Dear Apple Technical Support Team, Greetings! I am an iOS app developer, currently upgrading the functions of the photo app I developed Recently, I noticed the new Spatial Photos feature added in the iOS 26 system, which brings an immersive 3D photo experience to users. We hope to integrate similar capabilities into our own app to provide users with a richer photo viewing experience. Through technical research, we found that on Apple Vision devices, the similar spatial photo display effect can be achieved through the ImagePresentationComponent.Spatial3DImage interface. However, our tests show that this interface only supports visionOS and cannot be called in the iOS system. At present, iOS 26 already natively supports the Spatial Photos feature, and we hope to know how to enable third-party photo apps to also have this capability. Here, we sincerely request your team to provide relevant technical support, mainly to understand the following questions: Are there any official APIs, SDKs, or development frameworks applicable to the iOS 26 system that can support third-party apps to implement core functions such as the generation and display of spatial photos? If there are no public adaptive interfaces available at present, are there any other compliant technical solutions or alternative paths to achieve similar effects? For third-party apps to integrate the spatial photo feature, are there any relevant development documents, technical specifications, or review requirements that need to be followed? We have completed the basic function iteration of the app and have the technical capability to quickly adapt to new functions. We hope to receive guidance and support from your team to help us bring a better product experience to iOS users. Attached are the relevant information of our app and the detailed report on interface compatibility during the test for your reference. If you need any further supplementary information, please feel free to inform us. Thank you for reviewing this email in your busy schedule, and we look forward to your reply!

Your draft looks great! Here's a refined version with the iOS 17 comparison emphasized and slightly better flow: Hi Apple Engineers and fellow developers, I'm experiencing a critical regression with ShazamKit's background operation on iOS 18. ShazamKit's SHManagedSession stops identifying songs in the background after approximately 20 seconds on iOS 18, while the exact same code works perfectly on iOS 17. The behavior is consistent: the app works perfectly in the foreground, but when backgrounded or device is locked, it initially works for about 20 seconds then stops identifying new songs. The microphone indicator remains active suggesting audio access is maintained, but ShazamKit doesn't send identified songs in the background until you open the app again. Detection immediately resumes when bringing the app to foreground. My technical setup uses SHManagedSession for continuous matching with background modes properly configured in Info.plist including audio mode, and Background App Refresh enabled. I've tested this on physical devices running iOS 18.0 through 18.5 with the same results across all versions. The exact same code running on iOS 17 devices works flawlessly in the background. To reproduce: initialize SHManagedSession and start matching, begin song identification in foreground, background the app or lock device, play different songs which are initially detected for about 20 seconds, then after the timeout period new songs are no longer identified until you bring the app to foreground. This regression has impacted my production app as users who rely on continuous background music identification are experiencing a broken feature. I submitted this as Feedback ID FB15255903 last September with no solution so far. I've created a minimal demo project that reproduces this issue: https://github.com/tfmart/ShazamKitBackground Has anyone else experienced this ShazamKit background regression on iOS 18? Are there any known workarounds or alternative approaches? Given the time this issue has persisted, could we please get acknowledgment of this regression, expected timeline for a fix, or any recommended workarounds? Testing environment is Xcode 16.0+ on iOS 18.0-18.5 across multiple physical device models. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Environment Device: iPhone 15 Pro iOS: iOS 18.0 Framework: AVFoundation App type: Custom camera app using AVCaptureSession + AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer I’m seeing an intermittent but frequent issue where the camera preview layer briefly flashes empty after certain interruptions, even though the capture session reports itself as running and no errors are emitted. This happens most often after: Locking and unlocking the device Switching cameras (back ↔ front) The issue is not 100% reproducible, but occurs often enough to be noticeable in normal usage. What happens The preview layer briefly flashes as empty (sometimes just a “micro-frame”) Duration: typically ~0.5–2 seconds before frames resume session.isRunning == true throughout No crash, no runtime error, no interruption end failure Focus/exposure restore correctly once frames resume Visually it looks like the preview layer loses frames temporarily, even though the session appears healthy. Repro Intermittent but frequent after: Lock → unlock device Switching camera (front/back) Timing-dependent and non-deterministic Happens multiple times per session, but not every time Key observation AVCaptureSession.isRunning == true does not guarantee that frames are actually flowing. To verify this, I added an AVCaptureVideoDataOutput temporarily: During the blank period, no sample buffers are delivered Frames resume after ~1–2s without any explicit restart Session state remains “running” the entire time What I’ve tried (did NOT fix it) Adding delays before/after startRunning() (0.1–0.5s) Calling startRunning() on different queues Restarting the session in AVCaptureSessionInterruptionEnded Verifying session.connections (all show isActive == true) Rebuilding inputs/outputs during interruption recovery Ensuring startRunning() is never called between beginConfiguration() / commitConfiguration() (Hit the expected runtime warning when attempted) None of the above removed the brief blank preview. Workaround (works visually but expensive) This visually fixes the issue, but: Energy impact jumps from Low → High in Xcode Energy Gauge AVCaptureVideoDataOutput processes 30–60 FPS continuously The gap only lasts ~1–2s, but toggling the delegate on/off cleanly is difficult Overall CPU and energy cost is not acceptable for production Additional notes CPU usage is already relatively high even without the workaround (this app is camera-heavy by nature) With the workaround enabled, energy impact becomes noticeably worse The issue feels like a timing/state desync between session state and actual frame delivery, not a UI issue Questions Is this a known behavior where AVCaptureSession.isRunning == true but frames are temporarily unavailable after interruptions? Is there a recommended way to detect actual frame flow resumption (not just session state)? Should the AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer.connection (isActive / isEnabled) be explicitly checked or reset after interruptions? Is there a lightweight, energy-efficient way to bridge this short “no frames” gap without using AVCaptureVideoDataOutput? Is rebuilding the entire session the only reliable solution here, or is there a better pattern Apple recommends?

