Delve into the world of built-in app and system services available to developers. Discuss leveraging these services to enhance your app's functionality and user experience.

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Advanced App Clip Experience Not Recognized via Digital Invocation (Email), But Works with QR Code
We are encountering an issue with our App Clip invocation behavior: When attempting to invoke an Advanced App Clip Experience from a link in an email (digital invocation), the App Clip is not recognized. However, the Default App Clip Experience works correctly when invoked the same way. Interestingly, the Advanced App Clip Experience does launch successfully via physical invocation (scanning a QR code that encodes the same URL). Question: Is there any additional configuration required to enable an Advanced App Clip Experience for digital invocation (e.g., email, Messages, Safari), as opposed to physical invocation? Are there specific requirements—such as associated domains, Apple App Site Association (AASA) file setup, or App Store Connect configuration—that differ between digital and physical invocation methods?
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58
6d
Does App Clips support Unlisted App Distribution?
My app is distributed through Unlisted App Distribution as it's for a specific audience. I was hoping to share a link to an App Clip experience to allow users to easily get started with it and the initial features, then allow them to install through StoreKit within the clip. When trying to open the App Clip, is shows the card, but I with an error: The operation could not be completed. (ASDErrorDomain error 507.)
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86
6d
Appclip Questions
Does the App Clip banner require the app to be live on the App Store, even for testing? Does Apple's CDN need time to cache/validate the AASA file, and is there a way to force re-validation? Are there known limitations with App Clip banners on non-production domains? Is there a diagnostic tool to verify our AASA file is being correctly read by iOS?
1
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37
6d
Core motion support in App Clips
Will core motion ever be available to App Clips? Are there any workarounds for gathering device data. We use the camera and need to know coremotion data to verify the angles of the images coming in From the camera. We have an app that has some perfect use cases for app clips in measuring and returning results however we need the angles of the device for accuracy.
1
0
42
6d
Support for App Clips in unlisted and custom apps
App Clips serve a useful purpose, a temporary or temporal mini app experience. I'd like to see this come to both unlisted and custom apps. Unlisted, easier argument. Same as public, just not searchable on the store. You need a link for an unlisted app ...... or an app clip code!!! For custom apps, a few use cases might be an internal conference that is short lived, or brief support sessions via a support app. The argument falls down for enterprise owned devices because why not just install everything you'd ever need--but for employee owned devices they can still enroll into an MDM, and we wouldn't want every single app available to be there. An app clip could be provisioned as eligible for that user / device and only there on-demand. FB11723876 - App Store Connect / App Clips: Add support to Unlisted and Custom Apps the ability to work with an App Clip (Oct 2022) Similar to https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/832043 which was asking for just unlisted.
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37
6d
App Clip support for visionOS — still missing in 27, renewing the request
Renewing this request across another release cycle. App Clips remain unsupported on visionOS in 27 (Xcode 27 still can't create a visionOS App Clip target; the App Clips entry now showing in visionOS 27 Siri settings is a known issue per the beta release notes, FB178269460 — not the feature shipping). Background: FB13348462 (filed Nov 2023) Sep '24 thread (https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/763818): an Apple engineer noted the request and invited more enhancement reports; a second developer added it would be a game-changer for teasing Vision Pro content. Why it matters: on iOS, App Clips are how we distribute native-quality AR/RealityKit experiences with the frictionlessness of a link — no full-app install. It's a core revenue driver. Our platform already runs the same experiences on Vision Pro, so App Clip support is the one missing piece. We've deferred multiple Vision Pro commercial projects (marketing activations, location-based and cultural-heritage installs) specifically because a visitor can't tap a code and drop into a spatial experience without installing a full app. Install-free entry is arguably more important on visionOS than iOS — walk-up headset experiences depend on it. Request: prioritize opening App Clips (or an equivalent link/code-triggered ephemeral launch) to third-party developers on visionOS. We've shipped this exact pattern on iOS at scale and would gladly act as a design partner / beta tester. Anyone else needing this: please file an enhancement report and paste the number here, per Apple's request in the original thread. Thank you!
