Bring iOS App to Foreground in WatchKit

Question

I am developing a WatchKit extension for one of my Apps where I really want to have the iPhone App running in the foreground, since it is doing the heavy lifting and is designed to use location services only when active. I know openParentApplication:reply only opens the App in the background (unless it is already active). What I am currently trying out is using a custom URL scheme for my App, and having the App initially open itself from within the handleWatchKitExtension code in the App Delegate. This works perfectly in the Simulator. Unfortunately I did not have this approach ready when I tested my App on real Apple Watches. Does anyone see a problem with this approach to bring the iPhone App to the foreground from the Apple Watch?

Answer 1

On iOS, apps can't bring themselves to the foreground. The best thing you can do is to post a local notification ( UILocalNotification , see https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/NetworkingInternet/Conceptual/RemoteNotificationsPG/Chapters/IPhoneOSClientImp.html ) and invite the user to bring your app to the foreground.

But for your use case, why not just have your phone app use location services in the background?

Answer 2

This is not possible. The Apple Watch Programming Guide states that the app on the iPhone will run in the background if it was not active before.