Widgets & Live Activities

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Discuss how to manage and implement Widgets & Live Activities.

WidgetKit Documentation

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Live Activity in terminated state
Hi. I need some help in starting the live activity in terminated state using push notification. I have developed an app which does not sleep and always run even in the background state. It is pressure calculator. From sensor, it will receive the pressure and display the values in the app. Whenever the pressure reaches a certain point, it should display the alert in the dynamic island. As of now, it is displaying live activity in the foreground state. Working partially fine in the background state. But not working in the terminated state. but in the documentation it have been mentioned we can start the live activity using push notification from any state. Please help me to find a solution.
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84
Jul ’25
Large Gap Between Published and Delivered Broadcast Notifications for Live Activities in iOS 18
Hi All, I’m working on a football live score app with Dynamic Island support, using iOS 18 Broadcast Notifications for Live Activities. Our workflow is: We use the Push-to-Start token to initiate the Live Activity. For updates, we use the Channel ID. Start, update, and end events for Live Activities are all handled via remote notifications. We tested on 3-4 devices simultaneously, but noticed inconsistent UI updates: some devices update properly while others do not, even when using the same Channel ID. Checking the notification console dashboard, last week we had around 1,397 notifications published but only 555 delivered — a significant discrepancy. All devices are active and connected to reliable internet, so we’re unsure why delivery rates are so low. Additional details: For the start event, we set notification priority to 10. For updates, we lowered priority to 5 per Apple’s documentation, to reduce throttling. This adjustment improved the situation compared to sandbox testing where all notifications were priority 10. Despite this, during weekend matches, we observed a drastic drop: out of 140 published notifications, only 2 were delivered. This large delivery gap risks missing critical update deadlines in our app. Could anyone help us understand what might be causing this and how to improve notification delivery reliability? Thanks in advance!
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86
Jul ’25
How to track a Live Activity started via push when the app is terminated and hasn't been relaunched from long time?
Hi all, I'm currently implementing Live Activities using ActivityKit and facing a real-world limitation that I hope the community (or Apple) can clarify. 🔹 I can successfully start a Live Activity via APNs push (event: "start") even when the app is terminated — the Live Activity appears as expected on the Lock Screen and Dynamic Island. However, I need to update that Live Activity using the name I assigned in the push payload (e.g., match-123). This requires calling: Airship.channel.trackLiveActivity(activity, name: activity.attributes.matchID) …or equivalent code in native implementations to associate the activity with its push token. ❓The problem: If the user has never launched the app, or hasn't opened it after the Live Activity was started via push, then there’s no chance for the app to run this tracking code. So: ✅ Live Activity starts fine via APNs ❌ I can't track the activity and register it for future push updates (by name) until the app is launched ❌ Therefore, I can't update the Live Activity without knowing the token-name mapping 🔍 My question: Is there any way to programmatically track or associate a Live Activity (started via push) with a name for APNs updates, without requiring the app to launch? Or put differently: Can the system automatically track the name → token mapping if the activity is started via push? Is there any way (via entitlement, plist config, or system event) to allow registering the activity in the background (without user launch)? 💡 Notes: I already use pushType: .token and NSSupportsLiveActivitiesFrequentUpdates Live Activity content is fine; only the ability to send future updates is blocked without initial app launch Using Airship SDK for push + activity tracking, but the question is general to iOS + ActivityKit behavior Any insight on how apps like FotMob, Uber, or sports apps handle this situation would be really helpful! Thanks in advance.
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222
Jul ’25
Live Activity PushToken Not Callback
I have start new live activity with push notifications,but sometimes this code"activity.pushTokenUpdates" can not callback to me,so I can't update the activity with push notifications. And I already click “Allow” button in my live activity widget.How can I solve this problem. Here are my code: fileprivate func observeLiveActivityForRemoteCreate() { // obverser pushToStartToken Task { if #available(iOS 17.2, *) { var beforeToken = "" for await pushToken in Activity<HLPlatformActivityAttributes>.pushToStartTokenUpdates { let pushTokenStr = pushToken.map{String(format: "%02.2hhx", arguments: [$0])}.joined() // avoid send duplication if beforeToken == pushTokenStr { return } beforeToken = pushTokenStr // send pushToStartToken to service await HLPlatformLiveActivityBridge.registerLiveActivity(withAttributesName: self.activityAttributesName, pushToStartToken: pushToken, seq: seqCreate(), pushType: .jPush) } }else { // Fallback on eralier versions } // obverser live activity update Task { for await activity in Activity<HLPlatformActivityAttributes>.activityUpdates { if let businessLiveActivityId = activity.attributes.businessLiveActivityId, let liveActivityId = activity.attributes.liveActivityId { Task { var beforeToken = "" for await pushToken in activity.pushTokenUpdates { // here the problem:sometimes pushToken not update to me let pushTokenStr = pushToken.map{String(format: "%02.2hhx", arguments: [$0])}.joined() // avoid send duplication if beforeToken == pushTokenStr { return } beforeToken = pushTokenStr // send pushToken to service } } Task { for await stateUpdate in activity.activityStateUpdates { if stateUpdate == .active { // live activity create } } } } } } }
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182
Jul ’25
How to automatically set the `timestamp` field for Live Activity updates events?
