How to programmatically check if ApplicationToken or ActivityCategoryToken is expired in FamilyActivityPicker? I'm building a Screen Time-based parental control app using FamilyControls and ManagedSettings. We use FamilyActivityPicker to allow the user to select apps and categories to restrict, and we apply the shield using: store.shield.applications = .specific(selection.applicationTokens) store.shield.applicationCategories = .specific(selection.categoryTokens) Sometimes, we observe that the shield silently fails to apply — no error is thrown, but the restrictions aren't enforced. I suspect this may be due to expired or invalid tokens, possibly if the app was removed or the selection became stale. My Questions: Can ApplicationToken or ActivityCategoryToken expire or become invalid over time? If yes, is there a supported or recommended way to detect whether a token is still valid before applying it to the shield? Is comparing the current shield values (store.shield.applications and store.shield.applicationCategories) after applying them a reliable validation method? What's the best practice to handle expired tokens (e.g. re-prompt the FamilyActivityPicker, or show a fallback)? What Is the Expiration Duration of Tokens from FamilyActivityPicker? Any guidance or insight from the Screen Time/FamilyControls team would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Hello! I am a relatively new Apple developer and am almost done with my first app. I am implementing the Screen Time API to my app because the app is designed to help the user digitally detox and I am trying to make it so the user can select which apps they would like to monitor from a list of their apps on their phone so I am using the family activity picker but I just can't extract the data needed to track the apps. I am wondering how to do this. Thank you!

Hello, I would like to retrieve Screen Time data in my iOS app for development purposes. I have read that access to Screen Time data may be possible if you are enrolled in the Apple Developer Program as an organization (enterprise membership), but not as an individual developer. Could anyone clarify the following points? Is it possible to access Screen Time data via API or framework as an individual developer? Is this functionality limited only to enterprise members, and if so, what are the requirements or procedures? Are there any official Apple documents or sample codes about this process? If anyone has experience or can share relevant links or advice, I would really appreciate it. Thank you in advance!

Hi, I am developing a Screen Time App and I am having issues with the ShieldConfigurationExtension (ShieldConfigurationDataSource). I know this extensions is sandboxed but I should be able to read data from the main app. I am using SwiftData as my database, but I am unable to initialize it in the extensions with an error indicating insufficient file permissions. I have App Group set up and I am able to share data using UserDefaults but that is just inconvenient. Is there any way I could just open the SwiftData in read only mode so that I could display the user some info on the shield? SwiftData Init: private func setupContainer() throws { let schema = Schema([ DogEntity.self, HouseEntity.self ]) // Use app group container if available let config: ModelConfiguration if let containerURL = FileManager.default.containerURL( forSecurityApplicationGroupIdentifier: "group.\(Bundle.app.bundleIdentifier ?? "")" ) { config = ModelConfiguration(schema: schema, url: containerURL.appendingPathComponent("default.sqlite")) } else { config = ModelConfiguration(schema: schema) } self.container = try ModelContainer(for: schema, configurations: [config]) } Error in extension: fault: Attempt to add read-only file at path file:///private/var/mobile/Containers/Shared/AppGroup/51431199-5919-4AE6-940C-6FE3C53EEB46/default.sqlite read/write. Adding it read-only instead. This will be a hard error in the future; you must specify the NSReadOnlyPersistentStoreOption. error: (3) access permission denied error: Encountered exception error during prepareSQL for SQL string 'SELECT TBL_NAME FROM SQLITE_MASTER WHERE TBL_NAME = 'Z_METADATA'' : access permission denied with userInfo { NSFilePath = "/private/var/mobile/Containers/Shared/AppGroup/51431199-5919-4AE6-940C-6FE3C53EEB46/default.sqlite"; NSSQLiteErrorDomain = 3; } while checking table name from store: <NSSQLiteConnection: 0x154100300> error: Store failed to load. <NSPersistentStoreDescription: 0x15402d590> (type: SQLite, url: file:///private/var/mobile/Containers/Shared/AppGroup/51431199-5919-4AE6-940C-6FE3C53EEB46/default.sqlite) with error = Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=256 "The file “default.sqlite” couldn’t be opened." UserInfo={NSFilePath=/private/var/mobile/Containers/Shared/AppGroup/51431199-5919-4AE6-940C-6FE3C53EEB46/default.sqlite, NSSQLiteErrorDomain=3} with userInfo { NSFilePath = "/private/var/mobile/Containers/Shared/AppGroup/51431199-5919-4AE6-940C-6FE3C53EEB46/default.sqlite"; NSSQLiteErrorDomain = 3; } Any help appreciated 🙂

