Regarding the Background Assets capability on iOS: In the install scenario, resources defined as the "install" type are incorporated into the App Store download progress. Do resources of the "update" type in the update scenario also get incorporated into the App Store download progress in the same way? If an exception occurs during the download of install-type resources and the download cannot proceed further, will the system no longer actively block users from launching the app and instead enable the launch button? Currently, if a user has enabled automatic updates on their device, after the app is updated and released on the App Store, will the Background Assets download start immediately once the automatic update completes? Or does Background Assets have its own built-in scheduling logic that prevents it from running concurrently with the automatic update?
I assume that you’re talking about Managed Background Assets, which is the new feature set that we introduced at WWDC25. If you’re talking about the older, unmanaged Background Assets features, then please let me know.
Do resources of the "update" type in the update scenario also get incorporated into the App Store download progress in the same way?
Yes, but only when the app is being updated having already been installed previously (assuming that the asset pack’s download policy doesn’t also have firstInstallation in its installationEventTypes array).
If an exception occurs during the download of install-type resources and the download cannot proceed further, will the system no longer actively block users from launching the app and instead enable the launch button?
That’s correct.
Currently, if a user has enabled automatic updates on their device, after the app is updated and released on the App Store, will the Background Assets download start immediately once the automatic update completes? Or does Background Assets have its own built-in scheduling logic that prevents it from running concurrently with the automatic update?
Background Assets downloads that are integrated into an app’s first installation or subsequent update—i.e., downloads of asset packs with essential download policies—always happen immediately after the corresponding main app (or app update) finishes downloading. However, the system presents to the user the whole app + Background Assets progression as a single process. In the App Store and TestFlight UIs and on the Home Screen, there’s little if any difference between the “download the main app” phase and the subsequent Background Assets phase. So, it doesn’t actually run concurrently, but it might as well be doing so from the user’s perspective. For automatic updates, this is even more true because the user presumably isn’t monitoring download progress like they would with manual updates. In addition, Background Assets also separately runs in the background periodically to keeps apps’ asset packs up to date even when no update to the main app is available.