I know for start events, sending the timestamp isn't required. So that's easy. However when I'm testing Live Activity using the Apple Push Notification Console. A lot of times I just need to copy/paste the payload and resend it again. But then the timestamp field needs to get updated each time, because if it's from a time in the past, then it won't trigger. This requires me to have to use an EPOCH converter to find the right time and then copy/paste it. Is there a better solution to this? I know I can use curl, but that is not in the scope of my question.
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81
Jul ’25
Widget Memory Limit - Per Widget Kind/Size or Per Target?
I am building a widget that supports 2 different widget kinds, each supporting systemSmall, systemMedium, and systemLarge size families. My widget does download and display images so I expect memory usage to be on the higher end, but in debugging some memory issues, I notice that when I build my widget scheme to a physical device, things start off reasonable at ~12MB of memory usage. But as I change the widgets intent, add the other widget kind, or add different widget size families, this memory usage grows until it ultimately hits the 30MB cap. My question is, is the 30MB memory limit spread across all my supported widget kinds/sizes? Or does each individual widget get its own 30MB cap? i.e., if I have systemMedium Widget A and systemLarge Widget B, are they sharing that 30MB memory limit?
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113
Aug ’25
Activity.request MACH_Exception EXC_BAD_ACCESS KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS
When I use the Activity.request method to start the Dynamic Island widget, there have been continuous crash reports online, Could you please provide some ideas on how to fix this crash? Thanks! Crash backtraces: 0ActivityKitblock_copy_helper.101 (in ActivityKit)+21416 1CombinePublishers.FlatMap.Outer.receive(B.Output) (in Combine)+296 2Combineprotocol witness for Subscriber.receive(A.Input) in conformance Publishers.FlatMap<A, B>.Outer<A1> (in Combine)+20 3CombinePublishers.HandleEvents.Inner.receive(A.Output) (in Combine)+204 4Combineprotocol witness for Subscriber.receive(A.Input) in conformance Publishers.HandleEvents<A>.Inner<A1> (in Combine)+20 5CombineFilterProducer.receive(B) (in Combine)+2508 6Combineprotocol witness for Subscriber.receive(A.Input) in conformance FilterProducer<A, B, C, D, E> (in Combine)+20 7Combinepartial apply for closure #4 (C) in Publishers._Merged.request(Subscribers.Demand) (in Combine)+52 8CombinePublishers._Merged.guardedApplyDownstream<A>((C)) (in Combine)+180 9CombinePublishers._Merged.receive(A, Int) (in Combine)+400 10CombinePublishers._Merged.Side.receive(A) (in Combine)+20 11CombineJust.Inner.request(Subscribers.Demand) (in Combine)+692 12Combineprotocol witness for Subscription.request(Subscribers.Demand) in conformance Just<A>.Inner<A1> (in Combine)+20 13CombinePublishers._Merged.receive(subscription: Subscription, _: Int) (in Combine)+496 14CombinePublishers._Merged.Side.receive(subscription: Subscription) (in Combine)+20 15CombineJust.receive<A>(subscriber: A1) (in Combine)+420 16CombinePublishers.Merge.receive<A>(subscriber: A1) (in Combine)+380 17CombinePublisherBox.receive<A>(subscriber: A1) (in Combine)+104 18CombineAnyPublisher.receive<A>(subscriber: A1) (in Combine)+60 19CombinePublishers.RemoveDuplicates.receive<A>(subscriber: A1) (in Combine)+220 20CombinePublishers.HandleEvents.receive<A>(subscriber: A1) (in Combine)+300 21CombinePublisherBox.receive<A>(subscriber: