Accessibility API permissions on sandboxed app

Question

carmeloriolo93 OP

Created Apr ’24

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Hello 👋,

I am quite new in the Apple development world, so please forgive me if I am saying something wrong. I am working on a macOs application which aims to act mainly as an assistive window switcher.

In order to do so it leverages on AXUIElementCopyAttributeValues and AXUIElementCopyAttributeValue, especially the former to retrieve other application's window titles and the latter to set and focus a target main window.

I read online, according to Apple Store guidelines, that app to be accepted in App Store must be sandboxed. And as I read in several forums there may not be a way to use accessibility features within sandbox.

So, first question, based on this I would like to know if there is a way to achieve the same without accessibility features?

Currently the only thing which does not work is the permission prompt, but an user may also enable Accessibility permissions under Privacy & Security for a certain app.

May the app pass the review process, supposing no prompt will be requested to the user, but a "Getting started" will inform and guide the user to set the permissions?

Thanks in advance 🙏

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Answer 1

OP

Apple

Apr ’24

Hi,

It is not possible to use the accessibility API from a sandboxed app. This will not work even if the user manually grants it permission through Privacy & Security. I would suggest making a feature request for the specific window-management API which would meet the needs of your application.

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