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Getting precise text position with Swift for MacOS
Hey there! Hope you are starting the year with great joy. My situation I'm building a new product that is based on detecting certain text on screen in realtime. The product is only targeted for Mac and it's built with Swift My problem I need to get the exact position of a text element with the Apple Accessibility API but I can't figurate it out. I managed to get the AXUIElement where the text is placed but it's position is too broad and off target. My discoveries so far I've tried OCR but is too slow for what I'm building, so the only possible way I can think of is with the Accessibility API. Thank you in advanced.
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Jan ’25
Using WebSocket for BCI Click Input in VisionOS - FocusState vs. System-Level Limitations
Hi everyone, My team and I are developing an accessibility-focused VisionOS app (MindTap) as part of a university project, aiming to support individuals with Locked-In Syndrome using Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) signals to trigger interactions (e.g., tapping) within the Apple Vision Pro environment. Problem 1: Simulating Eye Tracking in Simulator We are testing onHover with Send pointer to the device under I/O > Input in the simulator, and while it mostly works (a bit laggy), we found that onHover won't function on the actual Vision Pro hardware. From what I understand, we should be using FocusState for proper gaze interaction, but testing this requires the physical device. Is there any workaround or official Apple-recommended way to simulate Focus-based gaze detection without a real Vision Pro? Problem 2: WebSocket-triggered "Click" doesn't work outside the app We successfully use WebSocket to send a custom signal (a "1" from the brain signal device) to trigger an action inside our app. However, when the user opens a third-party app like Apple News, the WebSocket-triggered "click" no longer works. We suspect this is due to sandbox restrictions or lack of system-level permissions. Is it possible in anyway to: Trigger interaction events outside the app using custom input (like BCI via Websocket)? Access system-wide click/tap simulation APIs from within VisionOS apps Integrate this with accessibility services (like Voice Control or AssistiveTouch) We'd appreciate any official guidance or tips from others building similar accessibility apps with alternative input methods in VisionOS. Thanks in advance for any insight you can provide!
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Apr ’25
Email swipe left
Before 18.2 when we swipe email left, the sending address was visible. Now the first line of the email is visible. So now to block scam/spoof mail we have to actually open the email, tap on the sender, then close email, then block. Can we at least have an option to choose? The new set up is both cumbersome and time consuming.
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416
Nov ’24
Thai input glitch after Command + Delete in macOS beta
Issue: When using the shortcut Command + Delete to clear a line of text, the next character I type in Thai unexpectedly appears as an English character, even though the input source is still set to Thai. After that, subsequent characters return to Thai as expected. Details: Affected apps: Notes, Messages, and some other native apps Not affected: Browser text fields (Safari, Chrome, etc.) Does not occur when using Option + Delete or just Delete macOS [insert beta version + build number] Mac model: [insert model] Input sources: Thai – Kedmanee, English – U.S. Steps to reproduce: Open Notes (or Messages). Switch to Thai input. Type a few Thai words. Press Command + Delete. Type again — the first character shows up in English. Expected: First character should remain in Thai, consistent with the active input source. Actual: First character shows as English, then input switches back to Thai.
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771
Aug ’25
How to lookup keybinding translation across input sources
I have an application that binds a menu item to trigger on ⌘]. When I set the US input source, I press ⌘] in order to trigger that item. However, when I switch the input source to QWERTZ (German), the trigger changes to ⌘Ä automatically by the OS. It seems to translate keystrokes for different input sources. The problem is that I also render the keybindings in a window in my application, and my application is not aware of this translation. Furthermore, I have other key shortcuts in my application which are not bound to menu items, and I want to make sure those get translated too. Does AppKit expose a way to lookup what a keystroke will be when MacOS translates it, i.e. lookup ⌘Ä from ⌘] when the current layout is QWERTZ? I can't find anything in Apple's docs. I tried converting a character to virtual key code based on the US layout and then mapping it back to a character based on the QWERTZ layout. That doesn't seem to be the same b/c that ends up converting ] to + instead which seems to be based on physical key location, different from how the keybindings are handled. Update: I notice similar behavior for VS Code's menu bar, e.g. in their "Terminal" menu. Switching to German changes some bindings. This does not occur at all in iTerm's menu bar, I suspect b/c their menu items are specified in a different way, xib files with hard-coded key equivalents
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367
Jan ’25
Getting isAuthenticated false when trying to retrieve book for india
url: https://uclient-api.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStorePlatform.woa/wa/lookup?version=2&id=1515995528&p=mdm-lockup&caller=MDM&platform=enterprisestore&cc=IN Response : { "results": {}, "version": 2, "isAuthenticated": false, "meta": { "storefront": { "id": "143467", "cc": "IN" }, "language": { "tag": "en-gb" } } } Any solution for this?