A1) (in Combine)+104 22CombineAnyPublisher.receive<A>(subscriber: A1) (in Combine)+60 23CombinePublishers.FlatMap.receive<A>(subscriber: A1) (in Combine)+416 24CombinePublishers.RemoveDuplicates.receive<A>(subscriber: A1) (in Combine)+220 25CombinePublisherBox.receive<A>(subscriber: A1) (in Combine)+104 26CombineAnyPublisher.receive<A>(subscriber: A1) (in Combine)+60 27CombinePublishers.CompactMap.receive<A>(subscriber: A1) (in Combine)+440 28CombinePublisherBox.receive<A>(subscriber: A1) (in Combine)+104 29CombineAnyPublisher.receive<A>(subscriber: A1) (in Combine)+60 30CombinePublishers.SetFailureType.receive<A>(subscriber: A1) (in Combine)+420 31CombinePublishers.FlatMap.receive<A>(subscriber: A1) (in Combine)+416 32CombinePublishers.RemoveDuplicates.receive<A>(subscriber: A1) (in Combine)+220 33CombinePublisherBox.receive<A>(subscriber: A1) (in Combine)+104 34CombineAnyPublisher.receive<A>(subscriber: A1) (in Combine)+60 35CombinePublishers.CompactMap.receive<A>(subscriber: A1) (in Combine)+440 36CombinePublisherBox.receive<A>(subscriber: A1) (in Combine)+104 37CombineAnyPublisher.receive<A>(subscriber: A1) (in Combine)+60 38CombinePublishers.ReceiveOn.receive<A>(subscriber: A1) (in Combine)+660 39CombinePublisher.sink(receiveCompletion: (Subscribers.Completion<A.Failure>), receiveValue: (A.Output)) (in Combine)+316 40ActivityKitblock_copy_helper.101 (in ActivityKit)+33364 41ActivityKitblock_copy_helper.101 (in ActivityKit)+26716 42ActivityKitblock_copy_helper.101 (in ActivityKit)+53192 43ActivityKitblock_copy_helper.101 (in ActivityKit)+52408 44ActivityKitblock_destroy_helper.25 (in ActivityKit)+1140 45ActivityKitblock_destroy_helper.62 (in ActivityKit)+8220 46ActivityKitblock_destroy_helper.62 (in ActivityKit)+9364 47libswiftDispatch.dylibpartial apply for thunk for @callee_guaranteed () -> (@out A, @error @owned Error) (in libswiftDispatch.dylib)+24 48libswiftDispatch.dylibthunk for @callee_guaranteed () -> (@out A, @error @owned Error)partial apply (in libswiftDispatch.dylib)+12 49libswiftDispatch.dylibclosure #1 () in closure #1 (()) in OS_dispatch_queue._syncHelper<A>(fn: (()), execute: (), rescue: (Error)) (in libswiftDispatch.dylib)+188 50libswiftDispatch.dylibpartial apply for thunk for @callee_guaranteed () -> () (in libswiftDispatch.dylib)+24 51libswiftDispatch.dylibthunk for @escaping @callee_guaranteed () -> () (in libswiftDispatch.dylib)+24 52libdispatch.dylib__dispatch_client_callout (in libdispatch.dylib)+16 53libdispatch.dylib__dispatch_lane_barrier_sync_invoke_and_complete (in libdispatch.dylib)+52 54libswiftDispatch.dylibimplicit closure #2 (()) in implicit closure #1 (OS_dispatch_queue) in OS_dispatch_queue.asyncAndWait<A>(execute: ()) (in libswiftDispatch.dylib)+188 55libswiftDispatch.dylibpartial apply for implicit closure #2 (()) in implicit closure #1 (OS_dispatch_queue) in OS_dispatch_queue.sync<A>(execute: ()) (in libswiftDispatch.dylib)+72 56libswiftDispatch.dylibOS_dispatch_queue._syncHelper<A>(fn: (()), execute: (), rescue: (Error)) (in libswiftDispatch.dylib)+400 57libswiftDispatch.dylibOS_dispatch_queue.asyncAndWait<A>(execute: ()) (in libswiftDispatch.dylib)+136 58libswiftDispatch.dylibOS_dispatch_queue.sync<A>(execute: ()) (in libswiftDispatch.dylib)+60 59ActivityKitblock_destroy_helper.62 (in ActivityKit)+3272 60ActivityKitblock_destroy_helper.62 (in ActivityKit)+724 61ActivityKit___swift_store_extra_inhabitant_indexTm (in ActivityKit)+24928 62ActivityKit___swift_store_extra_inhabitant_indexTm (in ActivityKit)+23900 63 XXXApp static LiveActivityService.request() ......
