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How to disable the default focus effect and detect keyboard focus in SwiftUI?
I’m trying to customize the keyboard focus appearance in SwiftUI. In UIKit (see WWDC 2021 session Focus on iPad keyboard navigation), it’s possible to remove the default UIFocusHaloEffect and change a view’s appearance depending on whether it has focus or not. In SwiftUI I’ve tried the following: .focusable() // .focusable(true, interactions: .activate) .focusEffectDisabled() .focused($isFocused) However, I’m running into several issues: .focusable(true, interactions: .activate) causes an infinite loop, so keyboard navigation stops responding .focusEffectDisabled() doesn’t seem to remove the default focus effect on iOS Using @FocusState prevents Space from triggering the action when the view has keyboard focus My main questions: How can I reliably detect whether a SwiftUI view has keyboard focus? (Is there an alternative to FocusState that integrates better with keyboard navigation on iOS?) What’s the recommended way in SwiftUI to disable the default focus effect (the blue overlay) and replace it with a custom border? Any guidance or best practices would be greatly appreciated! Here's my sample code: import SwiftUI struct KeyboardFocusExample: View { var body: some View { // The ScrollView is required, otherwise the custom focus value resets to false after a few seconds. I also need it for my actual use case ScrollView { VStack { Text("First button") .keyboardFocus() .button { print("First button tapped") } Text("Second button") .keyboardFocus() .button { print("Second button tapped") } } } } } // MARK: - Focus Modifier struct KeyboardFocusModifier: ViewModifier { @FocusState private var isFocused: Bool func body(content: Content) -> some View { content .focusable() // ⚠️ Must come before .focused(), otherwise the FocusState won’t be recognized // .focusable(true, interactions: .activate) // ⚠️ This causes an infinite loop, so keyboard navigation no longer responds .focusEffectDisabled() // ⚠️ Has no effect on iOS .focused($isFocused) // Custom Halo effect .padding(4) .overlay( RoundedRectangle(cornerRadius: 18) .strokeBorder( isFocused ? .red : .clear, lineWidth: 2 ) ) .padding(-4) } } extension View { public func keyboardFocus() -> some View { modifier(KeyboardFocusModifier()) } } // MARK: - Button Modifier /// ⚠️ Using a Button view makes no difference struct ButtonModifier: ViewModifier { let action: () -> Void func body(content: Content) -> some View { content .contentShape(Rectangle()) .onTapGesture { action() } .accessibilityAction { action() } .accessibilityAddTraits(.isButton) .accessibilityElement(children: .combine) .accessibilityRespondsToUserInteraction() } } extension View { public func button(action: @escaping () -> Void) -> some View { modifier(ButtonModifier(action: action)) } }
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534
Sep ’25
Make Accessibility Focus move to UIPickerView when tapping on UITextField (Full Keyboard Access)
I have a UITextField in my application for entering a state. If I tap on it, a UIPickerView pops up and let's the user select a state (but they can still type too). The issue relates to Full Keyboard Access. If we select the UITextField using an external keyboard, the UIPickerView appears, but in order to get to it the user has to tab through the whole view controller to get to the UIPickerView at the end. What would be nice is to a) move focus directly to the UIPickerView (have it highlighted in blue and scrollable right away with keyboard) or b) make the UIPickerView the next view that's accessible when tabbing over or using the arrow keys. I've tried using: UIAccessibility notifications (both .screenChanged and .layoutChanged, with and without a delay). This ended up only announcing the view, but didn't help with full keyboard access. Making the UIPickerView a first responder when it appears. Attempting to change the accessibilityElements order (but with so many views and views within views, this isn't really a viable option either). Pressing tab + -> (tab and right arrow button) will quickly take the user to the end of the chain of accessibility elements, in other words, to the UIPickerView. But there has to be a cleaner way of just automatically setting the focus to the UIPickerView or making it the next element by pressing the arrow key.