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343
Nov ’24
Autocomplete Select not working with VoiceOver in iOS 18.6.2
Hey folksI, I would like to ask for help on this topic: I think this is exactly the same problem Combobox not working with VoiceOver after… - Apple Community. VoiceOver also breaks the combobox from the official ARIA W3C website https://www.w3.org/WAI/ARIA/apg/patterns/combobox/examples/combobox-autocomplete-list/. When VO is turned off, I can use the up/down arrow to go through the menu items from the dropdown, but when VO is turned on, the up/down arrows cannot access the dropdown menu items. Is there an official tutorial on how to control it using voice over? Kind regards, Jakub
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3w
VoiceOver Text Recognition Announcing Hidden Labels
I have a UIImageView as the background of a custom UIView subclass. The image itself does not contain any text. On top of this image view, I have added two UILabels. To improve accessibility, I converted the entire view into a single accessibility element and set a proper accessibilityLabel. Additionally, I disabled accessibility for the UIImageView and the labels by setting isAccessibilityElement = false. However, when VoiceOver's Accessibility Recognition's Text Recognition feature is enabled, VoiceOver still detects and announces the text inside the UILabels at the end after reading my custom accessibility properties. This text should not be announced. It seems that VoiceOver treats the UILabel content as part of the UIImageView. Additionally, when using the Explore Image rotor action, the entire subview is recognized as a single image. Is this the expected behavior? If so, is there a way to disable VoiceOver’s text recognition for this view while keeping custom accessibility intact? class BackgroundLabelView: UIView { private let backgroundImageView = UIImageView() private let backgroundImageView2 = UIImageView() private let titleLabel = UILabel() private let subtitleLabel = UILabel() override init(frame: CGRect) { super.init(frame: frame) setupView() } required init?(coder: NSCoder) { super.init(coder: coder) setupView() configureAceesibility() } private func configureAceesibility() { backgroundImageView.isAccessibilityElement = false backgroundImageView2.isAccessibilityElement = false titleLabel.isAccessibilityElement = false subtitleLabel.isAccessibilityElement = false isAccessibilityElement = true accessibilityTraits = .button } func configure(backgroundImage: UIImage?, title: String, subtitle: String) { backgroundImageView.image = backgroundImage titleLabel.text = title subtitleLabel.text = subtitle accessibilityLabel = "Holiday Offer ," + title + "," + subtitle } private func setupView() { backgroundImageView2.contentMode = .scaleAspectFill backgroundImageView2.clipsToBounds = true backgroundImageView2.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false backgroundImageView2.image = UIImage(resource: .bannerfestival) addSubview(backgroundImageView2) backgroundImageView.contentMode = .scaleAspectFit backgroundImageView.clipsToBounds = true backgroundImageView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false addSubview(backgroundImageView) titleLabel.font = UIFont.systemFont(ofSize: 18, weight: .bold) titleLabel.textColor = .white titleLabel.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false titleLabel.numberOfLines = 0 addSubview(titleLabel) subtitleLabel.font = UIFont.systemFont(ofSize: 14, weight: .regular) subtitleLabel.textColor = .white.withAlphaComponent(0.8) subtitleLabel.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false subtitleLabel.numberOfLines = 0 addSubview(subtitleLabel) NSLayoutConstraint.activate([ backgroundImageView2.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: leadingAnchor), backgroundImageView2.trailingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: trailingAnchor), backgroundImageView2.heightAnchor.constraint(equalToConstant: 200), backgroundImageView.centerYAnchor.constraint(equalTo: centerYAnchor), backgroundImageView.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: topAnchor), backgroundImageView.leadingAnchor.constraint(greaterThanOrEqualTo: leadingAnchor), backgroundImageView.trailingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: trailingAnchor), backgroundImageView.bottomAnchor.constraint(equalTo: bottomAnchor), titleLabel.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: leadingAnchor, constant: 16), titleLabel.trailingAnchor.constraint(lessThanOrEqualTo: centerXAnchor), titleLabel.bottomAnchor.constraint(equalTo: centerYAnchor, constant: -4), subtitleLabel.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: leadingAnchor, constant: 16), subtitleLabel.trailingAnchor.constraint(lessThanOrEqualTo: centerXAnchor), subtitleLabel.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: centerYAnchor, constant: 4) ]) } override func layoutSubviews() { super.layoutSubviews() backgroundImageView.layer.cornerRadius = layer.cornerRadius } }
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Apr ’25
Resetting the selected accessibility action on a button
I have a record button that either starts or stops a recording using the default action. When the user is recording, I want to add a custom action to discard the recording instead of saving it. That all works fine with the following code: if isRecording { recordButton.accessibilityCustomActions = [ .init(name: String(localized: "discard recording"), actionHandler: { [weak delegate] _ in delegate?.discardRecording() return true }) ] recordButton.accessibilityLabel = String(localized: "stop recording", comment: "accessibility label") } else { recordButton.accessibilityCustomActions = [] recordButton.accessibilityLabel = String(localized: "start recording", comment: "accessibility label") } The problem I have is that when a user chose "discard recording", it becomes the default selected action again the next time the user records, and instead of stopping and saving the recording, the user might accidentally discard the next one as well. How can I programmatically reset the selected action on this recordButton to the default action?
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415
Oct ’24
Autonomous Single App Mode(ASAM) in macOS
Hello I tried implementing the ASAM for macOS as per apple guidelines with configuration profile mentioned here but didn't had any success. Then Apple suggested to use requestGuidedAccessSession in macOS but that is only supported in macOS Catalyst but that also didn't work with valid config profiles too. Did anyone get success with ASAM mode without assessment entitltlement?
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223
Jul ’25
App in Unlisted Language
I am building a language learning app for a Unlisted Primary Language. Any suggestions or heads ups? My plan is to select english and go with it. Its unfortunate that I have to list a language learning app incorrectly and a tag for that language probably does not exist across the apple system.
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148
Jul ’25
Random Disconnection Issues with iStorage diskAshur on macOS
Hello everyone, I am experiencing random and untimely disconnection issues with my iStorage diskAshur external HDD/SSD while using macOS. I have already contacted Apple Support but unfortunately, they could not provide a solution and suggested I reach out to this forum for further assistance. Has anyone else faced similar issues with the diskAshur on macOS? If so, what steps did you take to resolve the problem? Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
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332
Oct ’24