iOS 18 demotes Live Activities widgets in one major way
We’re expecting Apple to both unveil the iPhone 16 series and fully release iOS 18 next week on September 9. It appears the new iPhone software will limit Live Activities’ functionality in one major way.
According to 9to5MacApple is limiting the rate at which these widgets can refresh themselves, which will pose problems for apps that want to display real-time activity information, such as cycling speed, while you’re moving.
Introduced with iOS 16 in 2022, these Live Activities widgets work like enhanced notifications on the lock screen or in the Dynamic Island: they can, for example, keep you updated on sports scores or the estimated arrival time of an approaching taxi.
In feedback sent to one developerApple says Live Activities was “never intended to create real-time experiences,” despite a mention of real-time fitness metrics in the official Live Activities iOS developer guide.
The writing idea
It’s official now. LiveActivities were never designed for real-time experiences :/ pic.twitter.com/IjOq8uV2J7August 28, 2024
Apple further explains that each update to a Live Activities widget requires data to be written to the iPhone’s storage. Doing this continuously could result in wear and tear on the phone.
Additionally, with iOS 18, any of those updates will need to sync to an Apple Watch, if one is connected. While the downgrade will disappoint some, it should improve battery life and the longevity of the iPhone’s internal storage.
It seems that the update intervals are now set to 5-15 seconds, but this does not affect the timer (such as a delivery arrival notification): in this case, starting the timer is just one action, and no refresh is needed to start the timer counting down.
Apple announced a bevy of new features arriving alongside iOS 18 at its WWDC 2024 event in June. The software is set to enter beta testing next Monday, meaning it will begin rolling out to all compatible iPhones.
