Can LiveActivityIntent open the app when tapping a Live Activity button on Lock Screen & Dynamic Island expanded view?

Question

Created 2w

Replies 3

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I’m implementing a Live Activity that shows some text and a button. When the user taps the button, I want to open the host app. What I’ve done so far:

Implemented a LiveActivityIntent to handle the button tap.
The intent is triggered successfully. However, the app does not open by using deep link/universal app link.

From what I can tell, LiveActivityIntent seems limited to system/background execution and doesn’t bring the app to the foreground. Questions:

Is it possible for a LiveActivityIntent to open the app?
Is this behavior a documented/intentional limitation?
If not supported, is using a Universal Link or deep link the recommended solution for opening the app from a Live Activity button?

Any official clarification or recommended best practice would be helpful.

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Answer 1

DTS Engineer OP

Apple

2w

Thank you for your post. You have accurately observed the behavior of Live Activities!

It is not possible to open an app using a LiveActivity. A LiveActivityIntent is designed for background execution. Its purpose is to perform a specific action within your app’s process without necessarily bringing the app to the foreground or displaying its UI. This is why push notifications are driven. In my opinion, this is an intentional design. A LiveActivityIntent focuses on providing quick, actionable interactions. If every tap on a LiveActivity button brought the app to the foreground, it could lead to a disruptive user experience.

For the url parameter in your activityButton action, use a Universal Link. Universal Links open directly in your app if installed. If your app is not installed, they can gracefully fall back to a web page for installation.

I hope this information is helpful. But looking for other developers ideas and recommendations as well.

Albert Pascual   Worldwide Developer Relations.

2

Answer 2

DTS Engineer OP

Apple

2w

I am just wondering: Does Link, or widgetURL, as mentioned in the following articles, not work for you?

Best,
——
Ziqiao Chen
 Worldwide Developer Relations.

2

Answer 3

waqas_qureshi OP

2w

Thanks for the confirmation, Albert!

Ziqiao, I originally tried using Link, but at the time it wasn’t opening the app from the Lock Screen—likely due to the security behavior I had read about. But it does work in Dynamic Island expanded view. Because of that, I moved to widgetURL, but applying it to the entire Live Activity view doesn’t seem to work when interacting through a button, which limits more targeted navigation.

I’ll keep experimenting on my side, but if you have any additional guidance or best practices for handling app navigation from specific UI elements within a Live Activity, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Waqas

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