Hello,
I’m currently reviewing and implementing age assurance and parental approval flows using AgeRangeService and PermissionKit (AskCenter) in the context of Texas regulatory compliance requirements.
While the high-level APIs are clear, there are several technical aspects where the intended usage patterns are not fully explicit in the documentation. Clarification on these points would help ensure our implementation aligns with system expectations and regulatory obligations.
⸻
Querying the current approval state for SignificantAppUpdateTopic
AskCenter.ask(...) returns Void, and AskCenter.responses(for:) provides an AsyncSequence of approval events.
Is there an official or recommended way to determine whether a SignificantAppUpdateTopic has already been approved when the app launches, or is listening for future responses events the only supported mechanism?
⸻
Behavior of AskCenter.responses(for:) regarding past approvals
When subscribing to AskCenter.responses(for:):
• Does the stream replay previously recorded approval or decline decisions?
• Or does it only emit events that occur after subscription?
This affects whether the listener must be registered early in the app lifecycle.
⸻
Recommended lifecycle timing for registering a responses(for:) listener
What is the intended or recommended time to register a responses(for:) listener?
• At application launch
• Immediately before calling ask(...)
• When entering a specific gated feature
Clarification on the expected lifecycle usage would be helpful.
⸻
Repeated calls to ask(...) after approval
If AskCenter.ask(...) is called again for the same SignificantAppUpdateTopic after parental approval has already been granted:
• Is the request ignored?
• Is a new approval request sent to the parent?
• Or is the call handled idempotently by the system?
⸻
Delivery of approval results when the child app is not running
If a parent approves or declines a SignificantAppUpdateTopic while the child app is not running:
• Will the approval decision be delivered as a responses(for:) event on the next app launch?
• Or is the app expected to persist approval state locally?
⸻
Persistence of approval state
Is the approval decision for SignificantAppUpdateTopic persisted by the system at the OS level, or is the app responsible for storing approval state?
Additionally, does the approval persist across:
• app restarts?
• app deletion and reinstallation?
⸻
Meaning of activeParentalControls.significantAppChangeApprovalRequired
How is activeParentalControls.significantAppChangeApprovalRequired determined?
• Is this value explicitly configured by a parent (for example via Screen Time)?
• Or is it automatically determined by the system based on region, age, or regulatory requirements?
⸻
Relationship between significantAppChangeApprovalRequired and AgeRangeService
When activeParentalControls contains significantAppChangeApprovalRequired, is it still expected that apps call AgeRangeService.requestAgeRange(...)?
Or can the presence of this flag be treated as sufficient indication that the user is a minor for gating purposes?
⸻
Recommended interpretation of AgeRangeDeclaration
Is the intended usage of AgeRangeDeclaration to handle each case individually, or is it acceptable and recommended to interpret the values as different trust levels (for example, self-declared vs. government ID or payment verified)?
⸻
Clarification on these points would help ensure that implementations of age assurance and parental approval flows are consistent with system behavior while meeting regulatory compliance requirements.
Thank you for your guidance.
General
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My app features two kinds of widgets, let's call them kind A and kind B.
I have both A and B widgets on my Home Screen. When I tap the button on widget A (associated with App Intent), I expect widget B to also reload.
However, if you call WidgetCenter.shared.reloadAllTimelines() inside the perform() method of the AppIntent, the timeline of widget B does not reload immediately. This issue only occurs on a physical device and is not consistently reproducible. On a simulator, however, widget B reloads as expected.
FB13152293
I'm trying to digest and understand the new set of APIs relating age verification that were released last week.
I have say that without some cohesive overview, example app, just a simple diagram showing the relationship of everything, its not at all clear to me what's going on nor what an app developer is expected to do to use these apis (I'm a senior engineer with 15 year's iOS experience, but hey maybe I'm just a bit slow in the head).
I have a few questions, but the topic of this post is what is the relationship between age verification i.e. between the declared age range/significant change and Permission Kit?