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423
Mar ’25
iOS18.3.1+ widget: Local color picture load widget crashes
Environment:xcode 16.2 WidgetKit: Image(uiImage: UIImage(named: "jp_jump")!).resizable().scaledToFit().frame(width: 58, height: 16).padding(EdgeInsets(top: 0, leading: 16, bottom: 0, trailing: 0)) ”jp_jump“: Local color picture load widget crashes info: Thread 4: EXC_RESOURCE (RESOURCE_TYPE_MEMORY: high watermark memory limit exceeded) (limit=30 MB)
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143
Mar ’25
ApplePay Merchant Session - Could not create SSL/TLS secure channel issue
As part of apple pay implementation we are trying to create a merchant session by trying to connect to apple endpoint https://apple-pay-gateway-cert.apple.com/paymentservices/startSession. While trying to do so we are facing an error “An error occurred while sending the request. The request was aborted: Could not create SSL/TLS secure channel.” . I call the validation url by passing to a C# .Net Framework 4.8 Web API. The API setups an HttpClient with the Merchant Identity Validation Certificate found in my apple account and calls the validation url passing in the required Json Validation Object. When I call PostAsync() I get an exception with the above error message Code is working successfully on my local machine but facing this issue while deployed on Dev / Model environment for testing. We have used Azure app service for deployment and TLS version 1.2 already present here. We have used the Merchant Identity certificate that was issued and have also checked with networking and infrastructure team to make its not an issue from our side. Does anyone have any other idea what could be causing this error. Thank you, Supriya
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120
Jun ’25
Why does the macOS window sharing indicator appear for some windows but not others?
On recent versions of macOS, when a window is being shared (via the system screen-capture APIs), the OS sometimes shows a small "shared window" badge in the title bar. I’ve noticed that this indicator is not consistent: For some windows, the badge reliably appears when they are being shared. For other windows, the badge never appears, even though the window is actively shared. In particular, windows that use a standard system title bar seem to show the indicator more often, while windows with custom-drawn or non-standard chrome do not. My questions are: What are the exact conditions under which macOS decides to draw the “shared window” indicator in a window’s title bar? Is this strictly tied to certain NSWindow styles or masks (e.g. titled vs borderless)? Is there any API or flag I can use to detect programmatically whether a given window will display this system indicator when shared?
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1.2k
Sep ’25
Japanese “Hattori” TTS voice missing from Settings > General > Read & Speak > Voices > Japanese on iOS 26
Japanese “Hattori” TTS voice missing from Settings > General > Read & Speak > Voices > Japanese on iOS 26 Steps: Open the path above → “Hattori” is not listed and cannot be downloaded Expected: Hattori is available to download and select Actual: Hattori is absent from the catalog Regression: Was available on iOS 18.x on the same device
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450
Sep ’25
Voice-over mode issues
Added a view controller in the storyboard, added a tableview in this view, and added a cell under the table, when I run the APP to jump to the page, when using the narration function, I find that when I use three fingers to swipe up or down, a sentence will be broadcast in English, I want to no longer change the accessiblity of the cell, when I perform the behavior of swiping up or down with three fingers, Broadcast how Chinese should be implemented.