Hi everyone, I’m experimenting with the new ScreenTime DeviceActivityReport view in SwiftUI (iOS 17 / Xcode 15). My goal is to show the report inside a Button (or, more generally, capture any tap on it) so that I can push a detail screen when the user selects it. Here’s the minimal code that reproduces the issue: import FamilyControls import DeviceActivity import SwiftUI struct ScreenTimeView: View { let center = AuthorizationCenter.shared @State private var context: DeviceActivityReport.Context = .init(rawValue: "Total Activity") @State private var filter = DeviceActivityFilter( segment: .hourly( during: Calendar.current.dateInterval(of: .day, for: .now)! ), users: .all, devices: .init([.iPhone, .iPad]) ) var body: some View { ZStack { DeviceActivityReport(context, filter: filter) } .onAppear { Task { do { try await center.requestAuthorization(for: .individual) } catch { print("Authorization failed:", error) } } } } } struct ContentView: View { var body: some View { ScrollViewReader { _ in ScrollView(showsIndicators: false) { VStack { Button { print("BUTTON TAPPED") // ← never fires } label: { ScreenTimeView() .frame(height: UIScreen.main.bounds.height * 1.4) } } } } } } ** What happens** DeviceActivityReport renders correctly with hourly bars. Tapping anywhere inside the Button does not trigger print("BUTTON TAPPED"). I’ve tried replacing Button with .onTapGesture, adding .contentShape(Rectangle()), and .allowsHitTesting(true), but nothing registers. What I’ve checked Authorisation succeeds—calling code in .onAppear prints no errors. Removing DeviceActivityReport and replacing it with a plain Rectangle() lets the tap gesture fire, so the issue seems specific to DeviceActivityReport.

I'm using FamilyActivityPicker to get consent for app/category management, which returns a FamilyActivitySelection object. I serialize this FamilyActivitySelection object (just applicationTokens and categoryTokens) and pass it to my DeviceActivityMonitor extension via App Group UserDefaults. I am using the JSON encoder/decoder over PropertyList (though both seem to exhibit the same behavior). After inspecting the FamilyActivitySelection object immediately after it's returned by FamilyActivityPicker in the main app, the application.bundleIdentifier property is consistently nil for every Application object within selection.applications. Similarly, category.localizedDisplayName is nil for ActivityCategory objects. This happens whether "Select All Apps" is used or if apps/categories are selected individually. I understand that this is the intended behavior due to Apple's user privacy policies. I read on another post that my app can be provided with bundle identifiers and app names within Shield Configuration extensions and Device Activity Report extensions - I'm not sure which ones or how exactly to do this. I am aware that I can use Label(applicationToken) SwiftUI view to display the app name/icon, but this doesn't give programmatic access to the bundleIdentifier string. My app will not log or export these bundleIdentifiers outside of its sandbox. My goal is to create mappings to the FamilyActivitySelection with the publicly accessible bundleIdentifiers. Any guidance, examples, or clarification on the intended workflow for this scenario would be greatly appreciated!

Hello, In a new app I am working on I noticed the FamilyActivityTitleView that displays "ApplicationToken" has wrong (black) color when phone is set to light mode but app is using dark mode via override. We display user's selected apps and the labels are rendered correctly at first, but then when user updates selection with FamilyActivityPicker, then those newly added apps are rendered with black titles. The problem goes away when I close the screen and open it again. It also doesn't happen when phone is set to dark theme. I am currently noticing the issue on iOS 18.4.1. I have tried various workarounds like forcing white text in the custom label style, forcing re-render with custom .id value but nothing helped. Is there any way how to fix this?

