ActivityWatch/activitywatch

iOS support

Open

#751 opened on Jun 23, 2022

View on GitHubContributor guide
 (18 comments) (28 reactions) (0 assignees)Python (442 forks)batch import
help wantedimproves: user growthsize: large

Repository metrics

Stars
 (9,534 stars)
PR merge metrics
 (Avg merge 1d 18h) (6 merged PRs in 30d)

Description

We currently support every major OS, except iOS.

Apple has historically taken a very cautious stance with ScreenTime data they collect, so support for iOS has been practically impossible (although RescueTime and some others offer an iOS app, it's really mostly a companion app).

However, a couple weeks ago someone gave me notice of Apple finally creating a more comprehensive API: https://www.reddit.com/r/QuantifiedSelf/comments/v1jykz/granular_app_tracking_on_iosipados/ibwbu2p/

The actual API: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/deviceactivity/deviceactivitydata

So, looks like this will be possible going forward. I don't personally own an iOS device, nor do I know anything about iOS dev, but going off how we built aw-android, we can probably do something similar for iOS, eventually.

Contributor guide

Research direction
Study the aw android source code (in this repo) to understand the architecture and data model. Then explore Apple's DeviceActivityData API to design a similar approach for iOS, focusing on background data collection and privacy constraints.
Tech stack
swift
Domain
mobile
Issue type
Feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
4
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
Over 1 week
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
Active
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
Mostly clear
Prerequisites
SwiftXcode
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
15