A lot of apps use undocumented App-prefs URLs to help users get to the iOS Settings screen needed to set up the app. In iOS 18, it seems like these all stopped working.
Here are the ones I currently use:
App-prefs:MESSAGES - broken in iOS 18
Used for SMS Protection.
App-prefs:Phone - broken in iOS 18
Used for Live Voicemail, Silence Unknown Callers, and SMS Reporting.
Some but not most paths have specific documented replacements. E.g. for Call Blocking & Identification you can use CXCallDirectoryManager.sharedInstance.openSettings() and this still works in iOS 18. But I don't see any other direct replacements.
Apple probably doesn't consider this a bug but I filed FB14378568 anyway.
I consider this an accessibility issue because many older, inexperienced, or users with disabilities have trouble finding the right Settings screen based on a textual description alone.
Explore best practices for creating inclusive apps for users of Apple accessibility features and users from diverse backgrounds.
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Hi,
I want to detect if there is a fullscreen window on each screen.
_AXUIElementGetWindow and kAXFullscreenAttribute methods work, but I have to be in a non-sandbox environment to use them.
Is there any other way that also works? I don't think it's enough to judge if it's fullscreen by comparing the window size to the screen size, since it doesn't work on MacBook with notch, or the menu bar is set to 'auto-hide'.
Thanks.
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
Tags:
Accessibility
Mac App Store
Core Graphics
App Sandbox
When I'm in TERMINAL and I issue the cd command it says no such file or directory.
I cut this from the terminal session:
Last login: Tue Nov 12 20:10:57 on ttys000
The default interactive shell is now zsh.
To update your account to use zsh, please run chsh -s /bin/zsh.
For more details, please visit https://support.apple.com/kb/HT208050.
iMac:~ robertsantovasco$ cd desktop
iMac:desktop robertsantovasco$ cd L1 demo
-bash: cd: L1: No such file or directory
iMac:desktop robertsantovasco$ cd L1
-bash: cd: L1: No such file or directory
iMac:desktop robertsantovasco$ cd L1 demo
-bash: cd: L1: No such file or directory
iMac:desktop robertsantovasco$ cd /
iMac:/ robertsantovasco$ cd desktop
-bash: cd: desktop: No such file or directory
iMac:/ robertsantovasco$ cd L1 demo
-bash: cd: L1: No such file or directory
iMac:/ robertsantovasco$ cd L1 demo
-bash: cd: L1: No such file or directory
iMac:/ robertsantovasco$ cd desktop
-bash: cd: desktop: No such file or directory
iMac:/ robertsantovasco$ cd desktop
-bash: cd: desktop: No such file or directory
iMac:/ robertsantovasco$ CD desktop
/usr/bin/CD: line 4: cd: desktop: No such file
I checked the latest release notes for latest beta, and there doesn't seem to be a fix for this. But basically, the vibrations that you receive for when you long press a message to react, or hold down on an app in Home Screen, seem to stop working after a while.
This issue is reoccurring randomly.
Steps to repro:
Not fully sure on this, but I'm on iPhone 16 pro max and running the iOS 18.3 dev beta described in the title. I have the default haptics enabled in which you receive a vibration when you long press on a message in iMessage or Messenger, and also when you long press on an app on the Home Screen.
These seem to stop working, along with any other vibrations apart from calls and notifications) after a while. The only workaround is to restart the iPhone entirely.
anyone else face the same?
I have mulling over this for many years ,Uralic and Siberian language user interface Support.Ainu of Japan is only supported by writing roman and rendering into Katakana with a few small modified characters there is no user interface ,spell,grammar checker,dictionary ,translator ,of course the Ainu has few terms in modern vocabulary but Iam studying the language in order to find words and coin new ones, iPhone hoomi-ye-p electric speak thing. I am looking for other peple who have the same idea.
Just installed iOS 18 Beta 3.
I am seeing my AccessibilityUIServer using the microphone and this is causing no notification sounds, inability to use Siri by voice and volume is grayed out.
If I start to play anything with sound AccessibilityUIServer releases the microphone and I am able to use the app.
Calls still work since AccessibilityUIServer will release and the phone will ring.
Feed back ID is FB14241838.
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
Tags:
Audio
Accessibility
Sound Analysis
Sound and Haptics
Our company enrolled in the Apple Developer Program as an organization in July 2024. Everything was fine for several months, but in early January 2025, our developer noticed that the certificates were missing. When we logged into our developer account, we were shocked to see a page prompting us to “Enroll Today”—as if we had never joined in the first place.