I'm encountering what appears to be a specific precedence behavior with ManagedSettingsStore.shield and would appreciate some further clarification. My current understanding is that category-level shields take precedence over individual app allowances. My test involved... Using FamilyActivityPicker to select a single target application (e.g., "Calculator," which falls under the "Utilities" category). Using FamilyActivityPicker again to select the category of that target application. I applied shields using ManagedSettingsStore (named .individual): store.shield.applicationCategories = .specific(Set([utilitiesCategoryToken])) store.shield.applications = Set([calculatorApplicationToken]) Result: The calculator app remains shielded, suggesting that the category-level shield on Utilities overrides the attempt to allow the individual app. I also tried this using a single picker, but received only the category token instead of all application tokens in that category. Is this observed precedence (where store.shield.applicationCategories effectively overrides store.shield.applications for apps within the shielded category) the intended behavior? If so, are there any mechanisms available within the main app's capabilities (potentially using a Device Activity Report Extension or Shield Extension) to allow a specific ApplicationToken if its corresponding ActivityCategoryToken is part of the store.shield.applicationCategories set? Essentially, can store.shield.applications be used to create "allow exceptions" for individual apps that fall into an otherwise shielded category? Additionally, I mentioned that selecting an entire category in the picker only returns the opaque category token, not any application tokens. Is there any way in which I could return both the category and all application tokens by just selecting the category? Any insights or pointers would be greatly appreciated!

Cannot convert value of type '[ApplicationToken]' (aka 'Array<Token>') to expected argument type 'Binding'

Hi everyone, We're using the react-native-device-activity package to implement app blocking via Apple's Screen Time API. The blocking functionality works well: when the user selects apps and taps "Done," those apps get blocked as expected. However, we're facing an issue with unblocking apps that the user later unselects. Even after the user unchecks some apps and taps "Done" again, those previously selected (now unselected) apps remain blocked and still show the shield.

Issue with Universal Links and App Extension (ShieldAction Handler) I'm currently working on a POC app using the FamilyControls framework and facing an issue when trying to open a Universal Link from an app extension, specifically from a ShieldAction handler. When I try to open a Universal Link, I encounter the following error: Failed to open URL https://sixteen-server-c008110f8759.herokuapp.com/.well-known/apple-app-site-association: Error Domain=FBSOpenApplicationServiceErrorDomain Code=1 "The request to open 'com.apple.mobilesafari' failed." UserInfo={BSErrorCodeDescription=RequestDenied, NSUnderlyingError=0x14f2d90b0 {Error Domain=FBSOpenApplicationErrorDomain Code=3 "Application com.sixteen.life is neither visible nor entitled, so may not perform un-trusted user actions." UserInfo={BSErrorCodeDescription=Security, NSLocalizedFailureReason=Application com.sixteen.life is neither visible nor entitled, so may not perform un-trusted user actions.}} Context: I’m using a ShieldAction handler as part of an App Extension to trigger the action (e.g., "Break in Shield") in my app. The app extension (ShieldAction handler) is responsible for trying to open the Universal Link. I’m encountering the error because the app is not visible or entitled to perform this action, which seems to be related to security restrictions when using App Extensions. Questions: App Extension and Universal Link Interaction: Is it possible for an App Extension (like ShieldAction handler) to open a Universal Link or trigger an external app, such as Safari, even though it is not the foreground app? Entitlements for App Extensions: Are there any specific entitlements or permissions required to allow an app extension (ShieldAction handler) to open Universal Links or perform actions like opening Safari from the background? App Visibility and State: How can I ensure that my app is in the right state (visible/active) and has the necessary entitlements to trigger these actions when running in the context of an app extension? Workaround: If this behavior is restricted due to app extension limitations, what would be the recommended workaround to handle launching external apps (like Safari) or Universal Links from within an app extension?

