Apple: Privacy Rules for Third-Party Access to Live Activities and Notifications

As part of its compliance with EU interoperability regulations, Apple is working on changes to iOS that allow AirPods-style pairing and push notifications for third-party wearables on the iPhone.

In the iOS 26.5 beta , released on Monday, Apple added the push Live Activities feature and has now revised its Developer Program License Agreement with new rules for how push features should be accessed.

In a new section titled “3.3.3 (J), Accessory Notifications Framework and Accessory Live Activities Framework,” Apple says that third parties “may not use Forwarding Information for advertising, profiling, model training, or location tracking.” It also states that “they may not distribute Forwarding Information to any other App or device other than the Authorized Target Accessory.”

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The new section goes on to state that developers cannot store notification data pushed

Aside from formatting adjustments, the forwarded information cannot be modified in any way that changes its meaning, and the accessory receiving the notification cannot share that data or encryption keys with any other device, including the user's own iPhone. In other words, the data must be locked down to the device it was sent to.

Even if a developer's app doesn't use these frameworks at all, Apple states that it reserves the right to push that app's notifications to a third-party accessory if the user enables it.

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Last September, Apple complained that its obligations under the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA) would cause delays in the rollout of features in the region, but also warned of new privacy and security threats. Apple relied on these threats in the companies' submitted applications, which included the full content of a user's notifications, as well as the full history of Wi-Fi networks a user has connected to.

Apple said it had explained the risks of these applications to the European Commission, but the concerns were not accepted as valid reasons for rejecting them. The new developer rules appear to be Apple's best attempt to mitigate the risks.

Apple continues to emphasize security

Overall, they make it clear that Apple does not want tracking, profiling, cloud copies, and sharing across devices, with developers bearing full responsibility for their apps' compliance with the new rules.

This new development clearly illustrates the difficult balance that Apple is trying to maintain between complying with European Union requirements and maintaining its philosophy around privacy. On the one hand, the company is opening up its ecosystem by allowing third-party wearables to gain features that were previously exclusive to the Apple Watch, such as seamless pairing and access to notifications and Live Activities. On the other, it is imposing a strict framework of rules that drastically limits how this data can be used, in an attempt to prevent abuse or commercial exploitation.

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In practice, this means that Apple is not changing its stance so much as the way it implements it: it is opening up access, but “locking down” the data. The new restrictions show that the company understands the risk that comes with interoperability, especially when sensitive information such as notifications and personal user data. The question that remains is whether developers and manufacturers will be able to innovate within this strict framework, or whether the restrictions will act as a deterrent. In any case, Europe seems to be actively shaping the future of iOS, even if it means that Apple has to redefine fundamental principles of its ecosystem.