flutter_live_activities

Because of technical restrictions, iOS Live Activities require a native Widget Extension implemented in Swift or Objective-C. Follow these steps to configure your project:

1. Create a Widget Extension:

   • Open ios/Runner.xcworkspace in Xcode.
   • Go to File -> New -> Target....
   • Select Widget Extension and click Next.
   • Provide a product name (e.g., MyAppWidget) and ensure "Runner" is selected in the "Embed in Application" dropdown.
   • Click Finish and then Activate on the resulting alert.

2. Configure Capabilities:

   • Add Push Notifications capability to the main Runner app only.
   • Add the App Group capability to both the Runner app and your Widget Extension. Note the identifier (e.g., group.example.myapp); this is your YOUR_GROUP_ID.

3. Enable Live Activities in Info.plist: Add the following key to the Info.plist of both the Runner target and the Widget Extension target:

   <key>NSSupportsLiveActivities</key>
   <true/>

Android implementation requires a custom LiveActivityManager and a RemoteView XML layout.

1. Register Manager in MainActivity.kt: In your MainActivity.kt, assign an instance of your custom manager to LiveActivityManagerHolder.instance inside configureFlutterEngine.

2. Create CustomLiveActivityManager.kt: Extend LiveActivityManager and implement the buildNotification method. This method is called by the plugin to construct the notification using the provided Notification.Builder and the data map passed from Flutter.

3. Create RemoteView Layout: Create an XML file at android/app/src/main/res/layout/live_activity.xml to define the visual design of the notification.

// MainActivity.kt example
class MainActivity : FlutterActivity() {
    override fun configureFlutterEngine(flutterEngine: FlutterEngine) {
        super.configureFlutterEngine(flutterEngine)
        LiveActivityManagerHolder.instance = CustomLiveActivityManager(this)
    }
}

iOS 17.2 allows creating Live Activities remotely via push notifications before the user opens the app.

Recommended Workflow: Instead of managing everything from the server, send a standard notification to the user. When they open the app, launch the Live Activity and send the resulting activityID and PushToken to your server.

Implementation:

1. Check support using allowsPushStart().
2. Listen to pushToStartTokenUpdateStream to receive tokens to send to your server.
3. You can disable remote updates for specific activities by setting iOSEnableRemoteUpdates: false in createActivity or createOrUpdateActivity.

// 1. Check support
final isPushToStartSupported = await _liveActivitiesPlugin.allowsPushStart();

if (isPushToStartSupported) {
  // 2. Listen for tokens to send to your server
  _liveActivitiesPlugin.pushToStartTokenUpdateStream.listen((String token) {
    print('Received push-to-start token: $token');
  });
}

To allow a user to tap a link in a Live Activity and open your Flutter app, you must set up a custom URL scheme.

1. Xcode Setup: Navigate to Runner > Runner > URL Types and add a new URL Scheme (e.g., str or la).
2. Swift Implementation: Use a Link view with the custom scheme.
3. Flutter Initialization: Initialize the plugin with your custom scheme.
4. Flutter Listening: Listen to the urlSchemeStream() to handle the incoming data.

// Swift: Create a link to your custom scheme
Link(destination: URL(string: "la://my.app/order?=123")!) {
  Text("See order")
}

// Flutter: Initialize and listen
_liveActivitiesPlugin.init(
  appGroupId: 'your.group.id',
  urlScheme: 'str', // The scheme you defined in Xcode
  requestAndroidNotificationPermission: true,
);

_liveActivitiesPlugin.urlSchemeStream().listen((schemeData) {
  // Handle the incoming URL data
});

You can pass files like images or text files from Flutter to your Live Activity by including specific file objects in your activityModel map.

Available File Types:

• LiveActivityFileFromAsset: Loads a file from Flutter assets.
• LiveActivityFileFromUrl: Loads a file from an external URL.
• LiveActivityFileFromMemory: Loads a file from a Uint8List object.

Tip: For images, use the .image() factory to apply a resizeFactor via LiveActivityImageFileOptions. This is highly recommended to keep image resolutions small for the Dynamic Island/Lock Screen.

Swift Usage:

• For images: Use UIImage(contentsOfFile: path) where the path is retrieved from UserDefaults via a prefixed key.
• For text: Use String(contentsOfFile: path, encoding: .utf8).

final Map<String, dynamic> activityModel = {
  'txtFile': LiveActivityFileFromAsset('assets/files/rules.txt'),
  'assetKey': LiveActivityFileFromAsset.image(
      'assets/images/pizza_chorizo.png'),
  'url': LiveActivityFileFromUrl.image(
      'https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2015/10/01/17/17/car-967387__480.png',
      imageOptions: LiveActivityImageFileOptions(
          resizeFactor: 0.2
      )
  ),
};

_liveActivitiesPlugin.createActivity(activityModel);