The documentation for the former mentions the Significant Change API/Topic (https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=2ezb6jhj / https://developer.apple.com/documentation/PermissionKit/SignificantAppUpdateTopic).
Now the Significant Change Topic is documented as being part of PermissionKit, however the documentation for that (https://developer.apple.com/documentation/permissionkit)
States emphatically at the top:
"Communication experiences using the PermissionKit framework are only available using iMessage."
Meaning you can't use PermissionKit for anything other than iMessage? If it doesn't mean that, then why does it state so?
If it does mean that, then how does an app which has nothing to do with iMessage make use of Significant Change - because this documentation:https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=2ezb6jhj
Is talking about using significant change for all apps, not iMessage.
So there is a contradiction here.
I’m hitting a WeatherKit JWT failure (WDSJWTAuthenticatorServiceListener Code = 2) at runtime even though the entitlement is present in both the signed binary and the embedded provisioning profile.
Environment
Team ID
5SZLQLQ9MD
Bundle ID
ParkProfessor.ParkProfessorDisneyland
Device / OS
iPhone 15 Pro · iOS 17.4.1 (hardware, not simulator)
Xcode
15.3 (15E204a)
Console output
Failed to generate jwt token for: com.apple.weatherkit.authservice
Error Domain=WeatherDaemon.WDSJWTAuthenticatorServiceListener.Errors Code=2 "(null)"
Entitlement & profile snippets
codesign -d --entitlements :- WeatherKitTest.app | grep -A2 weatherkit
com.apple.developer.weatherkit
security cms -D -i embedded.mobileprovision | grep -A2 weatherkit
com.apple.developer.weatherkit
What I’ve already tried
Regenerated a new development certificate and a new iOS App Development provisioning profile with WeatherKit enabled.
Confirmed the capability is selected in Certificates ▸ Identifiers ▸ Profiles and added in Xcode target settings.
WeatherKit Terms of Service accepted in the portal.
Deleted the app, removed any device management profiles, rebooted the phone, clean-built & ran again.
Reproduced the issue in a minimal SwiftUI app that calls: WeatherService.shared.weather(for: CLLocation(latitude: 33.8121, longitude: -117.9190), including: .current) – same Code 2 error.
Request
It looks like the App ID may need a backend entitlement sync. Could someone from the WeatherKit team please check the status for Team 5SZLQLQ9MD, Bundle ID ParkProfessor.ParkProfessorDisneyland and enable WeatherKit token generation?
Thanks!
Since iOS 18.4 and macOS 15.4 updating the calendar of an (ek)event (to another accounts calendar) or detaching an repeating event throws an error while saving:
"Access denied"
EKEventStore.save(event, span: .thisEvent, commit: true)
catch {
"Access denied"
}
Our app includes showing external web service with WebView or Safari and returning to the app with custom URL scheme or universal link.
When we set "Hide and Require Face ID" feature which was available on iOS 18, neither custom URL scheme nor universal link activated the app.
If we only set "Require Face ID", the deep link worked properly.
Here is what we've tried:
Define custom URL scheme or universal link in the app
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode/defining-a-custom-url-scheme-for-your-app
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode/supporting-universal-links-in-your-app
Implement external web service with one of the following frameworks
ASWebAuthenticationSession
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/authenticationservices/aswebauthenticationsession/
SFSafariViewController
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/safariservices/sfsafariviewcontroller
Safari
WKWebView
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/webkit/wkwebview
On iOS 18 device, install the app and set "Hide and Require Face ID"
Access external web page and tap the link which activates custom URL scheme or universal link
We expected the deep link to work, but the results were:
Custom URL scheme & ASWebAuthenticationSession/SFSafariViewController/Safari
The system shows "Cannot open the page because the address is invalid"
Custom URL scheme & WKWebView
Nothing happens when tapping the link
Universal link
Directed to the server with associated domain file, but the system doesn't call the app which is defined in the associated domain file
We tested the feature with the app built with Xcode16 beta 6, and the device with iOS 18 Seed 8(22A5350a).
Does hide app feature support custom URL scheme and universal link?
