Am trying a simple Apple Watch App. the question I have is : will the iPhone App be able to run always in the background? In the App, I want to fetch some files from a server & store them in the iPhone (I want to do this everyday at a specific time), so that when the user opens the Apple Watch App, the file can be showed immediately (and no need to wait for it be downloaded then).
You can run tasks in the background of an iPhone application yes. I have no idea about how this interacts with the Apple Watch (your post suggests this will just sync automatically perhaps). Good point of reading:
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/iPhone/Conceptual/iPhoneOSProgrammingGuide/BackgroundExecution/BackgroundExecution.html
Related
How do I launch an associated Watch App from an IOS App?
I do see questions where the user flow is in reverse, where the Watch App starts the IOS App in the background. However I want the reverse. I want to launch the Watch App, make it visible on the watch when the associated IOS App is running.
My current user experience is not good; I launch the IOS App from the Phone, then fiddle with the watch to find the associated Watch App.
The current IOS App plays music at times, and I have added the Now Playing View. I have also noticed that when I start the watch application "not programatically", some minutes later (after the watch goes to sleep and raised again to awake) the default music player Watch App is made the current watch application when playing music via the IOS App.
I would have preferred that the associated watch application is active on the watch, and that the Now Playing View controls the music.
The watch application has two views/pages where the user would swipe to move to the next page. The first page has some text and the second page has the Now Playing View
It would be far better, if the users starts the IOS App and auto launches the associated Watch App.
I am not sure what the design decisions are regarding this. Perhaps a Notification needs to be sent, and the user can then decide whether to launch the Watch App.
Please assist by giving brief API calls to make or adjusting properties in the plist.
Thanks.
You can do so by sending a workout configuration to your watch app via
startWatchAppWithWorkoutConfiguration
I'm not sure it would get past the App Review for non workout apps. You might have to call this method twice to reliably start the app, due to a timeout: forum discussion
I would like to give a hint to the user, that my iOS app supports the Apple Watch.
So I would like to link/open the Apple Watch companion app from within my iOS app, very much similar to opening the Settings App using ([[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL: [NSURL URLWithString:UIApplicationOpenSettingsURLString]];)
This shall enable the user to directly navigate to the Watch companion app to setup my app for the watch.
I could not find any URL which would open the companion app in general or specific to a section of the companion app.
If direct linking is not supported, I am also interested in alternative approaches for this use case.
Thanks in advance!
EDIT:
I checked the WatchKitSettings Info.plist file in the simulator to see if it registers any URL schema, but it does not.
I guess it's not possible to programmatically launch the watch companion app from iOS. The opposite way would be possible: to launch the iOS app in the background upon receiving a message from the watch. See WWDC talk Introducing Watch Connectivity.
You could check WCSession.defaultSession().watchAppInstalled and ask the user to launch the app if it is true.
Previously, it was not possible to launch the WatchKit App from the iPhone app, but the iPhone app could be launched—only in the background—with the openParentApplication method.
As of WatchOS 2, however, it is now not possible for either app to cause the other to launch. Instead, there are new methods for queueing changes to be picked up when the other app is launched in the future.
One partial solution for your use case could be displaying a local notification which could be tapped to open the watch app. The primary flaw in such an approach is I do not believe there is a way to limit this notification to the Watch only, so it would also appear on the iPhone where if tapped it would bring the iPhone app to the foreground. Messy if implemented like this, and therefore not worth it I'd have thought, even if it could pass app store review.
I'm developing a medical alert and record keeping app for iOS for a client. The app needs to be able to open itself at specific times based on a schedule that is set remotely.
I've searched around for how this can be done, and I keep running into other apps that let you schedule app launch times, but this needs to be a self contained solution.
I'd rather not JailBreak the iOS device to make it work, and I've come across articles that say iOS 9+ now has this capacity, but no instructions on how to make it come about.
Any clues, tutorials, or other information on how to accomplish this?
You can use "silent" push notifications (with "content-available") on iOS 7+ to launch the app when the push notification is received on the device. You will get a chance to process the notification, and the app will be launched if it's not already running.
However, it still won't work if the user has force killed the app.
Also, iOS will not launch your app if it feels you've gone over the daily processing time or data quota.
I want to know if there is anyway to keep my WatchKit app running in the background, or if I can possibly program it to launch (i.e. transfer from inactive state to active state) once a certain condition is fulfilled?
My app is running perfectly while the WK App is open and active, and it even runs fine when the iPhone is asleep, or when the parent iOS app is in BG mode. However, I really need my app to continue running in the background on the watch itself. Is this possible?
Not possible. Because Apple Document for watchkit clearly mentions that "WatchKit extensions do not support background execution modes,they run only while the user is interacting with the corresponding app on Apple Watch.".
You can refer apple document Link to Apple Doc
Read Communicating Directly with Your Containing iOS App.
I'm newbie iOS. I have been develop Phonegap for Android and iOS. My App is update data from server every 1hour. In Android, i use service to do that. My app in Android working very good. Now, i want to develop version for iOS, and i have problem when update data from server every 1hour. I was research but not find anyway for my app.I don't know what's solution to replace for service in Android. Can you help me, what's solution. This have been kill me. Thank you so much.
Short answer is NO as Apple has restriction on background task running especially cases like yours.
But if you are downloading small amount of content, you do have some other options. From IOS 4.0 or above, you can declare your app to run in background when you fall under the following categories:
Audio
Location updates
Voice over IP
Newsstand downloads
External accessory communication
Bluetooth networking
Bluetooth data sharing
Background fetch (IOS 7)
Remote notifications (IOS 7)
In order to do so, you need to flag your app in the info.plist for Required Background Modes option. Apple will review your app specific in this area once you declared the option.
For your case to download the data, the possible option is to use the new feature in IOS 7 that's the background fetch or remote notification above. The suggestion from DOM was not asking you to download the content through push notification. But instead to use push notification to wake up your application and start downloading new content.
If you don't want to use push notification, the only way to go is register for background fetch. However, no matter which option you want to use, each download will only last for 30 seconds. And after that, your app will put into suspension mode again.
you can have a look on the link here:
Declaring Your App’s Supported Background Tasks
I think your best bet would be to use the push services instead of having your app go get data. Making your app do it is unreliable with phonegap apps because you cant create a service interface and you can not guarantee that your app will be running. With push service though, if your app isn't running, it will be woken up in a manner of speaking.
Take a look at this great how-to article that also discusses what push provides you.