I want to limit my child's phone usage at night by allowing them to scan a QR code to enforce app limitations via ScreenTime. When they scan the QR code, I'm still unable to prevent them from accessing the Phone, Messages, and Camera app via ScreenTime. Is there a way I can block or heavily restrict their access to these three apps via ScreenTime? How do I prevent my child from undoing or evading the ScreenTime enforcement I'm trying to enforce?

Hi all, I'm working on a Screen Time-based app with gamification features for families, where both children and parents interact and compare usage stats. The endgoal of the app is to motivate for less screentime or more use of productive apps. I'm testing Apple's Family Controls API, which works great for getting data from child devices. However, this API doesn't support fetching screen time data on the parent device itself. Apps like Jomo appear to provide insights and even their own "calculations" on screen time usage directly on the parent device. I have tested a few apps that showed both the usage data for my children and myself and did some nice things with it like creating stats. I've gone through the documentation and APIs extensively, but I can’t figure out how they’re doing this. As far as I can tell the only solution would be a custom VPN or MDM. However as far as I can tell Jomo for example does not use either of those. My questions are: Am I missing some API Are apps like Jomo using private APIs which they have been granted access to from Apple? Is there any way to access similar data on a parent device without using MDM or VPN? Any guidance or clarification would be greatly appreciated!

So I have been working with the screen time api. however I still cant get it to work to reshield certain apps after a certain time because for example Dispatch Queue just gets terminated after a certain time. This is my code right now but the reshielding doesn't get called. Please help I have been working on this since weeks and weeks. import ManagedSettings import DeviceActivity import Foundation class ShieldActionExtension: ShieldActionDelegate { let store = ManagedSettingsStore() let center = DeviceActivityCenter() override func handle(action: ShieldAction, for application: ApplicationToken, completionHandler: @escaping (ShieldActionResponse) -> Void) { switch action { case .primaryButtonPressed: // Unshield the app store.shield.applications?.remove(application) // Encode and persist ApplicationToken if let encoded = try? PropertyListEncoder().encode([application]) { UserDefaults(suiteName: "group.Organization.BrainRipe.cmonnow")?.set(encoded, forKey: "StoredApplicationTokens") } let unshieldDurationMinutes = 2 let now = Date() guard let endDate = Calendar.current.date(byAdding: .minute, value: unshieldDurationMinutes, to: now) else { completionHandler(.close) return } let activityName = DeviceActivityName("com.myapp.shield.reapply") let schedule = DeviceActivitySchedule( intervalStart: Calendar.current.dateComponents([.hour, .minute], from: now), intervalEnd: Calendar.current.dateComponents([.hour, .minute], from: endDate), repeats: false ) do { try center.startMonitoring(activityName, during: schedule) } catch { print("Error starting monitoring: \(error)") } completionHandler(.close) case .secondaryButtonPressed: completionHandler(.defer) @unknown default: fatalError("Unhandled ShieldAction case.") } } } import DeviceActivity import ManagedSettings import Foundation // Optionally override any of the functions below. // Make sure that your class name matches the NSExtensionPrincipalClass in your Info.plist. class DeviceActivityMonitorExtension: DeviceActivityMonitor { let store = ManagedSettingsStore() override func intervalDidStart(for activity: DeviceActivityName) { super.intervalDidStart(for: activity) // Handle the start of the interval. } override func intervalDidEnd(for activity: DeviceActivityName) { guard let data = UserDefaults(suiteName: "group.Organization.BrainRipe.cmonnow")?.data(forKey: "StoredApplicationTokens"), let tokens = try? PropertyListDecoder().decode([ApplicationToken].self, from: data) else { return } let tokenSet = Set(tokens) if store.shield.applications == nil { store.shield.applications = tokenSet } else { store.shield.applications?.formUnion(tokenSet) } // Clear tokens after use UserDefaults(suiteName: "group.Organization.BrainRipe.cmonnow")?.removeObject(forKey: "StoredApplicationTokens") } }

Hi, I want to track users screen time on websites. I want to track monitoring of specific website for that user will enter URL , we want to start monitoring and shield after threshold reached. but DeviceActivityEvent doesn't allow to enter specific URL domain for monitoring . How should I do monitoring then ?

