Apple delays Live Activities in iOS 16

By William Gallagher

Apple has announced that iOS 16 will not have Live Activities at launch, and instead the new lock screen display of sports and music details will come later.

One of Apple's announced updates to the iPhone Lock Screen in iOS 16 is Live Activities, a widget that shows users updating information. Rather than a new notification every time a football team scores, for instance, it will show a single notification with scores updating live.

The feature and its new associated API, ActivityKit, is present in the latest developer beta, but it will not ship to the public with the rest of iOS 16.

"Please note that Live Activities and ActivityKit won't be included in the initial public release of iOS 16," said Apple in a developer news update. "Later this year, they'll be publicly available in an update and you'll be able to submit your apps with Live Activities to the App Store."

This is far from the first iOS 16 feature that Apple has delayed until after the launch. At WWDC 2022, it gave a sneak preview of Freeform, a collaboration brainstorming app that won't be out until the end of the year.

Plus there are multiple smaller elements to come, such as Matter smart home connectivity.