I would like to know if it is possible to launch an app on iOS that is currently in the back group using three taps for example ? Think of it as a short cut on a desktop app.
Thanks
No!
That is not possible. There is no way to open one specific app on some combination of touches.
You can however open other apps from your app using url schemes, but something like that is not supported across the entire OS and of course not supported on the springboard. (see the apple docs)
Related
Is there a way to know any App's bundle ID or App ID which is running in the foreground? I have seen this feature in this App called Backbone, which asks user to open any App, press a button on their hardware (Which is a game controller, connected to iPhone via lightning connector) and then a link/shortcut to that App gets added in their App. It seems like they are able to establish a link between their App and other Apps, based on what I know so far it is not possible without knowing the Custom URL scheme of the App.
Anyone knows if there is another way it can be done?
Thanks in advance!
URL Schemes are the only way to communicate between apps. So, no, it's not possible to launch any other apps.
But it is possible to launch any app that registers a URL Scheme, whether it's Apple's, yours, or another developer's.
For more info, check this question discussions.
I am developing an iOS app using Xamarin.iOS that should only be triggered by tapping on a URL. Because of this, I would like to prevent the app icon from being placed on the home screen. The reason is, the app will not function properly if they open it from the home screen (it needs some of the data in the URL to load properly). I would prefer to prevent the app from being on the home screen instead of checking whether a link was tapped or not. I know that is possible to do this in Android using the manifest, is this also possible in iOS?
This is not possible whatsoever; the developer has no control as to the placement and visibility of the application, and as such will always be visible on the springboard/home screen.
The best option you have is to show information to the user that explains why opening it from the home screen will not work, if they launch it that way. Most likely though, this will be rejected from the App Store as having no useful purpose. The guidelines are found here (App Store Guidelines), and I think this is what may cause a rejection (emphasis mine):
If your app is not particularly useful, unique, or “app-like,” it doesn’t belong on the App Store.
I'm not finding the documentation I was looking for, but, as far as I know, this is not possible in iOS.
You could maybe have a default url that the app launches with and then use deep linking to launch the app with a custom urls. There are lots of great tutorials on deep linking (launching your app through a url) like
This one or maybe this one
Is it possible to change an app logo (on the home screen) without updating the app?
This is from the view of an iOS developer. I got the idea from seeing how the New Yorker newspaper can change their app image without updating the app. Can I do this for a normal app? Is this solely for newstand apps?
Sadly, this is only available to Newsstand apps.
You're correct in that this is solely a newsstand feature for the reason being that content within those applications will change regularly (without requiring a change in the architecture of the application) and provides another way to notify or entice the user to open it again.
I'm writing a basic application using xcode 5.1. One of the features I'm interested in trying to do is to launch another app or move to other part of iphone, INSIDE the app already running.
Eg. I have an app with 3 menu options, 1 and 2 do certain tasks as part of this parent app, menu option 3 launches another app that's installed on the phone. I'm not sure if this is possible?
No you can not do that. Besides the documented URL handlers, there's no way to communicate with/launch another app.
This is part of the sandbox principle of apple:
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/iphone/conceptual/iphoneosprogrammingguide/TheiOSEnvironment/TheiOSEnvironment.html
What you can do is launch another app by using custom URL-Schemes
http://mobile.tutsplus.com/tutorials/iphone/ios-sdk-working-with-url-schemes/
I am trying to detect if my ipad app is installed on a device when visiting my website, in order to suggest different action to the visitor.
Thanks to this post :
https://stackoverflow.com/a/8310348/1128754
I found that the "store" application on iphone seems to have achieve to detect if the app is installed on the device. When you click on store links, it launch the app instead of going to the mobile web version.
For example, if you go to :
http://store.apple.com/xc/anythinghere
with an iphone on which apple store app is installed ( http://itunes.apple.com/app/id375380948 )
it automatically start the store app, instead of the web page.
I tried to follow the stack call with mitmproxy but safari doesn't seems to ask query before launching the app.
So, I guess they did custom url scheme recognition, with http:// links.
Do you think it is possible?
This is done with URL protocol handlers:
http://www.iphonedevfaq.com/index.php?title=URL_schemes#URL_Protocol_Handlers
You cannot detect if an app is installed from HTML, but you can launch an app. For example, the popular game "Doodle Jump" can be launched by going to doodlejump://, but if you don't have it installed, the link won't work. As mentioned, this is done with a custom URL scheme and needs to be coded into your app.