We persist ApplicationTokens in a storage container that ShieldConfigurationExtension has access to. In rare, cases all the ApplicationTokens for a user seem to change.
We know this because the Application parameter passed into configuration(shielding application: Application) -> ShieldConfiguration function has a Token that does not match (using == ) any of the ones we are persisting in storage.
Interestingly, the persisted ones still work, so I don't believe storage has gotten corrupted or anything. We can use them to add or remove shields, we can use them to display labels of the apps they represent, etc. But they don’t match what’s passed into the ShieldConfiguration extension. If the user goes into the FamilyPicker at this point and selects an app of a token that we are already persisting, the FamilyPickerSelection will have a token matching the new one that is passed into ShieldConfigurationExtension, not the one we persisted when they last selected that app.
This leads me to believe the tokens are updated/rotated in some cases. When and why does this happen, and how can we handle it gracefully?
All of my apps stopped working with WeatherKit this morning. They all return an "Error Domain=WeatherDaemon.WDSJWTAuthenticatorServiceListener.Errors Code=2" error.
I am certain that the WeatherKit capability added (in project) and enabled as a Capability & App Service (on developer portal for the identifier). All other iCloud features of my apps are working as expected. I have also done all the normal troubleshooting using codesign / security cms, etc. to verify entitlements.
I created the following simple project to verify the integration.
import WeatherKit
import CoreLocation
struct ContentView: View {
@State private var temp: Measurement<UnitTemperature>? = nil
var body: some View {
VStack {
if let t = temp {
Text("\(t.value.rounded())°\(t.unit.symbol)")
} else {
Text("Fetching…")
.task {
let service = WeatherService()
do {
let location = CLLocation(latitude: 50.318668, longitude: -114.917710)
let weather = try await service.weather(for: location, including: .current)
temp = weather.temperature
} catch {
print("Error:", error)
}
}
}
}
}
}
Any ideas what may be happening?
We recently released an update to our app to prepare for TX SB2420.
Almost immediately on release, we started getting crash reports of crashes when calling isEligibleForAgeFeatures.
Crashed: com.apple.root.user-initiated-qos.cooperative
EXC_BAD_ACCESS KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS 0x0000000000000004
Is it possible that these are beta users that have IOS 26.2 RC or is there a bug in the release version of IOS 26.2?
Note: The crash reports are coming from Crashlytics so we are not getting OS build identifiers other than version "26.2"
Our app provides a calendar that integrates with the default calendar app. Specifically, we use iOS EventKit to perform CRUD operations on calendar data.
Recently, we have received reports from users that all of their events have disappeared. However, after reviewing our implementation and logs, we have not been able to identify the cause. Some users have also reported that all data in their default calendar app has disappeared as well.
Does anyone have any idea what might be causing this?
To delete an event within our app, users must press the delete button and then confirm the deletion in a dialog. Additionally, it is not possible to delete more than two events at once.
We've seen many people in the community discussing a bug where calendar events disappear after updating to iOS 18. If you have any information about when or why this happens, we'd appreciate it if you could share your insights.
We have a Share Extension that fails in Photos on macOS when trying to share a JPEG image for the following reason:
From the NSItemProvider we get from the NSExtensionItem.attachments, we try to load the image using loadFileRepresentation(forTypeIdentifier: “public.image”, completionHandler: …). This fails for .jpeg images in the library. There seems to be a mismatch in expected and actual file extension internally. Here is the log:
Error copying file type public.image. Error: Error Domain=NSItemProviderErrorDomain Code=-1000 "Cannot load representation of type public.jpeg" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Cannot load representation of type public.jpeg, NSUnderlyingError=0x1527c1a80 {Error Domain=NSItemProviderErrorDomain Code=-1 "Cannot copy file at URL file:///Users/frank/Library/Containers/com.apple.Photos/Data/tmp/TemporaryItems/ShareKit-Exports/7CCFA760-AAC9-42B0-812D-68F051ED1543/F912E593-2BE5-4E70-86AB-7657A40657E5/IMG_3517.jpg." UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Cannot copy file at URL file:///Users/frank/Library/Containers/com.apple.Photos/Data/tmp/TemporaryItems/ShareKit-Exports/7CCFA760-AAC9-42B0-812D-68F051ED1543/F912E593-2BE5-4E70-86AB-7657A40657E5/IMG_3517.jpg., NSUnderlyingError=0x152789670 {Error Domain=NSItemProviderErrorDomain Code=-1 "Cannot create a temporary file. Error: Undefined error: 0" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Cannot create a temporary file. Error: Undefined error: 0}}}}}```
In the specified folder, there is an image, however, it’s named IMG_3517.jpeg, not IMG_3517.jpg. This seems to be a bug in Photo’s item provider implementation.
