Automatic launch apps on iPhone after system boot

Background execution on iOS is very different from Android and there is no equivalent to the autostart option you mentioned.

To start evaluating the feasibility of what you are proposing, read this document very carefully: iOS Background Execution Limits.

Hi Scott,

I already know about background limits and restriction in iOS. I know that are some possibilities (listed in your reference in response). The problem that i have to solve is launch and opening my app without user interaction in scenarios where my iPhone is not fully accessible from everyone at every moment without engage some technicians on demand. I have to make sure that on iphone boot my app is launched and ready to accept commands from remote source

Only for clearance i read that in order to make this happen on jailbroken iphones you can add a .plist file in which you specify what is going to execute, when and how (with the options specifying whether or not the app should be launched on system boot) then this file is added to launchDaemons folder and then load into services that launchd can handle via launchcctl load command.

Now I'm not working on jailbroken device and I don't want to, but my company gave me the requirement in which iPhone app should be launched on system boot ( neither automations works since you have to swipe up or unlock dev on iphone boot). Before telling to my team leader that this requirement is not achievable I wanna make sure that's really true.

So my final question is: There's a way to achieve on UNJAILBROKEN iPhone something similar to what is done for jailbroken ones ? (any special entitlement or configuration payload via MDM supervising my iPhone?)

Thanks for reading

Does it exist a way to make our app launched on system reboot?

No.

You’ve already discovered single app mode [1] but that does what it says on the tin, namely, lock the device to a single app. There’s no way to launch an app on startup but also allow the user to leave the app.

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[1] Well, technically there are multiple flavours of this; see this post.

Hi Eskimo,

What if i create a widget extension of my app, creating one on home? The idea is using widget as a <<myApp>> launcher. Let me explain better. We all know that some widgets on springboard home are always displayed (unless you delete it o delete its parent app); For example weather app widget uses location in order to display actual weather info about our current position. So if I build a widget for my app with app subset functions, where this subset is made up of a minimal features that allow me to communicate with it.

In this way my app needs to be "awake" due my interactions via code? Let me clarify, how does the state of my widget affect the main app state?

Thanks to everyone for response and support!

Widgets are very restricted. It’s hard to say whether they can meet your needs, partly because I don’t fully understand your requirements but mostly because I don’t have a lot of experience with widgets. If you want to pursue this, I recommend that you do your own research about widgets and then, if you still have questions, start a new thread with the WidgetKit tag.

Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

Hi @pietroCa Were you able to achieve your requirements with Widget. I am starting to explore this option for the very same requirement of launching the app when the phone boots. I have explored the possiblilities of single app mode for supervised devices. We are trying to launch the app in a singleApp mode for a small interval until a certain functionality is achieved in the app ( APNS is received) and then remove the SingleAppMode. However with this approach we are seeing possibilites of user experience interruption. Hence I am considering the widgets option. Do you have any insights into using the widgets for launching the app at phone boot? Any success there?