Hello, I have an iOS camera app that captures exposure brackets and performs custom HDR processing. On iOS 26, I’m observing a visual difference between: a single photo captured at –2 EV, and the –2 EV frame from an exposure bracket (–2 / 0 / +2 EV). On iOS 26: The single –2 EV image looks natural and consistent. The –2 EV image from the bracket appears clamped / distorted, most noticeably in high dynamic range scenes (highlight compression and loss of detail). On iOS 18, both approaches produce visually identical and correct –2 EV images. The issue only appears for bracketed captures on iOS 26. Attachments (examples) iOS 26 Single capture –2 EV (JPEG): /Users/danilobudimir/Downloads/ios26SingleImage/JPEG image-4006-8B77-51-0.jpeg Single capture –2 EV — Capture report (dumped settings): /Users/danilobudimir/Downloads/ios26SingleImage/UnderExposureDebug_CaptureReport_2026-01-09T15-59-20Z.md Bracket capture –2 EV frame (JPEG): /Users/danilobudimir/Downloads/bracket_iOS26/JPEG image-45CE-9793-A5-0.jpeg Bracket capture — Capture report (dumped settings): /Users/danilobudimir/Downloads/bracket_iOS26/UnderExposureDebug_CaptureReport_2026-01-09T15-55-42Z.md iOS 18 Single capture –2 EV (JPEG): /Users/danilobudimir/Downloads/ios18SingleImage/JPEG image-47FD-AF73-28-0.jpeg Single capture –2 EV — Capture report: /Users/danilobudimir/Downloads/ios18SingleImage/UnderExposureDebug_CaptureReport_2026-01-09T16-25-27Z.md Bracket capture — –2 EV frame (JPEG): /Users/danilobudimir/Downloads/bracket_iOS18/JPEG image-4A4C-9E93-46-0.jpeg Bracket capture — Capture report: /Users/danilobudimir/Downloads/bracket_iOS18/UnderExposureDebug_CaptureReport_2026-01-09T16-27-23Z.md Question Is there any new behavior in iOS 26 AVFoundation related to: AVCapturePhotoBracketSettings, tone mapping / HDR preprocessing, or internal image processing applied specifically to bracketed frames? Is there a new flag, format requirement or opt-out mechanism required to preserve linear underexposed frames in exposure brackets?