Clicking the enrollment button led us to an error page stating we cannot enroll.
We immediately reached out to Apple Developer Support via email, but despite multiple attempts, we received no response. Strangely, our apps remain live on the App Store, App Store Connect functions as usual, and we continue receiving payments every month. However, we are completely blocked from developing and releasing updates.
Today, I managed to reach Apple by phone. After being transferred to a senior representative, I was told they couldn’t tell me why this was happening. They only confirmed that a request had been made and that I should “wait.” That’s it—no explanation, no timeline, nothing. While it’s somewhat reassuring that they acknowledge the issue, I’ve already seen other developers with the same problem go unanswered for months.
My suspicion? This account might be linked to an individual developer account from way back in 2015 when Apple’s registration process was far less strict. Could that be the issue? No idea—because Apple won’t say a word.
Meanwhile, both of our apps have been exposed to several bugs, and customers are waiting for updates. If there’s still no response from Apple, I have no choice but to register a new account—purely to continue supporting our users.
CASE ID: 102508598957
Still waiting for 32 hours and nothing …
shame this still on and no go through
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
I'm facing a bizarre issue with the Apple's Accessibility APIs. I am registering an AXObserver that listens for, among other things, the kAXSelectedTextChangedNotification. For many new users, the kAXSelectTextChangedNotification is not triggered, even though they have enabled Accessibility permission for the app. Other notifications are getting through (kAXWindowMovedNotification, kAXWindowResizedNotification, kAXValueChangedNotification etc - full list here), just not the kAXSelectedTextChangedNotification!
We've found that we can reproduce the error by removing accessibility permission for the app and rebooting our computers. After restarting and reenabling accessibility permissions, the kAXSelectedTextChangedNotification was not received, even though other notifications were fine.
Strangely, the issue can be resolved by launching Apple's Accessibility Inspector app on an impacted computer. Once the Accessibility Inspector is loaded, the kAXSelectedTextChangedNotifications start coming through as expected. This implies to me that either:
We are missing some needed setup when starting the observers. Accessibility Inspector gets it right, thus ‘starting’ the system properly.
Accessibility Inspector is using some Apple private APIs that we don’t have access to.
Things I’ve tried:
I've tried subscribing the AXSelectedTextChangedNotification to different AXUIElements, including the SystemWide element, the Application element, and children elements from the AXApplication. None of these received the kAXSelectedTextChangedNotification, until Accessibility Inspector is booted up. No surprises here, as Apple's documentation confirms that you should add the notification to the root Application AXUIElement if you want to receive notifications for all its children.
I had a theory that the issue might be due to my code calling AXUIElementCreateApplication multiple times, possibly creating multiple "Applications" in Apple's Accessibility implementation. If that’s the case, the notifications might be sent to the wrong application AXUIElement. However, refactoring my code to only call AXUIElementCreateApplication once didn't resolve the issue.
I thought the issue may be caused by subscribing the AXSelectedTextChangedNotification on the high-level application element (at odds with Apple's documentation). I've tried traversing the child AXUIElements until we find one with the kAXSelectedTextAttribute and then subscribing to that. This did not resolve the issue. I don’t think it's the correct path to continue exploring, given that the notifications are received correctly after AccessibilityInspector is launched.
There is one exception to the above: if I add the kSelectedTextChangedNotification listener to a specific text field AXUIElement, I do receive the notification on that text field. However, this is not practical; I need a solution that will work for all text fields within an app. The Accessibility Inspector appears to be doing something that causes the selected-text-changed notifications to be correctly passed up to the high-level application AXUIElement.
Another thought is that I could traverse the entire Accessibility hierarchy and add listeners to every subview that has the kAXSelectedTextAttribute. However, I don’t like this long-term solution. It will be slow and incomplete: new elements get added and removed frequently. I just want the kAXSelectedTextChangedNotification to be received by the high-level Application AXUIElement, which the documentation suggests it should be. I also have evidence that this can work, since notifications start coming through after Accessibility Inspector is launched. It’s just a matter of discovering how to replicate whatever Accessibility Inspector is doing.
An interesting wrinkle: I implemented the 'traverse' strategy above, but was surprised by how few elements were in the hierarchy. Most apps only go down ~2-3 levels, which didn't seem right to me. Perhaps the Accessibility tree isn't fully initialized? I tried adding a 5-second delay to allow more initialization time, but it didn't change anything.
