I tested the accuracy of the depth map on iPhone 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16, and found that the variance of the depth map after iPhone 12 is significantly greater than that of iPhone 12. Enabling depth filtering will cause the depth data to be affected by the previous frame, adding more unnecessary noise, especially when the phone is moving. This is not friendly for high-precision reconstruction. I tried to add depth map smoothing in post-processing to solve the problem of large depth map deviation, but the performance is still poor. Is there any depth map smoothing solutions already announced by Apple?

What options do I have if I don't want to use Blackmagic's Camera ProDock as the external Sync Hardware, but instead I want to create my own USB-C hardware accessory which would show up as an AVExternalSyncDevice on the iPhone 17 Pro? Which protocol does my USB-C device have to implement to show up as an eligible clock device in AVExternalSyncDevice.DiscoverySession?

Where can I find the documentation of the Genlock feature of the iPhone 17 Pro? How does it work and how can I use it in my app?

Hi everyone, I’m running into an issue with PHPickerFilter when using PHPickerViewController. When I configure the picker with a .videos and .livePhotos filter, it seems to work correctly in the Photos tab. However, when I switch to the Collections tab, the filter doesn’t always apply — users can still see and select static image assets in certain collections (e.g. from one of the People & Pets sections). Here’s a simplified snippet of my setup: var configuration = PHPickerConfiguration(photoLibrary: .shared()) configuration.selectionLimit = 1 var filters = [PHPickerFilter]() filters.append(.videos) filters.append(.livePhotos) configuration.filter = PHPickerFilter.any(of: filters) configuration.preferredAssetRepresentationMode = .current let picker = PHPickerViewController(configuration: configuration) picker.delegate = self present(picker, animated: true) Expected behavior: The picker should consistently respect the filter across both Photos and Collections tabs, only showing assets that match the filter. Actual behavior: The filter seems to apply correctly in the Photos tab, but in the Collections tab, other asset types are still visible/selectable. Has anyone else encountered this behavior? Is this expected or a known issue, or am I missing something in the configuration? Thanks in advance!

When changing a camera's exposure, AVFoundation provides a callback which offers the timestamp of the first frame captured with the new exposure duration: AVCaptureDevice.setExposureModeCustom(duration:, iso:, completionHandler:). I want to get a similar callback when changing frame duration. After setting AVCaptureDevice.activeVideoMinFrameDuration or AVCaptureDevice.activeVideoMinFrameDuration to a new value, how can I compute the index or the timestamp of the first camera frame which was captured using the newly set frame duration?

Hello, Does anyone have a recipe on how to raycast VNFaceLandmarkRegion2D points obtained from a frame's capturedImage? More specifically, how to construct the "from" parameter of the frame's raycastQuery from a VNFaceLandmarkRegion2D point? Do the points need to be flipped vertically? Is there any other transformation that needs to be performed on the points prior to passing them to raycastQuery?

I'm working on a photo app and I want to allow the user to display, edit and delete photos. I can fetch all photos using PHAsset.fetchAssets(with: options). This works as intended. However, I can't seem to find a way to prevent the user from seeing photos from a Shared Library. The PHAssetSourceType only contains typeCloudShared to only show items from a specific album; not library. How can I filter by iCloud Shared Library?

I have a feature requirement: to switch the writer for file writing every 5 minutes, and then quickly merge the last two files. How can I ensure that the merged file is seamlessly combined and that the audio and video information remains synchronized? Currently, the merged video has glitches, and the audio is also out of sync. If there are experts who can provide solutions in this area, I would be extremely grateful.

I'm creating Live Photos programmatically in my app using the Photos and AVFoundation frameworks. While the Live Photos work perfectly in the Photos app (long press shows motion), users cannot set them as motion wallpapers. The system shows "Motion not available" message. Here's my approach for creating Live Photos: // 1. Create video with required metadata let writer = try AVAssetWriter(outputURL: videoURL, fileType: .mov) let contentIdentifier = AVMutableMetadataItem() contentIdentifier.identifier = .quickTimeMetadataContentIdentifier contentIdentifier.value = assetIdentifier as NSString writer.metadata = [contentIdentifier] // Video settings: 882x1920, H.264, 30fps, 2 seconds // Added still-image-time metadata at middle frame // 2. Create HEIC image with asset identifier var makerAppleDict: [String: Any] = [:] makerAppleDict["17"] = assetIdentifier // Required key for Live Photo metadata[kCGImagePropertyMakerAppleDictionary as String] = makerAppleDict // 3. Generate Live Photo PHLivePhoto.request( withResourceFileURLs: [photoURL, videoURL], placeholderImage: nil, targetSize: .zero, contentMode: .aspectFit ) { livePhoto, info in // Success - Live Photo created } // 4. Save to Photos library PHAssetCreationRequest.forAsset().addResource(with: .photo, fileURL: photoURL, options: nil) PHAssetCreationRequest.forAsset().addResource(with: .pairedVideo, fileURL: videoURL, options: nil) What I've Tried Matching exact video specifications from Camera app (882x1920, H.264, 30fps) Adding all documented metadata (content identifier, still-image-time) Testing various video durations (1.5s, 2s, 3s) Different image formats (HEIC, JPEG) Comparing with exiftool against working Live Photos Expected Behavior Live Photos created programmatically should be eligible for motion wallpapers, just like those from the Camera app. Actual Behavior System shows "Motion not available" and only allows setting as static wallpaper. Any insights or workarounds would be greatly appreciated. This is affecting our users who want to use their created content as wallpapers. Questions Are there additional undocumented requirements for Live Photos to be wallpaper-eligible? Is this a deliberate restriction for third-party apps, or a bug? Has anyone successfully created Live Photos that work as motion wallpapers? Environment iOS 17.0 - 18.1 Xcode 16.0 Tested on iPhone 16 Pro