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51
6d
AppIntents-friendly WatchOS Companion App
I have a Siri/widget-oriented app that would benefit from some sort of watchOS presence and I am trying to figure out the best approach. Can you help me understand the current options available? Initially I thought there was a kind of watchOS app that depended on an iPhone for nearly everything, but I am not clear if that approach has been deprecated. My app uses CloudKit for storage and is intended to be friendly to multiple devices, so theoretically the watch could stand on its own but in terms of staying closely in sync with the phone I am not clear that is the best approach. Further, it would seem to me better for Siri requests on the watch to directly update the phone if that were possible. My app heavily uses AppIntents, currently within the iPhone target. I am unclear if using an AppIntent extension would be a good path. I have found limited information about these extensions. I did an experiment with AppIntents in a watchOS app and had a lot of trouble getting the watch to recognize my shortcut phrases (or even to show the shortcuts in the watch Shortcuts app). With all of this in mind, can you offer me some recommendations about architecting a watch-friendly AppIntents approach.
5
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1w
Developer Mode
I enabled Developer Mode on my watch but seemed to experience significant battery drain, so I tried to disable it (filed a feedback for the drain). But even after turning off dev mode on the watch and unpairing the watch from Xcode devices, I get prompted about trusting my computer. Is that expected behavior? I don’t remember it before turning on dev mode.
1
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54
1w
Are there new updates to Apple Watch widget/complication configurations this year to resolve previous bugs?
This is discussed here: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/801455 Essentially my users are finding there can be inconsistencies in the configurations offered for my app complications depending on if they are doing so on their Apple Watch directly or via the Watch Face Gallery in the iPhone Apple Watch app. Are there any new changes here or any best practices to follow when creating WidgetConfigurationIntents?
1
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77
1w
Connection problems between Xcode and Apple Watch
Hello! As I try to use Xcode (has happened in versions 16 and 26) and my Apple Watch (has happened with Series 6 and 10), the Devices and Simulators window reports problems connecting to the Watch. Messages vary from "Connecting to Apple Watch" to "Waiting to reconnect: Previous preparation error: the tunnel connection failed while the system tried to connect to the device; client unable to receive tunnel handshake response", or "Apple Watch may need to be unlocked to recover from previously reported preparation errors. Ensure the device is unlocked and near this Mac for better connection quality." The Watch was operational, and on my wrist, so it was unlocked. Any suggestions on how to move beyond this? Thank you!
5
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103
1w
Rare clock avoidance in watchOS 26
One screen of our app has a calculator interface that takes over the toolbar area to afford sufficient tap targets for buttons. (Just like Apple's Calculator app without interference from the clock.) watchOS 11: works watchOS 27 b1: works Clock avoidance does not work in watchOS 26. Is there a specific API call we can use for this one screen in 26?
0
0
48
1w
Fondation Models + Core AI on watchOS
Hi! I've seen during the Keynote that watchOS will support Siri AI (when your iPhone is nearby), which sounds really exciting. Out of curiousity, I also noticed that both Core AI, and now the Foundation Models framework, are available on watchOS 27. This sounds amazing - bringing intelligence features to the watch could enable some great tailored experiences on the go. Here are some of my questions: Do these require a nearby iPhone? Do they work offline (on-device)? Lastly, are there any device limitations? Also, if there are any additional details or fun facts about using Foundation Models or Core AI on watchOS (or perhaps iOS, if making use of the companion app to run those models on the iPhone), I’d love to hear them!
1
1
95
1w
Settings on Watch OS
Moving the minimum OS version from 4 to 9, I see a message "WatchKit Settings Bundles Deprecated". Settings used to be handled by providing a plist which the Watch app on the iPhone would then use to display settings and allow the user to change them. How, nowadays, should we make settings available to the user to be viewed and changed?
5
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70
1w
SPM packages fail for watchOS Xcode 27
Xcode 27 refuses to build common Swift Packages for watchOS, such as swift-algorithms or swift-collections. ... 'WATCHOS_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET' is set to 8.0, but the range of supported deployment target versions is 9.0 to 27.0.x. The error disappears by explicitly declaring in the SPM manifest "platforms: [.watchOS(.v9)]". (Patching the "SwiftStdlib" availabilities in swift-collections is insufficient.) Is there a better workaround than mirroring our whole SPM graph to declare the platform minimum? Our projects' minimums are correctly set at 11 or 26. (Also happens in the hello world Xcode 27 watchOS only project.) FB23037701 ref: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/829540
2
2
133
1w
Architecture for daily content
Our app displays a calendar of the week ahead. On tapping a date, it offers three pieces of text for that date. These pieces of text can be quite long. What is the best overall architecture? Reading the documentation and watching the videos, it seems to be a NavigationSplitView whose items are the dates, and whose detail is a TabView which in turn contains three TextViews. Is this right?
