Live Activities

Real-Time Awareness: A Bridge Between iOS & the New AR Headset

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Apple is transforming the way we interact with apps with Live Activities, allowing us to access time-sensitive information at a moment's notice from our Lock Screen. But as the feature expands across more applications, some question how the technology can be used away from the iPhone and incorporated into Apple's upcoming AR/VR glasses.

LIVE ACTIVITIES ON IOS 16

The iOS 16 update brought several exciting changes to Apple's operating system. Still, one addition that had everyone excited was the Live Activities feature, which helps users stay updated with real-time events such as sports games, ride-shares, food deliveries, and workouts right from their Lock Screen. Live Activities are a valuable addition to iOS 16, as they save time and effort by eliminating the need to unlock the phone to check real-time events. Moreover, Live Activities provide users with a more focused experience, ensuring they don't get distracted by other notifications while checking for updates. Before iOS 16, Apple introduced Home Screen widgets with iOS 14, which gave users the ability to customize their home screens with widgets for their favorite apps. With the latest update, Apple has extended widget support to the Lock Screen, enabling users to customize the Lock Screen with widgets and Live Activities.Unlike widgets,  Live Activities use a different mechanism to receive updates through remote push notifications or from the app itself through ActivityKit. The feature is available for iPhones running iOS 16.1 and above and can remain on the Lock Screen for up to 12 hours transforming the way we interact with apps.