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47
Aug ’25
Live Activity doesn't update as frequently as it should
I'm developing an app which will show the driver ETA and rendering the progress bar of the current ETA. Intuitively the backend server sends the push notification every 3 seconds through firebase cloud message service to APNS so that the device can refresh the dynamic island smoothly. But the live activity doesn't refresh as frequently as the backend service does. It should refresh every 3 seconds but it turns out like refresh 30 ~ 60 seconds, sometimes it didn't refresh at all. any body facing the same?
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99
Aug ’25
Detect if a widget is displayed in CarPlay vs. iPhone/iPad
I am looking into the new CarPlay support for systemSmall widgets introduced in iOS 26 (Apple documentation). I am trying to figure out if there is a way to programmatically detect whether the widget is currently being displayed on the iPhone/iPad home/lock screen or in CarPlay. So far, I haven’t found any information in the documentation or APIs that indicate how to distinguish between these environments. Is there an API, environment value, or best practice for handling this scenario? Thanks in advance for any insights!
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What is the purpose of the `alert` field for live activities payloads?
Does the alert only serve the following purposes: required for start events require for any event that needs to alert the user (with sound or having the live activity show in expanded presentation) while its content DO NOT matter. Only the presence of the field and its attributes matter. The only time its content matter are when the receiving device is an Apple Watch. Is that correct?
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145
Sep ’25
scenePhase not work consistently on watchOS
Hi there, I'm using WCSession to communicate watchOS companion with its iOS app. Every time watch app becomes "active", it needs to fetch data from iOS app, which works e.g. turning my hand back and forth. But only when the app is opened after it was minimised by pressing digital crown, it didn't fetch data. My assumption is that scenePhase doesn't emit a change on reopen. Here is the ContentView of watch app: import SwiftUI struct ContentView: View { @EnvironmentObject private var iOSAppConnector: IOSAppConnector @Environment(\.scenePhase) private var scenePhase @State private var showOpenCategories = true var body: some View { NavigationStack { VStack { if iOSAppConnector.items.isEmpty { WelcomeView() } else { ScrollView { VStack(spacing: 10) { ForEach(iOSAppConnector.items, id: \.self.name) { item in ItemView(item: item) } } } .task { DispatchQueue.main.asyncAfter(deadline: .now() + 0.5) { loadItems() } } .onChange(of: scenePhase, initial: true) { newPhase, _ in if newPhase == .active { loadItems() } } } fileprivate func loadItems() -> Void { if iOSAppConnector.items.isEmpty { iOSAppConnector.loadItems() } } } What could be the issue? Thanks. Best regards Sanjeev
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257
Sep ’25
Live Activity: no value in pushTokenUpdates and pushToStartTokenUpdates not called after app restart
When running application after installation I get a value in pushTokenUpdates and also the call to pushToStartTokenUpdates returns with the token value. But, if I kill the app and restart it again, there is no value in pushTokenUpdates and the call to pushToStartTokenUpdates does not return. Am I suppose to use the push to start token from the previous application run? is there a different solution?
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177
Sep ’25
Unable to open new live activities after opening 5 live activities and clearing them
After opening 5 live activities using live activity push-to-start push notifications, I clear them from lock screen. From this point forward I am unable to open new live activities. Device log shows: Could not create a new activity from push notification: ActivityKit.ActivityAuthorizationError.targetMaximumExceeded How can I handle such use case? shouldn't the count of opened live activities be reduced once the user clears the live activities? is this a bug?
