I want to make a WhatsApp call to a contact from my app, I already searched a lot, and did not find any answer, seems like it's restricted to OS only, but these questions are a little outdated
eg: Url scheme for making WhatsApp call programmatically from iOS app (voice call VOIP)?
and: How can I place a WhatsApp call from an iOS app?
also in WhatsApp docs: https://faq.whatsapp.com/iphone/how-to-link-to-whatsapp-from-a-different-app
I am trying to find if it's possible in 2021 or not yet
Thank you
The first thing to consider here is that "calling through WhatsApp" is a feature of the WhatsApp itself and doesn't have any relation with features of the operating system.
So you need to understand that trying to make the call is actually an integration between your app and WhatsApp. You need to send a "message" to WhatsApp saying that you want it to make a call to the specified number. But how this is done? The mechanism in iOS this kind of inter app integration the use of URL Schemes.
On your app side, the way to this is already answered in one of your links:
if #available(iOS 10.0, *) {
UIApplication.shared.open(NSURL(string: "whatsapp://send?phone=+91phonenumber")! as URL)
} else {
UIApplication.shared.openURL(NSURL(string: "whatsapp://send?phone=+91phonenumber")! as URL)
}
This is the right API. The thing is, it's up to the app maker (in this case WhatsApp) to decide which features it makes available to other apps to be requested, via a custom URL. Now one of the references that you sent is the official WhatsApp docs. There are examples of URL's that you need to call to integrate with WhatsApp, but I couldn't find anything related to start a call.
Probably WhatsApp developers haven't added a specific interface to allow this kind of integration, but it may be undocumented because you can do this from Siri Shortcuts, and it uses mostly the URL Scheme mechanism. Here's a reference that might be helpful to try to find the available schemes.
Related
TL/DR
How can I make an iOS app appear on share sheet to receive shared urls from any other app?
This is a super newbie post as I have never really touched swift to develop anything, but I couldnt find the answer to my question on google so i wanted to start here. Almost everything I found by googling around is UIActivityViewController which appears more to be about how to share content from my app to another app; while what I am trying to do is share urls from another app to my app.
I am try to build a simple app for ios (doesnt have to be old version compatible because it will be only used by me) that can be a receiver for shared urls from apps like safari, brave or youtube. All the app does is when user clicks on the share button, and then chooses the app, the app gets the relevant data that is being passed, and then posts it to a backend server.
I can accomplish this on my android app/devices with an intent filter action android.intent.action.SEND in the manifest, and then listening for it with Intent intent = getIntent() in my method.
Would someone be kind enough to point me in the right direction at what I should look into (google about). If you can also point me to some sample code examples on how to write an app that can be the receiver for shared data (like urls), that would be fantastic. I am not sure what to search for so that my app can show up on share sheet, and how to then react with the data.
Again, apologies for the super noob question, but I couldnt translate my idea to something relevant on google.
It can be achieved by an Action Extension. Search for it.
Here is one:
https://code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/ios-8-how-to-build-a-simple-action-extension--cms-22794
I think both Share extension and Action extension can do the job. It depends on your needs.
Check this table to make sure which one is more appropriate for your purpose.
You can refer to App Extension Programming Guide by Apple.
I want let users view the Weight section of Apple's Health app to allow them to see detailed data, etc. I manage to open the Health app via the URL scheme x-apple-health://, but I would like to send them directly to the right place, e.g. x-apple-health://HealthData/measurements/Weight. I have had no success after trying different paths that made some sense.
Anyone has a reference on this?
Apple has not documented the x-apple-health:// scheme for use by apps. Attempting to use it is like using SPI - even if you find something that works now, it is likely to break in a future version of iOS. You should file a Radar with Apple to request an API for this purpose.
We use an LMS calles Canvas by instructure. Our students access the LMS via the iOS app, however we would like to be able to call out from this app to another app (e-book reader).
We just want to be able to select a link which will redirect us to the app.
We have a coder in our staff, and we would really appreciate any advise on how to achieve the above.
You can communicate with URL Schemes between apps Apple Inter-App Communication
And here is Tutorial explaining URL Schemes implementation.
If you have access to the e-book reader app's codebase, this is simple to achieve by specifying a URL Scheme this app may respond to (or, alternatively, if you happen to know what URL Schemes this app supports). Then it will be as simple as calling out a URL of a corresponding format from within the iOS app your students use.
Alternatively, if your app provides access to the documents of some sort, you could look into UIDocumentInteractionController that can add "Open in..." functionality to your app, allowing app users to open a document in an arbitrary app that supports this file format.
I want display all the apps in my app that support chatting. Actually I need to send the selected text via message applications (i.e., WhatsApp, WeChat, etc..) those are installed in my iOS device.
I have gone through UIDocumentInteractionController but it allow to share files only. But here in my case I want to share just text.
Is this possible. Please help me out, thanks.
iOS does not have a single option for sharing text, the UIActivityViewController can be used and will show the iOS integrated social networks.
You will be able to add you own service to this dialog, as long a the app has a URL scheme to support its.
A example of a Whatsapp UIActivity: https://github.com/jberlana/JBWhatsAppActivity
If you know the URL schemes (if the chatting app provides one) of the app, you can check if a app exists or not using -canOpenURL: of UIApplication class. If they support url schemes, you can send text in the format that those app supports.
I want to share a link from my app using other applications installed on my iPhone such as Gmail, Facebook, DropBox, WhatsApp etc. In android there is a straight way to do so, just fire an intent and it automatically shows the installed apps through which we can share whatever we want. Is there any such way in iPhone ?
Thanks!
On iOS , app is more separated from each other. The only way to pass data from one app to other is using the URL mechanism. As one example, an app register url scheme "open-me://",you invoked openURL with "open-me://my-link" then that app will launched. That app will define the detail of the URL so it could understand the content.Continue with the example we are using, the text you passed could be either "open-me://A?data=my-link" or "open-me://A?message=my-link". So there are no general solution for all apps.Typically third party app will provide a SDK to make these things easy.
If you don't mind using a kind of large third party library, ShareKit is a good choice. It supports quite some apps.
If you want to know more about this topic,for example sharing files between app. You could start from reading the class reference of UIDocumentInteractionController.This UI component will show a list of app installed on your device which support the URL scheme.