I'm working with the FamilyControls and DeviceActivity frameworks in iOS (Swift). In my app, I collect selected apps using a FamilyActivitySelection, and I access the selected apps via selection.applicationTokens, which gives me a Set. I would like to get either the bundle identifier or the display name of the selected apps from these ApplicationTokens. I tried creating an Application instance using: let app = Application(token: token) print(app.bundleIdentifier) print(app.localizedDisplayName) However, both bundleIdentifier and localizedDisplayName are always nil. My questions are: Outside the extension (in the main app), how can I get the bundleIdentifier or display name from an ApplicationToken? Is there an Apple-recommended way to resolve a Token into something human-readable or usable? If not, what is the best practice to store or identify user-selected apps for later use? Environment: iOS 17, Swift 5, Using FamilyControls and DeviceActivity APIs. Thank you for any help!

All After about 20 hours straight of working on this and having scrapped it twice I am realizing I should have asked everyone here for help. I am just trying to get device activity report extension to work inside an existing app. I have been heavily using family controls, managedsettings and deviceactivity and decided it would be nice to output some of the app usage so the User (parent) can see their children's app usage. I installed the target via xcode, confirmed group names match, and think I have it embedded correctly but when I run the app and call the view within the extension to show minutes used by any apps it just shows no time has been used. In addition, when I put print statements into the extension they do not show up in console. I have confirmed the main app target-&gt;Build phases-&gt;Link binary with Libraries has: ManagedSettings.framework FamilyControls.Framework DeviceActivity.framework I have confirmed in xcode that the main app target-&gt;Build phases -&gt; Embed Foundation Extensions has: ShieldConfiguration.appex ShieldActionExtension.appex DeviceActivityMonitor.appex I have confirmed in xcode that the main app target-&gt;Build phases-&gt; Embed ExtensionKit Extensions has: UsageReportExtension.appex I have used the apps I am trying to show data for extensively in the last 36 hours. Here is my UsageReportExtension info.plist EXAppExtensionAttributes EXExtensionPointIdentifier com.apple.deviceactivityui.report-extension .entitlement com.apple.developer.family-controls com.apple.security.application-groups group.com.jrp.EarnYourTurnMVP2.data Here is the file in the app (timebankview.swift) calling the extension/showing the extension view(AppUsageReportView.swift) import DeviceActivity import ManagedSettings struct TimeBankView: View { @EnvironmentObject private var appState: AppState @State private var reportInterval: DateInterval = { let calendar = Calendar.current let now = Date() let yesterdayDate = calendar.date(byAdding: .day, value: -1, to: now) ?? now return DateInterval(start: yesterdayDate, end: now) }() private var reportFilter: DeviceActivityFilter { let selection = appState.screenTimeController.currentSelection return DeviceActivityFilter( segment: .daily(during: reportInterval), users: .children, devices: .all, applications: selection.applicationTokens, categories: selection.categoryTokens // webDomains: selection.webDomains // Add if needed ) } var body: some View { ZStack { Color.appTheme.background(for: appState.isParentMode) .edgesIgnoringSafeArea(.all) ScrollView { VStack(spacing: 20) { Text("Time Bank") DeviceActivityReport(.childUsageSummary, filter: reportFilter) Here is AppUsageReportView.swift import SwiftUI struct AppUsageReportView: View { let config: DetailedAppUsageConfiguration // Use the detailed config var body: some View { VStack { Text("App Usage Details") Text("Total Screen Time: \(config.totalDurationFormatted)") if config.applicationsUsed.isEmpty { Text("No specific app usage data available for the selected period/filter.") } else { Text("Apps Used:") List { ForEach(config.applicationsUsed) { appInfo in HStack { Image(systemName: "app.dashed") Text(appInfo.appName) .lineLimit(1) Text(appInfo.durationFormatted) Here is AppUsageReportScene.swift: import SwiftUI import ManagedSettings struct AppInfo: Identifiable, Hashable { let id = UUID() let appName: String let durationFormatted: String } struct DetailedAppUsageConfiguration { var totalDurationFormatted: String = "Calculating..." var applicationsUsed: [AppInfo] = [] } struct AppUsageReportScene: DeviceActivityReportScene { let context: DeviceActivityReport.Context = .childUsageSummary let content: (DetailedAppUsageConfiguration) -&gt; AppUsageReportView func makeConfiguration(representing data: DeviceActivityResults&lt;DeviceActivityData&gt;) async -&gt; DetailedAppUsageConfiguration { var config = DetailedAppUsageConfiguration() var appDurations: [String: TimeInterval] = [:] var totalAggregatedDuration: TimeInterval = 0 let formatter = DateComponentsFormatter() formatter.allowedUnits = [.hour, .minute, .second] formatter.unitsStyle = .abbreviated formatter.zeroFormattingBehavior = .pad var segmentCount = 0 var categoryCount = 0 var appCount = 0 for await activityData in data { // Check segments var tempSegmentCount = 0 for await segment in activityData.activitySegments { segmentCount += 1 tempSegmentCount += 1 totalAggregatedDuration += segment.totalActivityDuration var tempCategoryCount = 0 for await categoryActivity in segment.categories { categoryCount += 1 tempCategoryCount += 1 var tempAppCount = 0 for await appActivity in categoryActivity.applications { appCount += 1 tempAppCount += 1 let appName = appActivity.application.localizedDisplayName ?? "Unknown App" let duration = appActivity.totalActivityDuration appDurations[appName, default: 0] += duration }}} } config.totalDurationFormatted = formatter.string(from: totalAggregatedDuration) ?? "N/A" config.applicationsUsed = appDurations .filter { $0.value &gt;= 1 .map { AppInfo(appName: $0.key, durationFormatted: formatter.string(from: $0.value) ?? "-") } .sorted { lhs, rhs in let durationLHS = appDurations[lhs.appName] ?? 0 let durationRHS = appDurations[rhs.appName] ?? 0 return durationLHS &gt; durationRHS } if !config.applicationsUsed.isEmpty { for (index, app) in config.applicationsUsed.enumerated() { } } else { } return config }} UsageReportExtension.swift struct UsageReportExtension: DeviceActivityReportExtension { init() { print("🚀 [UsageReportExtension] Extension initialized at \(Date())") print("🔍 [UsageReportExtension] Process info: \(ProcessInfo.processInfo.processName) PID: \(ProcessInfo.processInfo.processIdentifier)") } var body: some DeviceActivityReportScene { let _ = print("📊 [UsageReportExtension] Building report scenes at \(Date())") TotalActivityReport { totalActivity in print("🕰️ [TotalActivityReport] Creating view with data: \(totalActivity)") return TotalActivityView(totalActivity: totalActivity) }}}

