I'm developing an iOS video chat application. I would like to display a notification like the FaceTime application does when someone calls me.
Currently I use push notifications that show banners, with a message and a custom sound.
Instead I want my app to show a custom screen for an incoming event like someone calling me for example. Is that possible using apple public API's ?
Please, see the FaceTime notification screen below.
Ps.: Skype also uses a different notification screen.
Thanks a lot,
Daniel
I doubt it has anything to do with push notifications, in fact Skype you are mentioning was able to do it before push notifications were available.
Instead iOS gives you some extra features if you create an app with background mode "voip" (voice over ip). This will allow the app to wake up and brought to the foreground once traffic is detected on the network sockets, and applicationWillEnterForeground: is called. And from there you can use any view controller.
If you now think «hmm, my app doesn't offer voip, but I will pretend to do so to get superior notifications» — don't try it, apple will reject any app claims to be a voip app just to get endless background time.
No, push notification dialog is a system dialog which cannot be customized. However FaceTime is Apple's application and they can customize it the way they want, not open to third party developers.
However you can take advantage of iOS 8.0 addition "UIMutableUserNotificationCategory" to customize the actions in the notification:
https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/documentation/UIKit/Reference/UIMutableUserNotificationCategory_class/index.html
Example tutorial:
http://www.thinkandbuild.it/interactive-notifications-with-notification-actions/
I'm not sure how they did it, but Skype managed to get a customized notification when a User receives a call both while the device is locked and while in use.
http://blogs.skype.com/2014/09/22/skype-5-5-for-iphone-answer-skype-calls-in-an-instant/
EDIT: Looks like IOS8 added an Interactive Notifications API. This is likely your next question: How do I make interactive notifications in iOS 8 app?
Related
I am trying to develop whatsApp like calling feature in an application of mine.
For audio call, I am using VoIP to initialize the CallKit and it's working perfectly.
But I am not able to get Video call work just like whatsApp.
If I assume that whatsApp is delivering is VoIP and then showing local notification. But as per iOS 13 documentation, you have to report incoming call to CallKit if you are using VoIP.
And If I think of sending silent notification, it won't work if user killed the application manually.
I have thought of many solutions but none behaves like whatsApp does.
Can anyone help me with this? Any suggestion will be appreciated.
You can just use normal push notifications, they will always be delevered. Your server has to generate a push every n-seconds that tells the user that he has an incoming video call.
What my requirement is "I need to wake up my application from the background when a call comes in my iPhone".Is Any way to do so? Shall we get a unique number for the each user in
You'll need to use PushKit notifications and CallKit that can start the app even when the app is killed.
The CallKit is not really absolutely necessary, since it "just" allows you to provide standard calling interface. But it is a very nice feature to have - user is used to standard iOS interface for answering/declining calls, so I would definitely recommend to go with CallKit, instead of just standard notifications.
You can take a look at this tutorial, or just google together the PushKit, CallKit and Voip to get other relevant tutorials.
VoIP Push notifications is your solution.
I don't like the "link" answers myself, but here is how to do it:
Voice Over IP (VoIP) Best Practices (Apple documentation)
Roughly saying, VoIP pushes allow you to wake up your application and your code will be executed.
You may also be interested in CallKit, if you're working on soft-phone application.
I am working on a video/audio call app. Now when my phone is locked and another user is calling me then from the lock screen I will get a notification and if I swipe the notification then the call automatically received. I used UILocalNotification for getting notification.
But I don't want like this. I want to see the UI same as when another user call me when my phone is unlocked that is there will be receive/reject option with my UI. I want to receive call like Viber or skype. How can I do that?
You should be looking into the PushKit framework form Apple.
The PushKit framework provides the classes for your iOS apps to
receive VoIP pushes from remote servers. VoIP pushes provide the
functionality that VoIP apps need to perform on-demand processing of
the push before displaying a notification to the user.
Apple Documentation
There are some tutorials might help you.
Tutorial 1
Tutorial 2
Update
To display the system-calling UI for your app's VoIP services you can use CallKit.
CallKit documentation
Sample code from Apple
Here is a tutorial which explains it well.
http://www.techjini.com/blog/enhance-voip-app-user-experience-using-pushkit-callkit/
https://www.raywenderlich.com/150015/callkit-tutorial-ios
Is it possible to wake up a background application with a non ios notification center? e.g. if I were creating a calling or messaging application is it possible to wake the application via SMS.
Nope. If you want to call app outside the device, you should use APNS. On the device you can use local notification. Sending SMS to wake up app is kinda wrong. People don't like such solutions - imagine bunch of SMS every day for different apps. Sorry.
No.
If you have background code running, you can schedule a local notification to yourself. If the user clicks "Ok" then you will come to the foreground. See here for a description and sample code.
As far as I can tell, the only ways to launch an app without user input is via a custom URL handler or via an accessory. It doesn't sound like an accessory fits your use case. Sadly you can't open URLs from the background, so you can't use this to wake yourself.
What are the requirements and how would I go about implementing the Application Push Notification Service to trigger methods when the application is in the background, or when the phone is closed. Would this even be possible?
Thank you
No thats not possible.
When the app is in the foreground it will receive the push notification directly and can do whatever it wants to in response to that.
However when its not in the foreground the notification is displayed to the user (if they haven't disabled them) and/or displayed in the notification center (if they haven't disabled that). Your app will be brought to the foreground to execute if and only if the user selects the notification.
The application does not receive the notification directly if its not in the foreground.
Read the Apple Docs:
http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/NetworkingInternet/Conceptual/RemoteNotificationsPG/Introduction/Introduction.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40008194-CH1-SW1
It boils down to lots of setup, and then implementing application:didReceiveRemoteNotification. You can read an in-depth example here. Part two goes into the actual application:didReceiveRemoteNotification implementation.