Does anyone have any ideas? Here's our file.
When my macOS Cocoa app displays a modal alert with beginSheetModal(for:completionHandler:), VoiceOver sometimes seems to focus on an "illegal" upper level, where any attempts at navigation will give the unhelpful response "Alert, dialog", until you "drill down" with VO + shift + down or switch apps. After that, things will work as expected.
Is this a known bug? Does it happen to anybody else, or am I doing something wrong?
How do I enable the system hand controls within an immersive space?
I have an ImmersiveScene and would like to enable the new 2.0 system controls like the home button and volume slider.
ImmersiveSpace(id: appModel.immersiveSpaceID) {
ImmersiveView()
}
.immersionStyle(selection: .constant(.full), in: .full)
.upperLimbVisibility(.visible)
While I can see my hands and arms in this view, I cannot get the "New Hand Gestures" to show up when on visionOS 2.0. When I leave the immersive space, they appear.
Our app:
https://apps.apple.com/it/app/bookapp-business/id1511129368
BookApp Business, does not work in iOS 18
when it starts it opens a white screen
it is developed in Xamarin Forms and we cannot update it
are there any solutions?
tanks for support
Alex
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
It is outrageous that Apple continue to fail to implement the Fullscreen API web standard for web apps on iPhone only, which is so important to accessibility and web app functionality.
The only possible reason for this block is commercial: to promote iOS apps instead of browser based web apps.
To quote a client from a major agency just now - a typical enquiry :
We value accessibility greatly, and we noticed that the embedded player is missing a full screen button on iPhone.
Everything else works perfectly fine, including a full screen button that appears on the mobile webpage on android devices.
Is there any way we can include a button to enable full screen view for our viewers in your player that are going to watch it on iOS devices?
To which, as usual, we have to reply:
Apple unfortunately block fullscreen mode from being used with all web applications on iPhone.
Apple will allow this to be displayed fullscreen on MacBooks and iPads, but currently not on on iPhone - so we have to hide the fullscreen button there.
So fullscreen works on all devices and browsers apart from on iPhone.
As you've seen with Android, all other devices and browsers follow the universal 'Fullscreen API' web standard to allow full screen.
You're probably familiar with seeing the fullscreen button on normal linear videos on iPhone.
These use Apple's native video player, which doesn't let buttons and scripts be used on top of it - just a single video, not an interactive web application.
Our player looks like a video player but it is actually a web app combining multiple different video clips connected together by code and styling.
They block it on iPhones for reasons known only to them, but the assumption is that it is to incentivise people to make iOS apps instead of web apps.
The web development community is hopeful that Apple will change this unfortunate restriction soon, but we have been waiting a long time in vain.
We have to send this to a lot of people. It's a very bad look for Apple.
In less than a month it will be 2025. We have been waiting years for this.
The web standard documentation showing universal support on other devices and browsers is here:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Fullscreen_API
This is not acceptable. It is time for Apple to stop blocking this important accessibility web standard for commercial reasons - only on iPhone. To whoever is in charge of these decisions in the Safari/Webkit team: Please just enable Fullscreen API for web apps on iPhone as soon as possible.
Hello,
I am working on a Braille keyboard by using HID approach.
Current the device works with iPhone 11 and SE3.
However, when tested in iPhone 6s with iOS 15, although the device can be connected and recognized as Braille device in VoiceOver screen, the phone shows no response to key press report.
Would there be any requirement at points such as HID descriptor for iPhone 6s support on Braille device? If iPhone 6s does not support such devices, what is the minimum system requirements?
Thank you!
I have an issue in my app when it is used together with the assistive access feature.
For authentication, we are using the capacitor firebase authentication plugin (https://www.npmjs.com/package/@capacitor-firebase/authentication) which enables users to login via apple (FirebaseAuthentication.signInWithApple(...)), google (FirebaseAuthentication.signInWithGoogle(...)), or email. Works just fine. However, when the assistive access feature is enabled, the login fails for apple ("The operation couldn't be completed. com.apple.AuthenticationServices.AuthorizationError error 1000) and google ("The user canceled the sign-in flow).
It seems like the popups for sign-in are blocked and therefore an error is returned immediately. The popups may be blocked by assistive access, causing the capacitor plugin to be unable to authenticate.