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77
Jun ’25
Default Voices for AVSpeechUtterance
It appears iOS only comes with low quality voices installed. iOS requires the user to go into settings to download higher quality voices to be used with AVSpeechUtterance. There doesn't seem to be any api that can be used to make this process easier for the app user. Is there a way / api that would allow an app to download and use a higher quality voice? Will apple ever install on default higher quality voices? We really want to use the text to speech api in iOS however the very high amount of user friction to use high quality voices is stopping us. I would appreciate a response. Thanks
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789
Sep ’25
Accessibility Voiceover is not treating navigation bar left button as first focused element
Accessibility Voiceover is not treating navigation bar left button as first focused element. If we navigate from A->B then the focus is going to first element inside the B view not to the back button or B view's navigation title. If we post accessibility notification, in onAppear of B, focus is not shifting. but it will read back button first, and then read the B view's content item. it does't focus to back button in swiftUI. how should I do? if I want to focus on the navigation item back button or navigation title. my understanding is the system prioritizes the first focusable element in the view hierarchy. but The navigation bar (including the close button and title) is managed separately by the system. It is not part of the main view hierarchy, so it does not automatically receive focus unless explicitly set. if my thoughts are right, it seems a little strange. Why did you design it this way? Can you tell me your thinking? Thanks
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422
Sep ’25
SwiftUI tvOS Accessibility VoiceOver - prevent reading all items in ScrollView over and over
Hi, I'm trying to fix tvOS view for VoiceOver accessibility feature: TabView { // 5 tabs Text(title) Button(play) ScrollView { // Live LazyHStack { 200 items } } ScrollView { // Continue watching LazyHStack { 500 items } } } When the view shows up VoiceOver reads: "Home tab 1 of 5, Item 2" - not sure why it reads Item 2 of the first cell in scroll view, maybe beacause it just got loaded by LazyHStack. VocieOver should only read "Home tab 1 of 5" When moving focus to scroll view it reads: "Live, Item 1" and after slight delay "Item 1, Item 2, Item 3, Item 4" When moving focus to second item it reads: "Item 2" and after slight delay "Item 1, Item 2, Item 3, Item 4" When moving focus to third item it reads: "Item 3" and after slight delay "Item 1, Item 2, Item 3, Item 4" It should be just reading what is focused, idealy just "Live, Item 1, 1 of 200" then after moving focus on item 2 "Item 2, 2 of 200" this time without the word "Live" because we are on the same scroll view (the same horizontal list) Currently the app is unusable, we have visually impaired testers and this rotor reading everything on the screen is totaly confusing, because users don't know where they are and what is actually focused. This is a video streaming app and we are streaming all the time, even on home page in background, binge plays one item after another, usually there is never ending Live stream playing, user can switch TV channel, but we continue to play. Voice over should only read what's focused after user interaction. Original Apple TV app does not do that, so it cannot be caused by some verbose accessibility settings. It reads correctly only focused item in scrolling lists. How do I disable reading content that is not focused? I tried: .accessibilityLabel(isFocused ? title : "") .accessibilityHidden(!isFocused) .accessibilityHidden(true) - tried on various levels in view hierarchy .accessiblityElement(children: .ignore) - even focused item is not read back by voice over .accessiblityElement(children: .ignore) - even focused item is not read back by voice over .accessiblityElement(children: .contain) - tried on various levels in view hierarchy .accessiblityElement(children: .combine) - tried on various levels in view hierarchy .accessibilityAddTraits(.isHeader) - tried on various levels in view hierarchy .accessibilityRemoveTraits(.isHeader) - tried on various levels in view hierarchy // the last 2 was basically an attempt to hack it .accessibilityRotor("", ranges []) - another hack that I tried on ScrollView, LazyHStack, also on top level view. 50+ other attempts at configuring accessibility tags attached to views. I have seen all the accessibility videos, tried all sample code projects, I haven't found a solution anywhere, internet search didn't find anything, AI didn't help as it can only provide code that someone else wrote before. Any idea how to fix this? Thanks.
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150
Apr ’25
Accessibility Traits for Children of a Tab Bar
Hi! I'm working on an application where I'd like VoiceOver to give each element of a tab bar the "Tab" trait. I'm testing this using the Accessibility Inspector. Essentially, I'd like to replicate the behavior of how Safari identifies each of its tabs as a "Tab" (I've attached a photo below). How exactly is this accomplished? I've tried using the .isTabBar trait to designate the child objects as "Tabs", but this doesn't seem to be working and I've struggled to find documentation about this. For additional context, these child items are Buttons, and I would like to have the .isButton trait essentially replaced by something like an .isTab trait. Not sure if this is actually possible or not, but curious how the Accessibility Inspector recognizes this in Safari.
