Apple has updated its Developer Program License Agreement with new rules on how third-party accessories must handle forwarded notifications and Live Activities. Here are the details.
A bit of context
Earlier today, we reported on new code introduced on iOS 26.5 beta 1 that pointed to upcoming Live Activities support for third-party accessories in the EU.
In conjunction with the notification forwarding feature, which will allow third-party accessories to display iPhone notifications, this will be exclusive to EU users as part of the interoperability requirements of the Digital Markets Act.
Last year, published a statement on its Newsroom, arguing that the DMA would not only cause delays for rollouts of new features in Europe, but also introduce “new privacy and security threats.” Here’s Apple:
“The DMA also lets other companies request access to user data and core technologies of Apple products. Apple is required to meet almost every request, even if they create serious risks for our users.
So far, companies have submitted requests for some of the most sensitive data on a user’s iPhone. The most concerning include:
The complete content of a user’s notifications: This data includes the content of a user’s messages, emails, medical alerts, and any other notifications a user receives. And it would reveal data to other companies that currently, even Apple can’t access.”
In other words, Apple argued that while it designed iOS so that it cannot access the contents of notifications, the same wouldn’t be true for third-party devices if it were required to open that data up to them.
As of today, that argument hasn’t prevailed, and Apple is working to open up this access as required by the DMA.
Apple announces strict rules for notification and Live Activities forwarding
Earlier tonight, Apple updated its Developer Program License Agreement with, among other things, a new section: 3.3.3 (J), Accessory Notifications Framework and Accessory Live Activities Framework.
In it, Apple states that third parties “may not use Forwarding Information for advertising, profiling, training models, or monitoring location,” nor are they allowed to “disseminate the Forwarding Information to any other Application, or any other device” other than the third-party accessory the user has configured to receive such information.
The terms also state that:
- Accessories cannot share this data, or the encryption keys tied to it, with any other device, including the user’s own iPhone.
- They also cannot change the content in a way that alters its meaning, beyond what might be necessary to display it properly.
- Developers are prohibited from storing this data remotely, such as on cloud servers, except when strictly necessary to deliver it to the accessory.
- The data can only be decrypted on the accessory itself, and nowhere else.
Finally, Apple reminds developers that apps don’t need to support the system for their data to be shared with third-party accessories, as this will be controlled by a user-level setting.
To read Apple’s updated Developer Program License Agreement, follow this link.
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