Developers Now Able to Create Live Activities for iOS 16 Lock Screen With Launch of ActivityKit Beta [Updated]

[MacRumors]

Alongside the fourth betas of iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 that were released to developers today, Apple has provided an ActivityKit beta, which will let app developers start creating apps that are able to take advantage of the Live Activities feature introduced in iOS 16.

Announced at WWDC, Live Activities are interactive notifications that stay up to date, allowing you to keep an eye on things happening in real time right from the Lock Screen. If you're following a sports game, for example, you can see the updated score on the Lock Screen, or if you're waiting for a Uber ride, you can watch for your driver to approach.

With the ActivityKit framework, you can start a Live Activity to share live updates from your app on the Lock Screen. For example, a sports app might allow the user to start a Live Activity for a live sports game. The Live Activity appears on the Lock Screen for the duration of the game and offers the latest updates about the game at a glance.

Developers can use ActivityKit to configure, start, update, and end a Live Activity. Apple says an app's widget extension creates the user interface of the Live Activity, but Live Activities are not widgets and ultimately use a different mechanism to receive updates.

On Apple's iOS 16 Preview page, Live Activities is listed as a feature that are not going to be available when iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 launch, but Apple is allowing developers to get a head start on adding the experiences into their apps. Apple says that Live Activities will come in an update to iOS 16 set to debut later in the year.

Developers will not be able to submit apps that support Live Activities until the feature launches in the future.

Update: In the sixth beta of iOS 16, Apple has disabled some Live Activity functionality, rendering TestFlight apps that include the feature unable to operate at the current time.

Article Link: Developers Now Able to Create Live Activities for iOS 16 Lock Screen With Launch of ActivityKit Beta [Updated]

 

[mcfrazieriv]

Will that live preview for Uber show the car/ride/delivery vehicle spin in circles for twenty minutes before it cancels on you?

 

[alexandr]

Will that live preview for Uber show the car/ride/delivery vehicle spin in circles before it drops you?

They should also use colors to indicate the likeliness of your ride happening, where it would slowly go from green to red.

 

[alexandr]

This could be a very cool feature. I hope companies take advantage of this. I was exited about app clips when that was announced, and since then I came across 1(one)... Perhaps it's just my experience.

 

[Bull 07]

I look forward to it for the nba and mlb results.

 

[ds256]

Oh great more gimmicky buggy notifications... Apple can't even modernize the crappy modal 20% and 10% low battery warnings that haven't been changed since 2007... Why can't they fix the existing junk before they add more junk??

 

[CARIB_APPLE]

This could be a very cool feature. I hope companies take advantage of this. I was exited about app clips when that was announced, and since then I came across 1(one)... Perhaps it's just my experience.

Omg App Clips! What happened to those!? Never took off…

 

[maktaba]

Live Activities is perhaps useful but will it be worth the battery drain?

 

[alexandr]

Omg App Clips! What happened to those!? Never took off…

Exactly right ) I guess nobody wanted to invest time into making those.

 

[alexandr]

Live Activities is perhaps useful but will it be worth the battery drain?

Would this be that much different than the background activity that the uber app would have? Also, I'm sure these could be disabled.

 

[Kylo83]

We want interactive widgets

 

[slippery-pete]

Oh great more gimmicky buggy notifications... Apple can't even modernize the crappy modal 20% and 10% low battery warnings that haven't been changed since 2007... Why can't they fix the existing junk before they add more junk??

We are talking about battery notifications? Battery notifications?

 

[I7guy]

Oh great more gimmicky buggy notifications... Apple can't even modernize the crappy modal 20% and 10% low battery warnings that haven't been changed since 2007... Why can't they fix the existing junk before they add more junk??

Sounds like it could be a cool feature. A preexisting bug should not cause this particular feature not to make into feature set at or around release.

 

[cocky jeremy]

Can't wait to see what devs come up with for this. Apple can release a cool feature, but without developers taking advantage of it, it's worthless.

 

[Lekendy]

Will that live preview for Uber show the car/ride/delivery vehicle spin in circles before it drops you?

This is going to be a selling feature Apple.

 

[_Spinn_]

Very excited to see how this is used by devs.

Apple says an app's widget extension creates the user interface of the Live Activity, but Live Activities are not widgets and ultimately use a different mechanism to receive updates.

That interesting, I figured Live Activity was just an extension of widgets.

 

[mthomas184]

This could be a very cool feature. I hope companies take advantage of this. I was exited about app clips when that was announced, and since then I came across 1(one)... Perhaps it's just my experience.

I see them at gas stations and restaurants mostly.

 

[chickeneaster]

If there are any developers here, I don't mind testing apps. I love doing that! I'm on the iOS 16 Dev beta on the iPhone 13 Pro

 

[macduke]

I want one that shows the progress of the UPS truck to my door with my iPhone 14 Pro.

Apple, make it so.

 

[timsutcliffe]

Looking forward to this for football matches.

 

[0924487]

Would be cool for nytimes to implement voting data live.

 

[incoherent_1]

Is anyone able to tell the "maximum lifespan" for one of these? If it can support live sports, then we know it can last at least 4-5 hours. Can it go 10+ hours? Over a day?

 

[addamas]

Goodbye battery life

 

[alexandr]

I see them at gas stations and restaurants mostly.

Which would be expected, but I saw just one, and it's been a while.

 

[AndreaCicca]

I see them at gas stations and restaurants mostly.

Usualy restaurants don't want to mess with apps. In Europe the only thing that is usually done is the creation of a website with the menu and the usual QR code to be scanned