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180
Jun ’25
RTT call option and confirmation dialog missing when dialing emergency numbers
Hello, In our app we provide a button that initiates a phone call using tel://. For normal numbers, tapping the button presents the standard iOS confirmation sheet with Call and Cancel. If RTT is enabled on the device, the sheet instead shows three options: Call, Cancel, and RTT Call. However, when dialing a national emergency number, this confirmation dialog does not appear at all — the call is placed immediately, without giving the user the choice between voice or RTT. Is this the expected system behavior for emergency numbers on iOS? 
And if so, how does RTT get applied in the emergency-call flow — is it managed entirely by the OS rather than exposed as a user-facing option? Thanks in advance for clarifying.
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681
Sep ’25
Best Way to Navigate to the Top Element Using VoiceOver
I’m currently focused on an element at the bottom of the screen. What is the proper way to quickly navigate to the top element? By default, there’s a four-finger single tap to move to the first element, but should I use the Rotor action instead to focus on the element I need? For example, in the Contacts app while adding a new contact, if I enter a value in a field at the bottom, there’s no quick way to directly save the contact. I have to manually navigate all the way to the top to tap the Done button, which feels a bit inconvenient. Is there a better way to handle this using VoiceOver?
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465
Mar ’25
Camera Crashes
Hi everybody, I'm trying to build a QR-Code Scanner and Generator App for IOS. Whenever I try to implement the camera the app crashes with this comment: This app has crashed because it attempted to access privacy-sensitive data without a usage description. The app's Info.plist must contain an NSCameraUsageDescription key with a string value explaining to the user how the app uses this data. I tried to reduce the app to the minimum of nothing but camera with the same result. Any ideas? Tank you and best Regards Horst Schippers
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75
Apr ’25
Apple Developer Program Purchase Not Saving Progress
I’m trying to enroll in the Apple Developer Program as an individual. I’ve gone through the steps on the website and started the purchase process. However, after a couple of days when I return to the site, it doesn’t remember my progress — I have to start the enrollment from scratch every time. Is this expected behavior? Am I missing a step to save my progress or complete the enrollment properly? Any help or guidance would be appreciated. Thank you!
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165
Jun ’25
VoiceOver is not respecting lang in HTML option
I have an HTML select that has Spanish text in the options. When VoiceOver reads the selected option (unopened), it switches to Spanish as expected. However, when you open the select box and browse through the options, it uses the English voice to read the Spanish text. I have tried adding lang on to the select tag and the option tag but neither helps https://codepen.io/grahamfowles/pen/VYYRxMK
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141
May ’25
Custom Keyboard Extension Not Showing in Settings for Activation
Hi everyone, I’m developing a React Native iOS app that includes a custom keyboard extension for sending stickers across apps. The project builds successfully, and the main app installs fine on my test device. However, I’m not seeing the keyboard extension appear under Settings → General → Keyboard → Keyboards → Add New Keyboard, which means I can’t activate it or grant access. At this point, I’m not even sure if the extension is actually being installed on the device along with the main app. Here’s what I’ve done so far. I created a Keyboard Extension target in Xcode, set the correct bundle identifiers and provisioning profiles, and enabled “Requests Open Access” in the extension’s Info.plist. I built and installed the app on a physical device rather than the simulator to ensure proper testing. My main questions are: how can I confirm that the extension is being installed on the device, and if it isn’t, what might prevent it from installing even though the build completes successfully? Any insights, troubleshooting steps, or guidance would be greatly appreciated.
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829
Nov ’25
The accessibility app keeps opening by itself on my iPhone 12 Pro. Can anyone please help me?
It’s very annoying but on my iPhone 12 Pro I keep getting the accessibility app with the microphone on and it keeps opening the app by itself and it’s a blank screen and every time I close it it just reopens. I don’t know why it keeps doing this, but it drives me crazy. Does anyone know what else to do? I also have the beta iOS 26 but it’s been doing this even with the past update.
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116
Jun ’25