-specific USB driver for an iPhone running iOS?
Not for general USB communication. MFi-licensed accessories can communicate with applications on iOS; however, that communication is through an MFi-licensed protocol ("iAP2"). General USB communication is not possible, even through the MFi program.
__
Kevin Elliott
DTS Engineer, CoreOS/Hardware