There are several things in this new article that jumped out at me. Up first, is how different phones will treat Live Activities:
In addition to displaying a Live Activity on the Lock Screen, devices that support Live Activities can display your app information in different ways, depending on whether the device also supports the Dynamic Island.
- On devices that support the Dynamic Island, the system displays Live Activities in a persistent location around the TrueDepth camera.
- On devices that don’t support the Dynamic Island, the system can display a Live Activity update in a banner that appears briefly while people view the Home Screen or use another app, but only if the app determines that the update is important enough to interrupt people.
Apple also has some guidance about what sorts of information should be shown in Live Activities. For example, developers should not show sensitive data in these UI elements, and should give users full control over starting and stopping Live Activity events.
People have joked about ads showing up in Live Activities, which Apple also addresses:
Avoid using a Live Activity to display ads or promotions. Live Activities help people stay informed about ongoing events and tasks, so it’s important to display only information that’s related to those events and tasks.
I won’t lie — I wish that language was stronger.