I've heard it mentioned elsewhere, one cannot programmatically hook into the phone call area of an iPhone using the current SDK. I'm looking to learn iPhone development and Obj C, with the end goal of creating a call timer app that runs in the background and alerts the user when a call has gone on too long.
Is it even possible to hook into methods liek that?
No. Your app will be interrupted when the user receives a call, and your code will not be allowed to run while the user is on the call. Additionally, there are no background apps allowed for the iphone. The best you can get is push notification, but you can't create a daemon or anything like that.
This information is provided in the iPhone Application Programming Guide
With version 4 you can now multitask to some degree.
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Might be i am using a wrong title but i will try to explain here what i want.
In iOS i need to implement a functionality to get notify if the user is using their iOS device.
My app will be running in background using location services and i need to find out if the the user is using their device. It is doable as i have looked into this application which is sending notifications in background to the drivers who is suing their devices while driving.
https://itunes.apple.com/fr/app/cellcontrol/id661169580?l=en&mt=8&ign-mpt=uo=2
So i need similar kind of functionality to find out if a user is using iOS device or not. If anyone of you can suggest me any approach then it would be great for me to start.
Thank you!
Note: I have tried to find out touch events in background but that is not possible as i have done some research on this.
You won't be able to receive touch events when the app is in background using public API's. However, you can do that with the help of mobileSubstrate library ( http://iphonedevwiki.net/index.php/MobileSubstrate - The MobileHooker component is the one that would be used). by hooking your process to the OS. As an example, the display recorder app in Cydia tracks global gestures while recording the screen. This will be a cydia tweak and you will need to jailbreak your device to do all that.
Coming to your specific use-case, the example app you cited should be using one of the exceptions for background applications mentioned in https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/iphone/conceptual/iphoneosprogrammingguide/ManagingYourApplicationsFlow/ManagingYourApplicationsFlow.html (see the section - "Implementing Long-Running Background Tasks"), probably the one to receive updates from external accessories.
I know this question may be a little bit common and over asked but I cannot find any precise information... so :
Is it possible to have some kind of thread running when the app is in background so I can perform basic sync with my webservice ?
App is in background : I mean the user clicked the Home button, or switched to another app
basic sync : photo upload and download with AFNetworking. I know it has method to continue an HTTPRequest while app is in background, but this is not my point.
My goal would be to make some kind of sync manager, reading a list of photos to update created while the user was on the app, and perform those changes.
I know that the manager could be killed by the OS, but since my server uses atomic transfers it is not a problem. I just need a way to relaunch it... Push ?
I think apps like Google Latitude or Mail and those kind of apps uses what I am looking for but I cannot find any relevant details on it. And using iOS5 is not a problem but waiting for iOS6 would not be a solution.
Thank you for your replies !
PS : well I almost forgot. the app is designed for an enterprise program, so maybe rules are different ? I don't think there is any check for in-house deployment so it might lead to new possibilities...
Apple's Mail client has a background daemon which keeps it running but you can't have that with your own applications. Once an app enters a background state, it must halt it's operations. You can request for a little more time when backgrounded to finish off any transfers or writes to disk (see the Executing a Finite-Length Task in the Background section on Apple's Multitasking Guide)
Google Latitude has events generated based on location. This is a special type of backgrounding introduced by Apple for certain types of applications (see Implementing Long-Running Background Tasks section on Apple's Multitasking Guide) but this can't be used for HTTP syncing. It can only be used for audio, location, voip, newstand content, bluetooth and external hardware attachments.
Push doesn't seem like a solution because it only generates an alert. It doesn't trigger any action until the user triggers the opening of the notification.
You'll want to read Tech Note 2277 Networking and Multitasking.
Basically you have a couple of options:
If you can convince Apple that your app is a VoIP app then you can register a VoIP socket and the OS will resume your background app whenever there is activity on that socket.
Your main option though is to register a background task for any outstanding activity that you have to do when your app is put in the background. You typically get 10 minutes to finish up that work.
Mail is a special app with privileges you don't get.
Apps like Latitude typically register themselves for location updates, specifically to be woken up when there are major geo-position changes. Apps that record GPS tracks do similar things.
Found it !
Using Suhail Patel 's link on Apple's Multitasking Guide I added the voip tag to UIBackgroundModes in Info.plist and use setKeepAliveTimeout:handler: method of UIApplication to relaunch it if needed once the app is going to sleep.
I hope this will help a lot of you !
Of course this app won't be allowed to be on the App Store but for in house development this is in my opinion the best way to do so.
Thanks everyone for showing me the right direction !
I want to create an iPhone app with following features:
User should be able to make a call to number.
App will play the prerecorded message when call get connected.
After playing the message, line will be connected and user will be able to communicate with the person to whom he made the call.
I heard that Apple doesn't allow the developers to interact with the calling functionality of iPhone but is there any way to achieve this. Please suggest!
Thanks-
You have heard correctly, According to Apple Developer Library, it is not possible to intercept the calling functionality.
Simple Apple does not allow such stuff with current sdk.
Not so sure but, May be possible for jailbroken iPhone app.
I want to develop an app which records the call-duration etc.. when a call is finished. So is it possible to start my app when the user finishes his call.
App is currently not running and then
User Finishes his Call ---> My app should open up the moment he finishes his call giving me the details about call duration etc.. and then i ask for some comments on that page and exit the app.
I already made such an app in Android,Blackberry.
P.S: Even if it works on a jailbroken iPhone it is good enough for me.
There's no way to do this on a regular iPhone. Apple's APIs don't allow you to interfere with phone calls at all.
Not sure about jailbroken phones though. In theory, you can do anything, it just depends on how much time you're willing to spend on it. Good luck.
is it possible to wake an App in the background up, when a call comes in, and access CoreTelephony to send some infos over the web?
I'm practically a n00b in iOS development right now, but got asked a question if iOS is capable to do this. I searched in the iOS reference too, but with no luck.
It would be great if someone with more experience could answer it. Thanks a lot!
Steno
Please, have a look at the document about executing code in the background.
If you go to section "Implementing a VoIP Application", you will see that it is actually possible for your app to be awaken periodically so that it can check if it has anything to do (in your case, if I understand you correctly you would use CTCall to check for calling state).
So, basically, when awaken, your app could check for any incoming call and then use Core Telephony, as you say.
The only trouble about this is that if your app cannot be considered to a a VOIP app, Apple will not let it into the App Store.
It is not possible to have your code run when a call is received.