2
0
51
1w
Swift Packages without explicit watchOS versions target do not compile.
Many Swift Packages, including those from Apple, like swift-collections, don't compile with Xcode 27. It shows these error messages: error: The watchOS deployment target 'WATCHOS_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET' is set to 8.0, but the range of supported deployment target versions is 9.0 to 27.0.x. (in target 'DequeModule' from project 'swift-collections') error: The armv7k architecture is deprecated. You should update your ARCHS build setting to remove the armv7k architecture. (in target 'DequeModule' from project 'swift-collections') Is this an expected behavior? If so, how can we fix it? If not, when will this be fixed?
1
0
63
1w
Are supported Apple Watch models able to access SiriAI when connected to an older iPhone?
Let's take an example where a user is on an iPhone 12 running iOS 27. They have an Apple Watch Series 10 paired running WatchOS 27. Are they able to access SiriAI queries from the Apple Watch? If not is there a technical limitation on why this isn't possible? On Apple Watch models where SiriAI is fully supported, does it still have any on device capability or is it all now requiring Internet access? And can this be Internet over cellular without the paired iPhone nearby?
0
0
56
1w
Advanced App Clip Experience Not Recognized via Digital Invocation (Email), But Works with QR Code
We are encountering an issue with our App Clip invocation behavior: When attempting to invoke an Advanced App Clip Experience from a link in an email (digital invocation), the App Clip is not recognized. However, the Default App Clip Experience works correctly when invoked the same way. Interestingly, the Advanced App Clip Experience does launch successfully via physical invocation (scanning a QR code that encodes the same URL). Question: Is there any additional configuration required to enable an Advanced App Clip Experience for digital invocation (e.g., email, Messages, Safari), as opposed to physical invocation? Are there specific requirements—such as associated domains, Apple App Site Association (AASA) file setup, or App Store Connect configuration—that differ between digital and physical invocation methods?
Replies
2
Boosts
0
Views
58
Activity
6d
Does App Clips support Unlisted App Distribution?
My app is distributed through Unlisted App Distribution as it's for a specific audience. I was hoping to share a link to an App Clip experience to allow users to easily get started with it and the initial features, then allow them to install through StoreKit within the clip. When trying to open the App Clip, is shows the card, but I with an error: The operation could not be completed. (ASDErrorDomain error 507.)
Replies
2
Boosts
0
Views
86
Activity
6d
Support for Multiple App Clips
Are there any plans to support multiple App Clips per app? Thank you.
Replies
1
Boosts
0
Views
41
Activity
6d
Appclip Questions
Does the App Clip banner require the app to be live on the App Store, even for testing? Does Apple's CDN need time to cache/validate the AASA file, and is there a way to force re-validation? Are there known limitations with App Clip banners on non-production domains? Is there a diagnostic tool to verify our AASA file is being correctly read by iOS?
Replies
1
Boosts
0
Views
37
Activity
6d
Core motion support in App Clips
Will core motion ever be available to App Clips? Are there any workarounds for gathering device data. We use the camera and need to know coremotion data to verify the angles of the images coming in From the camera. We have an app that has some perfect use cases for app clips in measuring and returning results however we need the angles of the device for accuracy.
Replies
1
Boosts
0
Views
42
Activity
6d
Support for App Clips in unlisted and custom apps
App Clips serve a useful purpose, a temporary or temporal mini app experience. I'd like to see this come to both unlisted and custom apps. Unlisted, easier argument. Same as public, just not searchable on the store. You need a link for an unlisted app ...... or an app clip code!!! For custom apps, a few use cases might be an internal conference that is short lived, or brief support sessions via a support app. The argument falls down for enterprise owned devices because why not just install everything you'd ever need--but for employee owned devices they can still enroll into an MDM, and we wouldn't want every single app available to be there. An app clip could be provisioned as eligible for that user / device and only there on-demand. FB11723876 - App Store Connect / App Clips: Add support to Unlisted and Custom Apps the ability to work with an App Clip (Oct 2022) Similar to https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/832043 which was asking for just unlisted.