I have tested this on my iPhone 12 Pro using iOS 17.7
I would appreciate any suggestions to handle this issue!
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
Hope it's okay to post here - I haven't gotten resolution anywhere else. Apple's iOs Live Captions is supposed to translate speech into written text either on the phone (works like a charm!) or via microphone (think meeting in a conference room). Microphone doesn't work anywhere, anytime on a new iPhone 14 purchased November 2024. Anyone out there want to fix this and help a lot of people who have trouble hearing? I'm part of an entire generation that didn't know we were supposed to protect our hearing at concerts and clubs and worse, thought it was cool to snag a spot by the speakers...
I'm looking into how to programmatically control color filters in the Accessibility settings under "System Settings" -> "Accessibility" -> "Color Filters"--in particular the "Intensity" and "Filter type" settings.
As far as I have gathered, changing this setting can only be accomplished using the CoreGraphics APIs or Accessibility APIs (I've poked around GitHub, Stack Overflow, and queried some LLMs), but there doesn't seem to be a clear cut example for doing this using public facing APIs, without ripping off source code from another project wholesale or using private APIs.
My goal is to overlay a color filter at either a per-application or system level to help with accessibility. If there's a way to overlay this capability on an application-by-application basis as a third-party developer, that would be the most ideal scenario. For example, modifying the look and feel/UX for Launchpad, Photos, etc, as a third-party developer without accessing the source code of the application that I'm modifying the look/feel for (with appropriate user consent of course).
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
Hey everyone!
I am developing a screen time limit app to help people spend less time in distracting apps.
It works this way: people choose unhealthy apps for them and opposite productivity apps. In the app you can exchange time spent on healthy habits to scroll or use other distracting apps.
This idea was loved by social media, and the app already has 100k followers on social media without even being launched yet.
So I am waiting just for one feature permission from Apple, and they have not given me any answer since I applied 3 weeks ago.
There are a lot of similar apps on the market, and this feature exists in other screen time limit apps.
Why is app blocking permission needed?
Time Exchange Functionality:
Users independently select which apps are productive and which are distracting for them.
The system blocks the "negative" apps until the user accumulates enough time in the "positive" ones. This encourages healthy device usage.
Full User Control:
All apps to be blocked are manually selected by the user in the settings.
The extension does not impose any restrictions without explicit permission.
Transparency and Security:
Blocking happens locally, with no data collected about app usage.
We adhere to Apple’s privacy policy.
Compliance with App Store Guidelines:
We understand that app blocking is a sensitive feature, but in our case it:
Is used for the benefit of the user (digital detox, productivity improvement).
Does not interfere with system processes or other developers’ apps.
Does not misuse access to APIs.
My question to the forum is:
Did you have similar problems, and how did you resolve them?
Are there any ways to speed up the process or contact someone from the approval team directly?
Should I give up and release it on Android?
I am very disappointed and frustrated. Hope to get some useful tips.
Thank you very much!
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
I'm developing a macOS app using NSView and trying to make my content navigable via VoiceOver. I'm expecting the built-in rotor category "Content Chooser" (accessed via VO + U) to list my accessible elements — just like how it shows message items in the Mail app. However, in my app, this rotor appears empty, even though:
My views return proper accessibilityChildren() or accessibilityContents() with valid NSAccessibilityElements
Each child has correct AXRole, AXLabel, etc.
The window is key and visible
VoiceOver navigation works for the elements
I've also tried:
Using both accessibilityChildren() and accessibilityContents() in container views
Setting roles like .group, .staticText, .button, etc.
Avoiding hidden elements
Ensuring all elements are visible and labeled
Still, "Content Chooser" rotor is empty.
What exact conditions must be met for an element to appear in the "Content Chooser" rotor in a macOS app?
Any Apple-specific guidance, hidden requirements, or sample code would be appreciated.
I wrote this in the regular forums and they deleted it and told me to write it here because it was dealing with unreleased software. I read that Launchpad is disappearing in Tahoe and I have real concerns about that. For me, that is an accessibility issue. I have both memory problems and scanning problems. So having my apps organized into categories is extremely important to me. Just today I needed to find an app that I didn't remember the name of and I rarely use, but when I need it, it is important to me. Just to see if I could find it without launchpad, I scanned my applications folder and I couldn't find it. I went to launchpad and to the category I knew it was in and it was right there, easy for me to find. Please don't take away our organization options.