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143
Sep ’25
Interactive Widget with SwiftData Not Triggering iCloud Sync
Hello everyone, I'm developing an app for iOS 18 using SwiftData, with iCloud synchronization enabled. My app also includes an interactive widget that allows users to mark tasks as complete, similar to Apple's Reminders widget. I'm facing a specific issue with how iCloud sync is triggered when changes are made from the widget. My Setup: Xcode 16 Swift 6 / iOS 18 SwiftData with iCloud Sync enabled. An interactive widget using App Intents to modify the SwiftData model. What's working correctly: App to Widget (Same Device): If I mark a task as complete in the main app, the widget on the same device updates instantly. Widget to App (Same Device): If I mark a task as complete using the interactive widget, the main app on the same device reflects this change immediately. App to App (Across Devices): If I make a change in the app on my iPhone, it syncs correctly via iCloud and appears in the app on my iPad. The Problem: The synchronization issue occurs specifically when an action is initiated from the widget and needs to be reflected on other devices, or when a change from another device needs to be reflected in the widget. Widget Change Not Syncing to Other Devices: If I mark a task as complete in the widget on my iPhone, the change does not sync to my iPad. The task on the iPad only updates after I manually open the main app on the iPhone. Remote Change Not Syncing to Widget: Similarly, if I mark a task as complete in the app on my iPad, the widget on my iPhone does not update to show this change. The widget only refreshes with the correct state after I open the main app on the iPhone. It seems that the widget's AppIntent correctly modifies the local SwiftData store, but this action isn't triggering the necessary background process to push the changes to iCloud. The sync only seems to happen when the main app, with its active ModelContainer, is brought to the foreground. My goal is for any change made in the widget to be reflected across all of the user's devices in near real-time, without requiring them to launch the main app to initiate the sync. Is there a specific API I need to call from my AppIntent to force a SwiftData sync, or a project capability I might be missing to allow the widget extension to trigger iCloud pushes? Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
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122
Sep ’25
push notification-driven Live activity decoding fail
My start live activity CURL is not starting my live activity and I keep getting a decoding failure even though my curl matches my content state so my live activity is not starting. heres my CURL --header "apns-topic: MuscleMemory.KimchiLabs.com.push-type.liveactivity" \ --header "apns-push-type: liveactivity" \ --header "apns-priority: 10" \ --header "authorization: bearer eyJhbGciOiJFUzI1NiIsImtpZCI6IjI4MjVTNjNEV0IifQ.eyJpc3MiOiJMOTZYUlBCSzQ2IiwiaWF0IjoxNzU3NDYwMzQ2fQ.5TGvDRk5ZYLsvncjKwXIZYN78X88v5lCwX4fRvfl1QXjwv8tOtO2uoId27LQahXA3zqjruu_2YoOfqEtrppKXQ" \ --data '{ "aps": { "timestamp": '"$(date +%s)"', "event": "start", "content-state": { "plain_text": "hello world", "userContentPage": ["hello world"] }, "alert": { "sound": "chime.aiff" } }, "attributes-type": "KimchiKit.DynamicRepAttributes", "attributes": {} }' \ --http2 https://api.sandbox.push.apple.com/3/device/802fe7b4066e26b51ede7188a7077a9603507a0fa6ee8ffda946a864e75aa139602861538d6fb12100afbe9a3338d6c7c799d947dfacb2ee835f0339ecdc3165c9ed7e54839f5a3b89b76a011f5826cc and here is my content state public struct ContentState: Codable, Hashable { public var plainText: String public var userContentPage: [String] public enum CodingKeys: String, CodingKey { case plainText = "plain_text" case userContentPage } public init(plainText: String, userContentPage: [String]) { self.plainText = plainText self.userContentPage = userContentPage } } public init() {} }
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245
Sep ’25
AppIntentConfiguration WatchOS & iOS inconsistent
I'm having problems with my released app with iOS & WatchOS 26 support. I've added AppIntentConfiguration support in the WatchOS app such that users can configure the complication. My complications also support multiple families and so I have slightly different configuration options available if its in the .accessoryRectangular slot or the .accessoryCircular one. This works fine on Apple Watch when editing the Watch face. Here you can then select the configuration options fine and they are correct for the different variants. However on iOS when configuring in the Apple Watch app on iPhone, the different complication size is ignored and the same configuration options are offered meaning they are wrong for one of them. I created a sample project, here is the app intent code: struct TestWidgetConfigurationIntent: AppIntent, WidgetConfigurationIntent { static var title: LocalizedStringResource = "New Widgets with Configuration" static var description = IntentDescription("Lots of stuff.") static var isDiscoverable: Bool { return false} init() {} func perform() async throws -> some IntentResult { return .result() } @Parameter(title: "Enable More Detail", default: true) var moreDetail: Bool @Parameter(title: "Enable Other Parameter", default: true) var otherParameter: Bool static var parameterSummary: some ParameterSummary { When(widgetFamily: .equalTo, .accessoryRectangular) { Summary("Test Info") { \.$moreDetail \.$otherParameter } } otherwise : { Summary("Test Info") { \.$moreDetail } } } } In WatchOS you get the correct configuration options: In iOS you do not, you get the same configuration option regardless of which family size you select: This could be a bug so I've filed feedback FB20328319. Otherwise if anyone has insights, it would be very appreciated. This is all tested on the current iOS 26.0 and WatchOS 26.0 versions. Thanks!
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142
Oct ’25