In iOS 26 (Developer Beta), the AVCaptureMetadataOutputObjectsDelegate no longer receives callbacks when metadataOutput.metadataObjectTypes = [.face] is set. On earlier iOS versions the issue does not occur. Interestingly, face detection works if I set the sessionPreset to .medium, but not with .high — except on the iPhone 16 Pro Max, where it works regardless.

Hello, I'm developing an app that displays a photo library using UICollectionView and PHCachingImageManager. I'd like to achieve a user experience similar to the native iOS Photos app, where low-quality images are shown quickly while scrolling, and higher-quality images are loaded for visible cells once scrolling stops. I'm currently using the following approach: While Scrolling: I'm using the UICollectionViewDataSourcePrefetching protocol. In the prefetchItemsAt method, I call startCachingImages with low-quality options to cache images in advance. After Scrolling Stops: In the scrollViewDidEndDecelerating method, I intend to load high-quality images for the currently visible cells. I have a few questions regarding this approach: What is the best practice for managing both low-quality and high-quality images efficiently with PHCachingImageManager? Is it correct to call startCachingImages with fastFormat options and then call it again with highQualityFormat in scrollViewDidEndDecelerating? How can I minimize the delay when a low-quality image is replaced by a high-quality one? Are there any additional strategies to help pre-load high-quality images more effectively?

After Picture-in-Picture is opened on the camera interface, the custom UI cannot be displayed. Is there any way to make the custom UI visible? If custom UI cannot be displayed, how do teleprompter-type apps in the store manage to show custom teleprompter text within the camera?

I'm using Picture-in-Picture (PiP) mode in my native iOS application, which is similar to Google Meet, using the VideoSDK.live Native iOS SDK. The SDK has built-in support for PiP and it's working fine for the most part. However, I'm running into a problem: When the app enters PiP mode, the local camera (self-video) of the participant freezes or stops. I want to fix this and achieve the same smooth behavior seen in apps like Google Meet and WhatsApp, where the local camera keeps working even in PiP mode. I've been trying to find documentation or examples on how to achieve this but haven't had much luck. I came across a few mentions that using the camera in the background may require special entitlements from Apple (like in the entitlements file). Most of the official documentation says background camera access is restricted due to Apple’s privacy policies. So my questions are: Has anyone here successfully implemented background camera access in PiP mode on iOS? If yes, what permissions or entitlements are required? How do apps like WhatsApp and Google Meet achieve this functionality on iPhones? Any help, advice, or pointers would be really appreciated!

Hi all, I'm working on a custom Metal-based video pipeline using AVCaptureVideoDataOutput, and I've run into an unexpected issue related to exposure. Setup: I'm capturing video frames using kCVPixelFormatType_420YpCbCr8BiPlanarFullRange. In my Metal shader, I: Convert YCbCr (full range Rec.709) to linear Rec.709 RGB. Apply Rec.709 → sRGB gamma encoding. Output to .bgra8Unorm_srgb via MTKView. Everything renders correctly in terms of colorspace math, but the image appears significantly brighter (~+3 stops EV) compared to AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer and the native iOS Camera app under the same camera exposure settings. What I’ve verified: The color transforms are correct: YCbCr709 to RGB, then linear to sRGB. I'm not applying any tone mapping or aggressive look LUTs yet. Camera exposure is locked using: device.setExposureModeCustom(duration: ..., iso: ...) The same EV (e.g., ISO 50, 1/125s, f/5.6) on my iPhone appears visually 3 stops brighter than on my digital cameras (Sony/Canon etc). To match the look of the preview layer or camera app, I have to simulate a ~–3 EV shift in my custom pipeline. Questions: Is AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer applying extra tone mapping, digital gain, or contrast shaping (like OOTF etc)? Does the camera ISP expose "hotter" (i.e., with more light) internally for the preview layer than what we get in video frame buffers? Is there a standard way to compensate for this ISP behavior in custom pipelines using AVCaptureVideoDataOutput? Can this be accounted for using metadata (e.g., exposure bias, gain, gamma curve)?