I was experimenting with the screen time controls to see how it affected an app I am working on and I created a screen time passcode that I later forgot. Any fix? I can't find the "forgot passcode" button anywhere and I am now unable to turn off find my as a result.

We are developing a parental control application in SwiftUI with features like app blocking and screen time management. We are using the Family Control API along with Apple Family Sharing, allowing parents to add multiple children to the family group. We have followed the apple documentation still we are facing following issues: App Blocking Issue: The family picker does not display each child's name separately or their apps individually. Instead, it shows all children's apps together, making it difficult to block apps for a specific child. Screen Time Data Issue: We receive the total screen time usage for all children combined rather than separate screen time data for each child. Syncing Delay: When a new child is added to the Family Sharing group, we are unsure how long it takes for their apps to sync and appear on the parent’s device.

Hello, I am unable to figure out how I tell the FamilyActivityPicker whether it should show apps installed on my personal device (to be used with AuthorizationCenter.shared.requestAuthorization(for: .individual)) or apps installed on my child’s device (authenticated their phone via AuthorizationCenter.shared.requestAuthorization(for: .child)). Is there any parameter or SwiftUI modifier I need to apply? Otherwise, how does the user or the app know which token belongs to them and which token belongs to their child’s device? Radar: FB17020977 Thanks a lot for your help!