If we use loadObject(ofClass: URL.self, completionHandler: …) instead, we get the correct .jpeg URL in the completion handler.
I have an app developed by using the Callkit/Call-Blocking and received feedback from individual users, when using [cxcalldirectorymanager reloadextensionwithidentifier] to write call blocking data, it returned error code 11 with the following contents:
errorCode: 11
errorDomain: com.apple.callkit.database.sqlite
errorDescription: sqlite3_step for query 'DELETE FROM PhoneNumberBlockingEntry WHERE extension_id =?' returned 11 (11) errorMessage 'database disk image is malformed'
I want to know the reasons for this error and how to solve it,Thanks!
Hi there,
My app uses all the Screen Time API's with individual FamilyControls authorization. I've been using the API's for over 2 years (since they came out).
In iOS 18 Beta (maybe started in Beta 3?), I've been experiencing random issues. I tracked it down to where it seems like DeviceActivityMonitor extension is more likely to deadlock in iOS 18.
To reproduce: when DeviceActivityMonitorExtension.intervalDidEnd gets called, IF you call DeviceActivityCenter.startMonitoring for that SAME DeviceActivityName from the DeviceActivityMonitorExtension , the startMonitoring call deadlocks (if I pause debugger, it does not advance past DeviceActivityCenter.startMonitoring).
The bug is reported in FB14664238. It also contains a sample project where you can reproduce this.
I also note in the comment section that this is not the only way to encounter this problem. My application code (which is a lot more complicated) seems to deadlock on calling DeviceActivityCenter.activities. As a result, there seems to be an "overall trend" where, due to some changes, DeviceActivityMonitor extension is more likely to deadlock.
The steps are not reproducible on iOS 17.6. This is built using Xcode 17.4.
Thank you! 🙏
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
General
Tags:
Family Controls
Device Activity
Managed Settings
We tested call blocking on iOS 26 and noticed something strange: the call will not be blocked if an outgoing call was made to its number before. Nevertheless, it will be blocked if we delete the outgoing call record from the Phone.app Recents.
This behavior looks like a bug and is unexpected when using our application. Was this a planned callkit change in iOS 26? Is it possible to get the correct call blocking behavior back?
We set blocking rules with addBlockingEntry(withNextSequentialPhoneNumber:) and this problem is not present in iOS 18 and earlier.
Thank you in advance
I’m integrating the Declared Age Range feature to tailor our app’s experience based on a user’s age range. I’m currently in the testing phase and would like to repeatedly test the consent flow and different outcomes from AgeRangeService.shared.requestAgeRange(...).
However, once I go through the consent flow and choose to share, the age-range sharing sheet no longer appears on subsequent attempts—so it’s hard to validate edge cases (e.g., changed gates, declined flow, re-prompt behavior).
Could you advise on the recommended way to reset or re-prompt during development? In particular:
Is there a supported way to clear per-app consent so the system prompts again?
Under what conditions should the “Share Age Range Again” control appear in Settings, and is there an equivalent way to trigger it for testing?
Are there best practices for QA (e.g., using Ask First at the system level, testing on real devices vs. Simulator, using a separate bundle ID for dev builds, or other steps)?
Any other guidance for validating different requestAgeRange results (e.g., declined/not available) would be appreciated.