We have a very strange issue that I am trying to solve or find the best practice for. We have a SwiftUI View that uses the Camera to preview. So as suggested in Apples Docs we check authorisation status and then if it's not determined we request authorisation. We also have the privacy entry in the info.plist case .notDetermined: AVCaptureDevice.requestAccess(for: .video) { accessStatusAuthorised in if !accessStatusAuthorised { self.cameraStatus = .notAuthorised } else { self.isAuthorized = true self.cameraStatus = .authorised self.startCameraSession(cameraPosition: cameraPosition) } } case .restricted: cameraStatus = .notAuthorised isAuthorized = false case .denied: cameraStatus = .notAuthorised isAuthorized = false case .authorized: cameraStatus = .authorised isAuthorized = true startCameraSession(cameraPosition: cameraPosition) break @unknown default: isAuthorized = true cameraStatus = .notAuthorised } However when we call this code it freezes the Camera feed, even when allow has been tapped. However and this is the confusing part. If we do not call the code above, we still get the permission for camera access pop up and the camera works fine after allowing. What im concerned about is changing the code to do this and its a possible apple bug that gets fixed and hey then none of the Apps allow the camera function. I cannot see any where that the process has changed for iOS 26 / Xcode 26. Can anyone shed any light on this or had similar experience ?

We're troubleshooting SCK issues. They occur with a relatively small amount of sessions, but lack of context and/or ability to advise the customer on how they could make behavior more predictable and reliable is problematic. Generally, there is 2 distinct issues which may or may not have the same root cause: Failure to establish SCK session. Usually manifests within the app as SCShareableContent.getWithCompletionHandler call either never invoking the completion handler, or taking prohibitively long time (we usually give it 3-10 sec before giving up). In the system log it may look like this: (log omitted - suspecting it triggers the content filter) Note the 6 seconds delay to completion of fetchShareableContentWithOption (normally it's a 30-40ms operation). Sometime, we'd see the stream established, but some minutes (or even hours) into the recording we'd stop receiving frames. Both scenarios are likely to occur when the disk space is low, with reliable repro of the problem #2 at below 8gb of free space (in that case, we've seen replayd silently dropping the session, without ever notifying the client ... improving API could go a long way there). However, out of recent occurrences, while most have less than 100GB available, we've seen it on machines with as much as 500GB free. Unfortunately, it's almost never reproducible in dev environment, so we have to rely on diagnostics we're able to collect in the field -- which nothing obvious yet. I'd like to understand the root cause of both scenarios better and/or how what specific frameworks can cause these behaviors.

Hi, I understand that AVPlayer/AVFoundation doesn’t natively play MPEG-DASH manifests (.mpd) today, while HLS is supported and widely documented by Apple. I’m not asking for roadmap commitments, but I’d like to understand whether there is any publicly documented rationale for not supporting DASH/MPD in AVFoundation (e.g., technical constraints, platform integration, DRM ecosystem, power/performance considerations, etc.). Questions: Is there any Apple statement / documentation explaining why DASH (MPD) isn’t supported in AVFoundation? Is Apple’s recommended approach still “provide HLS for Apple clients” (potentially sharing CMAF segments and generating separate manifests)? If there’s no public rationale, is filing Feedback Assistant the best channel for requesting MPD playback support? Thanks!

Hello everyone, I've written an audio unit plugin that needs to be aware of any upstream latency caused by heavy plugins before it on the channel. Is there any way to query this? I know that Logic applies PDC at the channel's output (summing point), but I need to know what the accumulated latency is at the point the audio enters my plugin. Thanks!