Replies
1
Boosts
1
Views
37
Activity
6d
App Clip support for visionOS — still missing in 27, renewing the request
Renewing this request across another release cycle. App Clips remain unsupported on visionOS in 27 (Xcode 27 still can't create a visionOS App Clip target; the App Clips entry now showing in visionOS 27 Siri settings is a known issue per the beta release notes, FB178269460 — not the feature shipping). Background: FB13348462 (filed Nov 2023) Sep '24 thread (https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/763818): an Apple engineer noted the request and invited more enhancement reports; a second developer added it would be a game-changer for teasing Vision Pro content. Why it matters: on iOS, App Clips are how we distribute native-quality AR/RealityKit experiences with the frictionlessness of a link — no full-app install. It's a core revenue driver. Our platform already runs the same experiences on Vision Pro, so App Clip support is the one missing piece. We've deferred multiple Vision Pro commercial projects (marketing activations, location-based and cultural-heritage installs) specifically because a visitor can't tap a code and drop into a spatial experience without installing a full app. Install-free entry is arguably more important on visionOS than iOS — walk-up headset experiences depend on it. Request: prioritize opening App Clips (or an equivalent link/code-triggered ephemeral launch) to third-party developers on visionOS. We've shipped this exact pattern on iOS at scale and would gladly act as a design partner / beta tester. Anyone else needing this: please file an enhancement report and paste the number here, per Apple's request in the original thread. Thank you!
Replies
2
Boosts
1
Views
51
Activity
6d
seeking for good official tools
I'd like to know if there are any official, out-of-the-box tools available for handwriting and PaperKit that can help lower the input barrier for older adults and users with disabilities.
Replies
3
Boosts
1
Views
135
Activity
1w
AppIntents-friendly WatchOS Companion App
I have a Siri/widget-oriented app that would benefit from some sort of watchOS presence and I am trying to figure out the best approach. Can you help me understand the current options available? Initially I thought there was a kind of watchOS app that depended on an iPhone for nearly everything, but I am not clear if that approach has been deprecated. My app uses CloudKit for storage and is intended to be friendly to multiple devices, so theoretically the watch could stand on its own but in terms of staying closely in sync with the phone I am not clear that is the best approach. Further, it would seem to me better for Siri requests on the watch to directly update the phone if that were possible. My app heavily uses AppIntents, currently within the iPhone target. I am unclear if using an AppIntent extension would be a good path. I have found limited information about these extensions. I did an experiment with AppIntents in a watchOS app and had a lot of trouble getting the watch to recognize my shortcut phrases (or even to show the shortcuts in the watch Shortcuts app). With all of this in mind, can you offer me some recommendations about architecting a watch-friendly AppIntents approach.
Replies
5
Boosts
1
Views
77
Activity
1w
Developer Mode
I enabled Developer Mode on my watch but seemed to experience significant battery drain, so I tried to disable it (filed a feedback for the drain). But even after turning off dev mode on the watch and unpairing the watch from Xcode devices, I get prompted about trusting my computer. Is that expected behavior? I don’t remember it before turning on dev mode.
Replies
1
Boosts
0
Views
54
Activity
1w
Are there new updates to Apple Watch widget/complication configurations this year to resolve previous bugs?
This is discussed here: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/801455 Essentially my users are finding there can be inconsistencies in the configurations offered for my app complications depending on if they are doing so on their Apple Watch directly or via the Watch Face Gallery in the iPhone Apple Watch app. Are there any new changes here or any best practices to follow when creating WidgetConfigurationIntents?
Replies
1
Boosts
0
Views
77
Activity
1w
Handwriting App for automaticity
Does PaperKit expose the underlying PKDrawing / PKStroke / PKStrokePath data in a way that preserves stroke order, point sequence, and per-point properties, or is it primarily intended for markup persistence and rendering?
