Custom gestures to open an app in background

Hi


I am developing an application for the blind or visually community. I need to open the application based on a user trigger. I know there are features like push notifications that can be sent and once the user taps on it the application can open. But in that instance also the user would need to find his/her way to the push notification as the user would be a blind person. I was hoping to use like a shake or custom gesture without having the user to open the application. And this application needs to run in foreground as it opens the camera to describe items to the user.

I really value any suggestions,


Thank you,

Ishara

Replies

iOS has no mechanism for launching an app based on a custom gesture, like a shake.

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Quinn “The Eskimo!”
Apple Developer Relations, Developer Technical Support, Core OS/Hardware

let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@apple.com"

Thank you eskimo really value your reply.


What are the ways to bring an application that is in background to foreground with minimum user interaction?

I figured out some methods - push notifications, getting siri to open the app. Are there any methods i missed out?

Are there any methods i missed out?

Some others:

  • Local notifications

  • Opening a URL (assuming that the app doing the opening is in the foreground)

Also, I suspect you can do this using Shortcuts on iOS 12 beta, but I’ve not had a chance to play around with that technology yet.

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Quinn “The Eskimo!”
Apple Developer Relations, Developer Technical Support, Core OS/Hardware

let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@apple.com"

And the camera cannot run in background?

If the app moves to background with the camera on, would there be no other ways to access to the front/back camera ?

And the camera cannot run in background?

Correct.

Even if you ignore the privacy aspects of this, this would present a serious technical challenge because running the camera takes a lot of resources (CPU cycles, GPU cycles, memory, and so on).

Share and Enjoy

Quinn “The Eskimo!”
Apple Developer Relations, Developer Technical Support, Core OS/Hardware

let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@apple.com"