We’re anticipating each an iPhone 16 sequence unveiling and a full launch of iOS 18 at Apple’s September 9 occasion subsequent week – and it appears like the brand new iPhone software program is ready to downgrade the performance of Live Activities in a single necessary manner.
According to 9to5Mac, Apple is limiting the speed at which these widgets can refresh themselves – which goes to trigger issues for apps that wish to present real-time exercise info, resembling biking velocity as you have transferring.
These Live Activities widgets have been launched with iOS 16 in 2022, and so they work like enhanced notifications on the lock display screen or within the Dynamic Island: they’ll preserve you updated with sports activities scores, for instance, or the estimated arrival time of an approaching cab.
In suggestions despatched to 1 developer, Apple says Live Activities have been “by no means supposed for use to create real-time experiences”, regardless of a point out of real-time health metrics on the official Live Activities information for iOS builders.
The write thought
So it’s official now. LiveActivities have been by no means designed for real-time experiences :/ pic.twitter.com/IjOq8uV2J7August 28, 2024
Apple goes on to clarify that every replace from a Live Activities widget requires knowledge to be written to the storage on the iPhone – which, if it is taking place consistently, can contribute to put on and tear contained in the handset.
What’s extra, with iOS 18, every of these updates must be synced to an Apple Watch, if one is related. While the downgrade will disappoint some, it ought to enhance battery life and the lifespan of the interior iPhone storage.
It appears that replace intervals are actually set at 5-15 seconds, although this may not have an effect on something with a timer (like a notification exhibiting a supply driver arrival time): on this case beginning the timer is only one motion, with no refreshes wanted to ensure that the timer to depend down.
Apple introduced a wealth of recent options that shall be arriving with iOS 18 at its WWDC 2024 occasion in June, and subsequent Monday the beta-testing course of for the software program needs to be coming to an finish – which suggests it’s going to then be pushed out to all appropriate iPhones.
