Hi Apple Team,
We recently migrated our BLE accessory from a legacy CoreBluetooth pairing flow to Accessory Setup Kit (ASK) and are very happy with the simplified system-managed pairing experience.
However, we've encountered a user experience challenge during first-time pairing and would appreciate your guidance on the recommended approach.
Our BLE accessory requires users to perform a few important actions before the pairing can complete successfully. For example:
Turn on the product to make the accessory discoverable.
Complete the authentication/confirmation code displayed on both the iPhone and the accessory.
With our previous CoreBluetooth implementation, we had full control over the pairing flow and could display step-by-step instructions before and during pairing. This helped users successfully complete these device-specific actions.
After migrating to Accessory Setup Kit, the pairing experience is managed entirely by the system. While this provides a much cleaner and more consistent user experience, it also means we cannot present contextual guidance or instructions while the pairing flow is in progress.
As a result, we're seeing a noticeable increase in first-time pairing failures because users are not aware of these required actions at the appropriate time.
We understand that these requirements are specific to our accessory rather than a limitation of ASK. Our question is: what is the recommended approach for handling accessories that require user interaction during the system-managed pairing flow?
Specifically:
Are there any Apple-recommended UX patterns or best practices for this scenario?
Is the expectation that all necessary guidance should be presented before invoking the ASK pairing sheet?
Are there any upcoming enhancements to Accessory Setup Kit that would provide developers with more flexibility to improve the first-time pairing experience?
We'd appreciate any guidance or recommendations from the ASK team. Understanding the intended design pattern will help us build the best possible onboarding experience for our users.
Thank you!
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Hardware
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