Thread 5 Crashed: 0 libobjc.A.dylib 0x19af7b038 objc_msgSend + 56 1 CoreFoundation 0x19dfdb618 cow_cleanup + 135 2 CoreFoundation 0x19dfdb6fc -[__NSDictionaryM dealloc] + 147 3 MediaToolbox 0x1b167636c FigRemotePropertyCacheTeardown + 31 4 MediaToolbox 0x1b1c5b648 remoteXPCAsset_Finalize + 107 5 CoreMedia 0x1b1e9166c FigBaseObjectFinalize + 275 6 CoreFoundation 0x19dfcc5ec _CFRelease + 295 7 AVFCore 0x1b1054d64 -[AVFigAssetTrackInspector dealloc] + 151 8 AVFCore 0x1b0f818d8 -[AVAssetTrack dealloc] + 63 9 CoreFoundation 0x19dfdba28 RELEASE_OBJECTS_IN_THE_ARRAY + 115 10 CoreFoundation 0x19dfdb7e0 -[__NSArrayM dealloc] + 147 11 AVFCore 0x1b0f52e04 -[AVURLAsset dealloc] + 167 12 libobjc.A.dylib 0x19af821f8 object_cxxDestructFromClass(objc_object*, objc_class*) + 115 13 libobjc.A.dylib 0x19af7df20 objc_destructInstance_nonnull_realized(objc_object*) + 75 14 libobjc.A.dylib 0x19af7d4a4 _objc_rootDealloc + 71 15 AVFCore 0x1b0fef988 -[AVAssetReaderOutput dealloc] + 415 16 AVFCore 0x1b0ff11ec -[AVAssetReaderTrackOutput dealloc] + 127 17 CoreFoundation 0x19dfe20a4 -[__NSSingleObjectArrayI dealloc] + 63 18 libobjc.A.dylib 0x19af7d3f8 AutoreleasePoolPage::releaseUntil(objc_object**) + 203

I'm adopting Liquid Glass in iOS 26, when I try to test VNDocumentCameraViewController with document scanning after Liquid Glass enabled, there's a crash just after a photo is taken in VNDocumentCameraViewController, here's the screenshot when it crashed The exception output in XCode console is this: *** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInternalInconsistencyException', reason: 'Layout requested for visible navigation bar, <UINavigationBar: 0x1240bde00; frame = (0 117; 390 54); opaque = NO; tintColor = UIExtendedSRGBColorSpace 1 1 0 1; layer = <CALayer: 0x120c21e60>> standardAppearance=0x12407b900 scrollEdgeAppearance=0x12407bb80 compactAppearance=0x12407b880 no-scroll-edge-support, when the top item belongs to a different navigation bar. topItem = <UINavigationItem: 0x1240bd800> style=navigator leftBarButtonItems=0x123d4e5f0 rightBarButtonItems=0x123d4d5a0, navigation bar = <UINavigationBar: 0x107b9ad00; frame = (0 47; 390 54); opaque = NO; autoresize = W; tintColor = UIExtendedSRGBColorSpace 1 1 0 1; layer = <CALayer: 0x120c20150>> delegate=0x10a805200 standardAppearance=0x107b2c300 scrollEdgeAppearance=0x107b2c280 compactAppearance=0x107b2c100, possibly from a client attempt to nest wrapped navigation controllers.' *** First throw call stack: (0x18e1db994 0x18b0f5814 0x18c092aa0 0x193b18660 0x193a7d540 0x193a7e020 0x1953ec4a0 0x1943b7d78 0x18ed83420 0x18ed82f74 0x18eb83134 0x18eb44c10 0x18eb70bc4 0x18eb7e74c 0x193ac8cd0 0x193ac8c04 0x193ad6afc 0x193ad5f8c 0x27b456560 0x18e12c4cc 0x18e15c0b0 0x18e15bfd8 0x18e133c1c 0x18e132a6c 0x22ed54498 0x193af6ba4 0x193a9fa78 0x193bcb68c 0x102cc2718 0x102cc2688 0x102cc2794 0x18b14ae28) libc++abi: terminating due to uncaught exception of type NSException