Replies
3
Boosts
0
Views
70
Activity
1w
Connection problems between Xcode and Apple Watch
Hello! As I try to use Xcode (has happened in versions 16 and 26) and my Apple Watch (has happened with Series 6 and 10), the Devices and Simulators window reports problems connecting to the Watch. Messages vary from "Connecting to Apple Watch" to "Waiting to reconnect: Previous preparation error: the tunnel connection failed while the system tried to connect to the device; client unable to receive tunnel handshake response", or "Apple Watch may need to be unlocked to recover from previously reported preparation errors. Ensure the device is unlocked and near this Mac for better connection quality." The Watch was operational, and on my wrist, so it was unlocked. Any suggestions on how to move beyond this? Thank you!
Replies
5
Boosts
0
Views
103
Activity
1w
Rare clock avoidance in watchOS 26
One screen of our app has a calculator interface that takes over the toolbar area to afford sufficient tap targets for buttons. (Just like Apple's Calculator app without interference from the clock.) watchOS 11: works watchOS 27 b1: works Clock avoidance does not work in watchOS 26. Is there a specific API call we can use for this one screen in 26?
Replies
0
Boosts
0
Views
48
Activity
1w
Fondation Models + Core AI on watchOS
Hi! I've seen during the Keynote that watchOS will support Siri AI (when your iPhone is nearby), which sounds really exciting. Out of curiousity, I also noticed that both Core AI, and now the Foundation Models framework, are available on watchOS 27. This sounds amazing - bringing intelligence features to the watch could enable some great tailored experiences on the go. Here are some of my questions: Do these require a nearby iPhone? Do they work offline (on-device)? Lastly, are there any device limitations? Also, if there are any additional details or fun facts about using Foundation Models or Core AI on watchOS (or perhaps iOS, if making use of the companion app to run those models on the iPhone), I’d love to hear them!
Replies
1
Boosts
1
Views
95
Activity
1w
Settings on Watch OS
Moving the minimum OS version from 4 to 9, I see a message "WatchKit Settings Bundles Deprecated". Settings used to be handled by providing a plist which the Watch app on the iPhone would then use to display settings and allow the user to change them. How, nowadays, should we make settings available to the user to be viewed and changed?
Replies
5
Boosts
0
Views
70
Activity
1w
SPM packages fail for watchOS Xcode 27
Xcode 27 refuses to build common Swift Packages for watchOS, such as swift-algorithms or swift-collections. ... 'WATCHOS_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET' is set to 8.0, but the range of supported deployment target versions is 9.0 to 27.0.x. The error disappears by explicitly declaring in the SPM manifest "platforms: [.watchOS(.v9)]". (Patching the "SwiftStdlib" availabilities in swift-collections is insufficient.) Is there a better workaround than mirroring our whole SPM graph to declare the platform minimum? Our projects' minimums are correctly set at 11 or 26. (Also happens in the hello world Xcode 27 watchOS only project.) FB23037701 ref: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/829540
Replies
2
Boosts
2
Views
133
Activity
1w
Architecture for daily content
Our app displays a calendar of the week ahead. On tapping a date, it offers three pieces of text for that date. These pieces of text can be quite long. What is the best overall architecture? Reading the documentation and watching the videos, it seems to be a NavigationSplitView whose items are the dates, and whose detail is a TabView which in turn contains three TextViews. Is this right?
Replies
2
Boosts
0
Views
51
Activity
1w
Swift Packages without explicit watchOS versions target do not compile.
Many Swift Packages, including those from Apple, like swift-collections, don't compile with Xcode 27. It shows these error messages: error: The watchOS deployment target 'WATCHOS_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET' is set to 8.0, but the range of supported deployment target versions is 9.0 to 27.0.x. (in target 'DequeModule' from project 'swift-collections') error: The armv7k architecture is deprecated. You should update your ARCHS build setting to remove the armv7k architecture. (in target 'DequeModule' from project 'swift-collections') Is this an expected behavior? If so, how can we fix it? If not, when will this be fixed?
Replies
1
Boosts
0
Views
63
Activity
1w
Are supported Apple Watch models able to access SiriAI when connected to an older iPhone?
Let's take an example where a user is on an iPhone 12 running iOS 27. They have an Apple Watch Series 10 paired running WatchOS 27. Are they able to access SiriAI queries from the Apple Watch? If not is there a technical limitation on why this isn't possible? On Apple Watch models where SiriAI is fully supported, does it still have any on device capability or is it all now requiring Internet access? And can this be Internet over cellular without the paired iPhone nearby?
Replies
0
Boosts
0
Views
56
Activity
1w