I'm wondering if an app has access to the info that shows the other apps on the phone and what permissions they have (i.e. access to your location, contacts, etc).
Could I create an iOS app with a feature that displays other apps and their permissions? I know the user can view this info via settings, but I'm wondering if it can be organized and displayed by an app.
a similar question was asked here:
How an app to know what other apps have been installed in the device
but the solution method (iHasApp) only works for about 50% of apps, and doesn't address seeing the permissions of those apps.
Thanks!
No you can't access apps data due to sandbox structure upto iOs7.
Related
Can ios apps get a data on which applications users have downloaded to their device similar to what android allows?
No this is not possible in iOS. iOS is focused on user privacy and security and giving developers information about which apps have been downloaded raises major privacy concerns.
This is not possible from code within the app. User information is kept private on purpose.
What you can do if your app is published is login to iTunes connect with your developer account and see data on your app for sessions, installs, and crashes.
I don't recommend this, but you could look into CNContacts or Address Book to see users data by getting their vCard and saving it as some analytics system. This will most likely cause you to get rejected unless you're very clear on what you're doing in the app.
Over the past little while I’ve been working with a client who would like to leverage Apple’s new Suggested App feature on iOS 8. The client's goal was to display a suggest app lock screen notification any time a person passes by a specific geo-location. After spending some time trying to find a concrete answer to what level of control (if any) the client would have over Apple’s Suggest App feature, it was decided to send our questions directly to Apple.
Below is copy of the questions I sent to Apple.
Hello,
For our next app release, my team and I would like to leverage Apple's Suggest App feature provided in iOS 8.
We've taken a look through the iTunes Connect portal and we haven't been able to find a configuration panel anywhere which allows us to control when/where our app should appear as a suggested app.
Questions:
Is it possible for us to specify the conditions that out app will appear as a suggested app for users who haven't downloaded it yet?
Can we specify a geo-fence that will display our app as a suggested app on a user's lock screen?
If we have no control over Apple's Suggested App configuration, under what conditions will our iOS appear on a user's lock screen as a suggested app?
STEPS TO REPRODUCE
Turn on your phone
Enable suggested apps
Enable 3G
Lock your screen
Walk past a region.
Expected Result: A suggested app appears on the iPhone lock screen.
Here is the response I received directly from Apple Developer Support Team:
Hello,
Location relevant Apps are recommended on the lock screen and in the App Store based on a number of factors, including their popularity at the location, and there is no mechanism or process by which an App developer can add their App to the list of recommended Apps.
However, if your iOS App is directly related to the location or venue (such as a mall guide iOS App which is published by the mall owner or operator), and you believe your iOS App’s relevance warrants it being included the list of recommended Apps, then you are encouraged to submit an enhancement request via http://bugreport.apple.com/, and request that Apple consider whether your iOS App should be included in the list of recommended Apps for that location.
You should provide as much detail in the ’enhancement request' about the App and venue/location as possible, such as the App ID, App Name, URL to the App on the App Store, venue name, venue location (address & lat/lon), the relevance (if any) of your iOS App to the venue/location, and relationship (if any) between you as the developer and the owner/operator of the venue/location.
Submission of an enhancement request does not guarantee that a particular iOS App will be added to the list of recommended Apps for a venue or location, and the sole feedback from Apple on the request will come through the http://bugreport.apple.com/ bug report system.
Regards,
Apple Developer Technical Support
We are building an app which will requires to dynamically (in real time) block off users from browsing certain websites or installing/accessing certain apps.
There will be constantly updated list of URL or, Apps that the users simply cannot browse or install from the devices on which this app is installed.
Will greatly appreciate any suggestions on whats possible and how can we go about to implement this?
On the App Store this is not possible.
In the enterprise you can control various aspects of user's iOS device. See for example http://www.csoonline.com/article/2133931/identity-access/mobile-device-management-companies-get-more-app-control-on-ios-7.html
But this is not under the control of an app but IT administration.
I am building an album app. I want to set a photo in my own app as wallpaper. Is there some method available for doing so?
update:
I know there are already some similar questions posted. But they are out of time. So I am wondering if there is some method in iOS7 to implement so.
For apps going into the app store this isn't possible. Apps can't change anything outside of their environment this is because apps on iOS run in a sandboxed mode so they don't know anything about other apps that are on the device and can't affect the OS directly.
To actually do it you would probably need to use some private API so your app would get rejected under:
2.5 Apps that use non-public APIs will be rejected
but I suspect that they would actually reject it under:
10.4 Apps that create alternate desktop/home screen environments or simulate multi-App widget experiences will be rejected
As you are directly altering the home screen.
How to build an application which is capable of executing outside the sandbox in non-jail broken devices? Because I need to access the files and other informations like sms, call history etc ...
I'm afraid you will probably not be able to do this. The provided SDK, and terms of using the SDK do not allow you to operate outside of the sandbox.
Even if you were able to access the information, then the app would only ever be for your own use (unless you are an enterprise developer) as it would most likely get a rejection from the App Store approvals process.
The only access outside the sandbox that is allowed is mediated through Apple's SDK. You will only be able to access specific items, such as the Address Book or Photo library, through the iPhone OS framework.
If you have a more specific question about what you want to accomplish, perhaps we can answer based on what is currently allowed.
There's no method that I know of to perform access outside the sandbox that is defined by the iPhone SDK.
Even if there were, your app would not be available for non-jailbroken phones, as it wouldn't be approved by the app store.