I’m facing a strange audio routing issue that seems specific to iPhone 14 Pro / Pro Max. I’m using LiveKit (WebRTC) in a React Native app, which uses AVAudioSession internally for audio capture (VoIP / call-style usage). 🔍 What’s happening: I’m using an external USB microphone. On these devices: iPhone 11 → ✅ USB mic works iPhone 13 → ✅ USB mic works iPhone 17 Pro → ✅ USB mic works iPhone 14 Pro Max → ❌ USB mic does NOT work On iPhone 14 Pro Max: The same USB mic: ✅ Works in Voice Memos ✅ Works in Instagram Live ❌ Does NOT appear as an input option in my app ❌ Does NOT work in WhatsApp / Instagram calls Also: In my app on iPhone 14 Pro Max, iOS does not show the audio input selector UI On iPhone 17 Pro, the same app and same build does show the selector and the USB mic works ⚙️ My audio session config ( LiveKit ): await AudioSession.setAppleAudioConfiguration({ audioCategory: 'playAndRecord', audioMode: 'default', audioCategoryOptions: ['allowBluetooth', 'defaultToSpeaker'], }); await AudioSession.startAudioSession(); ❓ My questions: Is this a known limitation or behavior specific to iPhone 14 Pro / Pro Max? Does iPhone 14 Pro have different audio routing rules for call / VoIP mode compared to other devices? Why does the same USB mic work in recording apps (Voice Memos, Instagram Live) but not in call-style apps (LiveKit, WhatsApp, Instagram call)? Is there any documented difference in AVAudioSession behavior on iPhone 14 Pro regarding external USB audio inputs?

Hi,Since today, we are no more able to do DELETE/PUT request on the Apple Music API.So, we can't update a playlist details, delete a playlist, delete tracks in playlist, delete tracks in library...Old methods allowed are now returning only an HTTP Code 403.Why this change in the Apple Music API ? We can hope that will be back soon ?

Hello, I need to know what is a unique identifier of a MIDI device (source/destination). Important note: I want to get the same ID when a device is reconnected (unplugged and then plugged again). The main candidate is kMIDIPropertyUniqueID property. But I don't know if it meets the requirement above or not. Additional question: is it always available for any endpoint? Also there is kMIDIPropertyDeviceID property. What about it? And one more option is just MIDIEndpointRef returned by MIDIGetSource or MIDIGetDestination. So what is the proper way to get ID which persists between device reconnections?

I'd like to find out: Can backgrounded apps record audio? In the past as I recall, I found that backgrounded apps were pretty restricted and couldn't do much of anything. However I'm not familiar with the current state of affairs. With iOS 15.8 and above, can backgrounded apps record audio if they've been given permission by the user to access the microphone? Thanks.

Hello, As far as I know and in all of my testing there is no way for a user or a developer to change the frame rate of the video output on iPadOS. If you connect an iPad via a USB Hub or a USB to HDMI Adaptor and then connect it to an external monitor it will output at 59.94fps. I have a video app where a user monitors live video at 25fps and 30fps, they often output to an external display and there are times when the external display will stutter due to the mismatch in frame rate, ie. using 25fps and outputting at 59.94fps. I thought it was impossible to change the video output frame rate, then in V3.1 of the Blackmagic Camera App I saw an interesting change in their release notes: ‘Support for HDMI Monitoring at Sensor Rate and Resolution’ This means there is some way to modify it, not sure if this is done via a Private API that Apple has allowed Blackmagic to use. If so, how can we access this or is there a way to enable this that is undocumented? Thanks!

Hello, I am developing a custom player SDK using AVPlayer to support HLS and LL-HLS live streaming. I have some questions about the internal logic of AVPlayer regarding ABR, as this information is not explicitly covered in the documentation. ABR Switching Logic: Does AVPlayer trigger bitrate switching primarily based on stall occurrences (buffer starvation)? I am curious if the switching logic is reactive to stalls or if it proactively switches to prevent them based on throughput estimation. Developer Controls for ABR: To influence or control the ABR selection, are preferredPeakBitRate and preferredForwardBufferDuration the only properties available to developers? Are there any other recommended APIs to assist with ABR decisions? Thank you for your help.

Hello, We are experiencing on some occasions a wrong behavior with PDFDocument method: func page(at index: Int) -> PDFPage? With certain PDF files, this method returns the wrong PDFPage. This occurs on iOS 18.3, 18.5 and 18.6.2 (an maybe on other versions). Try this PDF for instance (page 81 is returned when index = 2): https://drive.google.com/open?id=1MHm2wjfsbWB8OiRmARUMmvODYxp4DIqP&usp=drive_fs Also, I mention that this doesn't occur systematically with this PDF. When making a copy of this file we don't observe the issue. Could this be linked some kind of internal cache issue ?

