Add iOS 17.2+ push-to-start for Live Activity renewal#622
Open
Add iOS 17.2+ push-to-start for Live Activity renewal#622
Conversation
iOS 17.2+ now uses APNs push-to-start for every Live Activity creation path — initial start, renewal, and forced restart — so the LA can renew silently in the background instead of requiring the user to foreground the app at the 7.5 h ceiling. iOS 16.x retains the existing Activity.request() flow with the renewal-failed notification; the #available gates are at the entry points so the legacy helpers can be removed in one commit when the deployment target reaches 17.2. Push-to-start uses a silent payload (alert with empty title/body + interruption-level: passive) so adoption is invisible on phone and watch. The push-to-start token is observed at startup and persisted between launches; activityUpdates adoption resets the renewal deadline. The "tap to update" overlay is suppressed on iOS 17.2+ unless renewal has actually failed, since the time-based pre-emptive warning would be misleading when push-to-start is handling renewal automatically. Settings: - APN page: inline validity badges for Key ID and APNs key, with one- line error text when either is malformed. - Live Activity page: section footer noting APNs is required, plus a warning row when credentials are missing or invalid.
bjorkert
added a commit
that referenced
this pull request
Apr 27, 2026
# Conflicts: # LoopFollow/LiveActivity/LiveActivityManager.swift # LoopFollow/Settings/LiveActivitySettingsView.swift
Deployment target is 16.6, so #available(iOS 16.2, *) is always true at runtime and the @available(iOS 16.2, *) on Activity.activityUpdates is satisfied by the deployment target alone. The runtime branch and its '(iOS 16.2+)' log strings just made the file harder to read alongside the real iOS 17.2 push-to-start gating.
UIDevice.current.systemVersion reports the iOS-equivalent on Mac Catalyst, so use ProcessInfo.operatingSystemVersion (and label it macOS) when running as a Catalyst app.
This file contains hidden or bidirectional Unicode text that may be interpreted or compiled differently than what appears below. To review, open the file in an editor that reveals hidden Unicode characters.
Learn more about bidirectional Unicode characters
Sign up for free
to join this conversation on GitHub.
Already have an account?
Sign in to comment
1 participant
Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.This suggestion is invalid because no changes were made to the code.Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is closed.Suggestions cannot be applied while viewing a subset of changes.Only one suggestion per line can be applied in a batch.Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.Applying suggestions on deleted lines is not supported.You must change the existing code in this line in order to create a valid suggestion.Outdated suggestions cannot be applied.This suggestion has been applied or marked resolved.Suggestions cannot be applied from pending reviews.Suggestions cannot be applied on multi-line comments.Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is queued to merge.Suggestion cannot be applied right now. Please check back later.
Summary
On iOS 17.2 and later, the Live Activity now renews itself silently in the background instead of asking you to open the app every 7–8 hours. iOS 16 keeps the existing behavior unchanged.
How it works
Apple ends every Live Activity after about 8 hours. Until now, when that limit got close, LoopFollow had to wait for you to bring the app to the foreground so it could request a fresh one — and if you didn't, you'd get a notification asking you to.
iOS 17.2 added a way to start a Live Activity from a server-side push instead of from the foreground app. LoopFollow now uses that:
Because everything goes through APNs, valid APNs credentials become a hard requirement for Live Activities, to make that obvious before something silently breaks, the Settings UI now validates them.
Settings UX
iOS 16 behavior
Unchanged. Same
Activity.request()flow, same renewal-failed notification when the app is backgrounded at the deadline. The iOS 17 paths are gated by#availableso the legacy code can be removed in one go when the deployment target eventually moves to 17.2.