Hey, Quick question. I noticed that Adobe's new app, Project Indigo, allows you to open the app using the Camera Control button. However, when your device is locked it just shows this screen: Would this normally be approved by the Appstore approval process? I ask because I would like to do something similar with my camera app. I know that this is not the best user experience, but my apps UI is not built in Swift and I don't have the resources to build the UI again. At least this way the user experience would be improved from what it is now, where users cannot even launch the app. I get many requests per week about this feature and would love to improve the UX for my users, even if it's not the best possible. Thanks, Alex

I'm developing a photo backup app. To detect newly added or edited photos since the app launched, I keep a local dictionary in the format [localIdentifier: modification_date]. However, PHAsset.modificationDate is not reliable. It often changes unexpectedly, possibly due to system operations like iCloud metadata updates. Is there a more reliable way to detect whether a photo has been modified by user since the last app launch? I'm thinking about using content hash instead, but I'm not sure how heavy this operation is in terms of performance.

Hello everyone, I'm working on a feature where I need to capture the highest possible quality photo (e.g., 24MP on supported devices) and upload it to our server. I don't need the photos to appear in user's main Photos app so I thought I could store the photos in app's private directory using FileManager until they are uploaded. This wouldn't require requesting Photo Library permission, maximizing user privacy. The documentation on AVCapturePhotoOutput states that "the 24MP setting (5712, 4284) is only serviced as 24MP when opted-in to autoDeferredPhotoDeliveryEnabled" /** @property maxPhotoDimensions @abstract Indicates the maximum resolution of the requested photo. @discussion Set this property to enable requesting of images up to as large as the specified dimensions. Images returned by AVCapturePhotoOutput may be smaller than these dimensions but will never be larger. Once set, images can be requested with any valid maximum photo dimensions by setting AVCapturePhotoSettings.maxPhotoDimensions on a per photo basis. The dimensions set must match one of the dimensions returned by AVCaptureDeviceFormat.supportedMaxPhotoDimensions for the current active format. Changing this property may trigger a lengthy reconfiguration of the capture render pipeline so it is recommended that this is set before calling -[AVCaptureSession startRunning]. Note: When supported, the 24MP setting (5712, 4284) is only serviced as 24MP when opted-in to autoDeferredPhotoDeliveryEnabled. */ @available(iOS 16.0, *) open var maxPhotoDimensions: CMVideoDimensions (btw. this note is not present in the docs https://developer.apple.com/documentation/avfoundation/avcapturephotooutput/maxphotodimensions) Enabling autoDeferredPhotoDeliveryEnabled means that for a 24MP capture, the system will call the photoOutput(_:didFinishCapturingDeferredPhotoProxy:error:) delegate method, providing a proxy object instead of the final image data. According to the WWDC23 session "Create a more responsive camera experience," this AVCaptureDeferredPhotoProxy must be saved to the PHPhotoLibrary using a PHAssetCreationRequest with the resource type .photoProxy. The system then handles the final processing in the background within the library. To use deferred photo processing, you'll need to have write permission to the photo library to store the proxy photo, and read permission if your app needs to show the final photo or wants to modify it in any way. https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2023/10105/?time=799 This seems to create a hard dependency on the Photo Library for accessing 24MP images. My question is: Is there any way to receive the final, processed 24MP image data directly in the app after a deferred capture, without using PHPhotoLibrary as the processing intermediary? For example, is there a delegate callback or a mechanism I'm missing that provides the final data for a deferred photo, allowing an app to handle it in-memory or in its own private sandbox, completely bypassing the user's Photo Library? Our goal is to follow Apple's privacy-first principles by avoiding requesting a PHPhotoLibrary authorization when our app's core function doesn't require access to the user's photo collection. Thank you for your time and any clarification you can provide.

AVCaptureVideoDataOutput.preparesCellularRadioForNetworkConnection requires com.apple.developer.avfoundation.video-data-output-prepares-cellular-radio-for-machine-readable-code-scanning. But I cannot acquire its entitlement. I can't find its entitlement on 'Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles'. Any solutions? Provisioning profile "iOS Team Provisioning Profile: ......" doesn't include the com.apple.developer.avfoundation.video-data-output-prepares-cellular-radio-for-machine-readable-code-scanning entitlement.

it will use about 300MB memory, it cause a memory peak

Issue: After iOS 18.5 release, our app is experiencing a significant increase in AVCaptureSessionInterruptionReason.videoDeviceNotAvailableWithMultipleForegroundApps errors. Details: Our camera-related code has not been updated recently.However, we've observed that the error rate has significantly increased starting from May 2025. The error rate has risen from approximately 0.02% (2 in 10,000 users) to 0.1% (1 in 1,000 users). This represents a 5x increase in error occurrence. The frequency has increased noticeably since iOS 18.5 This is affecting our app's camera functionality and user experience Questions: Are there any known changes in iOS 18.5 regarding camera access management? What are the recommended best practices to handle this interruption reason? Are there any API changes we should be aware of? Best, Shay