Game Center Challenges in iOS 10

I've implemented Game Center features like achievements and leaderboards, and now I'm working on the challenges. I was under the impression that I didn't have to add any additional code - if I had achievements or leaderboards, players would be able to send challenges to their friends. But now, in iOS10, you no longer have the ability to add players as friends - the challenges are handled through iMessages. The problem is - I don't see that feature anywhere in the GKViewController screen. If you select an achievement/leaaderboard score, you can tap on 'Challenge Friends', but it only suggests the players you already have in your friends list rather than in your contact list. Apple has also deprecated GKChallengesViewController, so I'm not sure where to look on how to do this.


Does anyone know how to add the iMessage Challenges feature to Game Center in iOS 10? I have seen that this feature lives within the GKMatchmakerViewController, but that seems to be for multiplayer type things. I'm still not sure how to use this to just send challenges.

Replies

I am having a similar problem... I have 400 leaderboards in my game, and I released it about a year and 3 months ago. The GKScore challengeComposeControllerWithMessage was working great, and allowed you to invite friends to challenge. But somewhere along the way that broke... You can still challenge what the docs (if you can actually find it) call "legacy" friends, but there is no provision to invite new friends. From what I have found, they have eliminated friends and replaced it with "recent players"... However, I have yet to find a method to invite even recent players to a challenge. It seems all they want to do now is allow multiplayer games or turn based games, and "try to beat my time/score" is deprecated.


Anyway, if you happen to find anything out, let me know.