Hello,
I think it is quite a common use-case to open the parent app that owns the ShieldActionDelegate when the user selects an action in the Shield.
There are only three options available that we can do in response to an action:
ShieldActionResponse.none
ShieldActionResponse.close
ShieldActionResponse.defer
It would be great if this new one would be added as well:
ShieldActionResponse.openParentApp
While finding a workaround for now, the problem is that the ShieldActionDelegate is not a normal app extension. That means, normal tricks do not work to open the parent app from here.
For example, UIApplication.shared.open(url) does not work because we can’t access UIApplication from the ShieldActionDelegate unfortunately.
NSExtensionContext is also not available in the ShieldActionDelegate unfortunately, so that’s also not possible.
There are apps however, that managed to find a workaround, in my research I stumbled across these two:
https://apps.apple.com/de/app/applocker-passcode-lock-apps/id1132845904?l=en-GB
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/app-lock/id6448239603
Please find a screen recording (gif) attached.
Their workaround is 100% what I’m looking for, so there MUST be a way to do so that is compliant with the App Store guidelines (after all, the apps are available on the App Store!).
I had documented my feature request more than 2 years ago in this radar as well: FB10393561
I'm reading the "Testing Age Assurance in Sandbox" doc, but I couldn't figure out the step:
2. Tap Sandbox Testing from the main menu
Where is the "main menu"?
PDFKit PDFPage.characterBounds(at: Int) is returning incorrect coordinates with iOS 18 beta 4 and later / Xcode 16 beta 4.
It worked fine in iOS 17 and earlier (after showing the same issue during the early iOS 17 beta cycle)
It breaks critical functionality that my app relies on.
I have filed feedback (FB14843671).
So far no changes in the latest betas. iOS release date is approaching fast!
Anybody having the same issue? Any workaround available?
Environment:
Xcode 26
iOS 26
Also tested on iOS 18 (working correctly)
Description:
I'm experiencing a behavior change with URL(fileURLWithPath:) when the filename starts with a tilde (~) character.
On iOS 18, passing a filename like ~MyFile.txt to URL(fileURLWithPath:) treats the tilde as a literal character. However, on iOS 26, the same code resolves the tilde as the home directory, resulting in unexpected output.
Minimal Example:
let filename = "~MyFile.txt"
let url = URL(fileURLWithPath: filename)
print(url.lastPathComponent)
Expected Result (iOS 18):
~MyFile.txt
Actual Result (iOS 26):
924AF0C4-C3CD-417A-9D5F-733FBB8FCF29
The tilde is being resolved to the app's container directory, and lastPathComponent returns the container UUID instead of the filename.
Questions:
1. Is this an intentional behavior change in iOS 26? 2. Is there documentation about this change? 3. What is the recommended approach for extracting filename components when the filename may contain special characters like ~?
Workaround:
Using NSString.lastPathComponent works correctly on both iOS versions:
let filename = "~MyFile.txt"
let result = (filename as NSString).lastPathComponent
// Returns: "~MyFile.txt" ✅
Is this the recommended approach going forward?
There is an inconsistent issue when views are rendered from the Device Activity Report Extension. This issue is noticeable only on release versions and it works fine in debug mode.
Around 80% of the times, the Report Views return blank screen and this is only the case when a weekly/monthly filter is used. Although, it works as expected for daily report views.
My questions are:
How are all the Report Activity Views working fine in debug mode but not in release mode?
How the daily activity filter works fine in the release mode but the weekly/monthly filters don't work? Is this because of a memory limit issue in the extension?
As of now, I have the family-controls(distribution) entitlement only for the app and for the extensions I only have family-controls(development) entitlement. Do I need to request for family-controls(Distribution) entitlement even for the extensions?
I have seen threads on the forum mentioning the blank screen issue associated with the DeviceActivityReport but haven't found a solution to it. Any suggestions/feedback would be of great help, thanks.
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
General
Tags:
Extensions
Entitlements
Device Activity
Screen Time