Apple’s cool new Live Activity feature won’t be primetime ready when iOS 16 launches this fall, but the company promises it will arrive later in 2022.
- What is happening? The new Apple Live Activity feature has been delayed and won’t be available after iOS 16 launches in the fall.
- Why care? This feature will help reduce the burden of notifications by providing access to real-time information, such as sports scores, as live updates on the lock screen.
- What to do? Nothing. You will not be able to use interactive actions at startup. The best thing you can do is to wait until live events arrive later this year.
Live Activities have been postponed, coming later in 2022.
The news of the delay was officially confirmed in a post on the Apple Developer website, where the company acknowledged that “Live Activity and ActivityKit will not be included in the initial public release of iOS 16.”The public release of iOS 16 is expected in September, but the Live Action feature will not launch. The company simply notes that Live Activities will become publicly available “in an update.”
Apple’s documentation for Live Activity Developers clarifies that a related software update will be available “later this year”to add support for the feature. Apple announced new iOS 16 features during the June 6 WWDC keynote. The software update brings the biggest change to the lock screen since the inception of the iPhone, and Live Activity is a big part of that.
Live Activity vs Notifications
With Live Activity, apps can deliver sports, music, and other updates to your lock screen as they become available. The goal is to get the information across to the user without overwhelming them with a notification every time their favorite team scores a goal. This feature is similar to a lock screen widget that can display real-time information about a wide variety of things. Read: Video Tips for Dealing with iPhone Notifications
Other examples of proactive activities could include tracking your Starbuck orders, getting real-time updates on package or food delivery, and more. There’s also a live activity widget for the Music app, which is pretty interesting. You get the usual Now Playing controls, but moved to the bottom of the screen. You can click the controls to expand the album art to full screen, which is great.
When can developers start using the Live Activity API?
Developers optimizing their apps for iOS 16 weren’t able to try out interactive activities in the first three betas. In iOS 16 4 Beta, Apple’s Live Activity API is now available for developers to implement and use in their apps. Developers are now free to submit their apps using Live Activity in the App Store.