Hi everyone, does anybody have any resources I could check out regarding the 48->12mp binning behavior on supported sensors? I know the 48mp sensor on iPhone can automatically bin pixels for better low light performance. But not sure how to reliably make this happen in practice. On iPhone 14 Pro+ with a 48MP sensor, I want the best of both worlds for ProRAW: ∙ Bright light: 48MP full resolution ∙ Low light: 12MP pixel-binned for better noise `photoOutput.maxPhotoDimensions = CMVideoDimensions(width: 8064, height: 6048) let settings = AVCapturePhotoSettings(rawPixelFormatType: proRawFormat, processedFormat: [...]) settings.photoQualityPrioritization = .quality // NOT setting settings.maxPhotoDimensions — always get 12MP` When I omit maxPhotoDimensions, iOS always returns 12MP regardless of lighting. When I set it to 48MP, I always get 48MP. Is there an API to let iOS automatically choose the optimal resolution based on conditions, or should I detect low light myself (via device.iso / exposureDuration) and set maxPhotoDimensions accordingly? Any help or direction would be much appreciated!

Hi everyone, I'm developing a camera application that requires precise, predictable control over the focus system. I'm encountering unexpected behavior with face-driven autofocus in continuous autofocus mode. Issue: When using AVCaptureDevice.FocusMode.continuousAutoFocus, the system continues to prioritize faces for focus even after attempting to disable face-driven autofocus with: device.automaticallyAdjustsFaceDrivenAutoFocusEnabled = false device.isFaceDrivenAutoFocusEnabled = false Observations: The behavior is inconsistent across different scenes. In well-lit/properly exposed scenes: focus persistently locks onto faces, ignoring my configuration. . In underexposed scenes: the intended focus behavior is more consistently respected.

Hi Apple Developer Forums, I’m developing an iOS camera app that processes RAW captures using Core Image. I’m seeing a large “first use” performance penalty specifically when creating the CIImage from CIRAWFilter.outputImage. What’s slow (important detail) I’m measuring the time for: let rawFilter = CIRAWFilter(imageData: rawData, identifierHint: hint) let ciImage = rawFilter.outputImage This is not CIContext.render(...) / createCGImage(...). It’s just the time to access outputImage (i.e., building the Core Image graph / RAW pipeline setup). Observed behavior First time accessing CIRAWFilter.outputImage: ~3 seconds Second time (same app session, similar RAW): ~3 milliseconds So something heavy is happening only on first use (decoder initialization, pipeline setup, shader/library compilation, caching, etc.). Using Metal System Trace, I also noticed that during the slow first call there are many “Create MTLLibrary” events, while the second call doesn’t show this pattern. Warm-up attempts using bundled DNG I tried to “warm up” early (e.g., on camera screen entry) by loading a bundled DNG and then accessing CIRAWFilter.outputImage by taking a photo: Warm-up with a ~247 KB DNG → first real RAW outputImage cost drops to ~1.42s Warm-up with a ~25 MB DNG → first real RAW outputImage cost drops to ~843ms This helps, but it’s still far from the steady-state ~3ms. Warm-up by capturing a real RAW (works, but concerns) The only method that fully eliminates the delay is to trigger a real RAW capture programmatically before the user’s first photo, then use that captured rawData to warm up the CIRAWFilter.outputImage path. This brings the first user-facing capture close to the steady-state timing. However: In some regions, the camera shutter sound cannot be suppressed, so “hidden warm-up capture” is unacceptable UX. I’m also unsure whether triggering a real capture without an explicit user action could raise compliance/privacy concerns, even if the image is immediately discarded and never saved/uploaded. Questions Is the large first-time cost of CIRAWFilter.outputImage expected (RAW pipeline initialization / shader compilation)? Is there an Apple-recommended way to pre-initialize the Core Image RAW pipeline / Metal resources so the first outputImage is fast, without taking a real photo? Are there any best practices (e.g. CIContext creation timing, prepareRender(...), specific options) that reliably reduce this first-use overhead for CIRAWFilter? Attachments Figure 1: First RAW capture with no warm-up (~3s outputImage time) Figure 2: First RAW capture after warm-up with bundled DNG (improved but still hundreds of ms) Thanks for any guidance or experience sharing!