iOS Live Activity: Opportunities & Challenges

Speaker: QC Li
Event: MOPCON 2024

Transcript

1. iOS Live Activity
2. QC Li Senior iOS Developer 2020- : Sr. iOS Developer @ LINE (TW) 2018-20: iOS Developer @ Booking.com (NL) 2014-17: Sr. Mobile App Developer @ Yahoo (TW)
3. 01 02 03 04 What is Live Activity? All variants of Live Activity UI presentations Challenges during implementing Live Activity Presentations Implementation LINE Shopping App’s experiences Case Study Live Activity CONTENT
4. What is Live Activity? 01 Live Activity
5. Live Activity • View the progress of events or tasks at a glance. • Always on Lock Screen, separated from other push notifications. • Can be created, updated without app alive. • No permission needed in advance.
6. LINE Pay More Live Activities Instagram Uber Eats Maps
7. Supporting OS versions for Live Activity features OS Versions 18.0 Apple Watch 16.1 17.0 17.2 Remote creation iPad Live Activity
8. Devices that support Live Activity Devices 18.0 Apple Watch 16.1 17.0 iPad iPhone Dynamic Island Lock Screen Smart Stack
9. Limitations about Live Activity Restrictions Can NOT access location 8+4 hrs. lifetime Can NOT access network At most 5 Live Activities on a device Payload 4KB
10. Lifecycle Create Update End Create Update End Local Remote • Push Notification permission needed • PushToStartToken needed • iOS 17.2+ • Push Notification permission needed • PushToken needed • Push Notification permission needed • PushToken needed
11. Overview Activity State Visible Update Visible Update Visible Update Visible Update Active Stale Dismissed Ended
12. Active Activity State Visible Update Active Stale Dismissed Ended
13. Stale Activity State Visible Update Active Stale Dismissed Ended
14. Ended Activity State Visible Update Active Stale Dismissed Ended
15. Dismissed Activity State Visible Update Active Stale Dismissed Ended
16. All variants of Live Activity UI presentations 02 Presentations
17. Content (Medium) Presentations Dynamic Island Content (Small)
18. Dynamic Island • Dynamic island is supported on iPhone 14 Pro/Pro Max, all iPhone 15 and 16 models • 3 UI presentations • Compact • Minimal • Expended Compact Minimal Expanded Minimal in Stand By Mode
19. Dynamic Island - Compact
20. Dynamic Island – Minimal
21. Dynamic Island - Expanded There are default margins which can not be removed
22. Content (Medium) • Support on all models of iPhone (iOS 16.1+) and iPad (iOS 17+) • Lock Screen • Notification Center • Banner • For device doesn’t have dynamic island • Alert is set in config • Stand By (iOS 17+)
23. Permission Request UI Note that there will be NO bottom corner radius when requesting permission of Live Activity System UI Live Activity UI
24. Content (Small) • Apple Watch (iOS 18+) • Automatically support • Default style will be used if there is no customization • Smart Stack • Default Style • Dynamic island’s compact leading and trailing Leading Trailing App Name Default Style
25. Recap Presentation\Place Dynamic Island Lock Screen Banner Stand By Smart Stack Dynamic Island (Compact) (default) Dynamic Island (Minimal) Dynamic Island (Expended) (alert) Content (Medium) (alert) Content (Small) (customized)
26. Challenges during implementing Live Activity 03 Implementatio n
27. Define Live Activity • ContentState will be used for update Client
28. Activity Attributes • Needs to be included by both host app and app extension Client ActivityAttributes.swift Host App App Extension (Widget)
29. Define Live Activity UI • All presentations (content, dynamic island) should be defined Client Content Dynamic island Expanded Compact Minimal
30. Activity Families • Use .supplementalActivityFamilies to define supported activity families • .small is for Apple Watch Client iOS 18+
31. Activity Families • Use @Environment(\.activityFamily) to know current activity family in view Client iOS 18+
32. Activity Families • It’s not as simple as I thought • Activity families is only available for iOS 18.0+, but we should support old versions at the same time Client iOS 18+
33. Activity Families • Provide 2 activity configurations could resolve this issue • Extract existing ActivityConfiguration as variable • Use if-else to check OS version Client iOS 18+
34. Activity Families • @Environment(\.activityFamily) has similar issue Client iOS 18+
35. Activity Families • Use similar approach to resolve this issue Client iOS 18+
36. Remote Operations • Start (iOS 17.2+), Update and End • Push Notification permission required • Key file (.p8) required • Call APNs API Server
37. Remote Operations • $DATA is in JSON format Server
38. Remote Operations • $ACTIVITY_PUSH_TOKEN • Start (iOS 17.2+) • Push-to-start token, unique to device • Update, End • Push token, unique to Live Activity instance Server Client
39. Remote Start Flow 1. Request and upload pushToStartToken Server Client
40. Remote Start Flow 2. Start Live Activity from server Server Client
41. Remote Update Flow 1. Request and upload pushToken to server Server Client
42. Remote Update Flow 2. Upload or end Live Activity from server Server Client
43. LINE Shopping App’s experiences 04 Case Study
44. Shop Rebate Count Down Live Activity in LINE Shopping App
45. Issues we met during implementing Live Activity Challenges Existing push services doesn’t support it At most 5 Live Activities on a device Can NOT access network Token upload failed
46. Live Activity can NOT access network Networking Assets needed can not be download from the Internet Pre-download in host app Share within App Group Prepare default assets Issue Solution
47. Push Service Existing push services doesn’t support Live Activity DIY Issue Solution
48. Remote updating relies on push tokens Remote Updating Failure Push tokens upload fails It happens all the time Plan and Design in advance Issue Solution
49. At most 5 Live Activities on a device. Live Activity Count Limitation Can NOT request new Live Activity if reaches the limit Check status when possible Manage it remotely and locally Issue Solution
50. After releasing Live Activity feature 1.5x CVR% than other type of notifications Observations Clicks ++ Orders ++ GMV ++
51. Live Activity New entrance to app Display info user cares about Limitations Variants Recap