User Profile

I would like to request a feature enhancement to the NetworkExtension framework: a shared NEVPNManager and NETunnelProviderManager between a host app and its extensions. Our customers would love to have a Widget and App Clips, but I'm not going to be able to take advantage of them in my VPN apps. Right now, an app extension doesn't have the same NE*Manager objects as the host app. There is no way to get the VPN state, toggle it on and off, or change the configuration from an app extension without accessing the host app. We've done some experiments to try and get the information from the host app to the extension, but they just aren't reliable. There is no way to keep the extension up to date without a significant amount of overhead. There is no callback to a host app when a connection gets dropped so there is no chance to update the shared information between app and extension. We have considered background processes, HTTP requests, and other methods all to get a boolean value for the state of the VPN connection. They are all high overhead and they provide a poor user experience. A shared VPN manager would solve all these problems. An App Clip or Widget can request the same manager objects as the host application. The extensions can get the connection state quickly and update their UI without overusing resources or making network requests. Please update the NE*Manager objects to be shared between a host app and extensions. Thank you.