Files
proton-stream/docs/IOS.md
T
nvrl 8e42906a7f feat(core,app,android,cli,ios): sync the library and settings, verify a share before adding it
Sync carried only watch positions, so a second device started empty. The
per-installation history file now also carries per-key registers
(pstr-core::profile): every share with its link and custom password, the
playback, appearance and metadata settings, the TMDB key, hand-picked
matches and per-title track choices. Newer updated_at wins per key, a
removal travels as an empty register, and a first sync stamps at 0 so a
fresh install takes the library the other devices have instead of
overwriting it with defaults. Volume, mute and the device-only settings
(cache budget, Wi-Fi only, background audio, hardware decoding) stay out.
The secrets live only in the end-to-end encrypted Drive file, never in
shares.json. FORMAT_VERSION stays 1; an older build ignores the registers.

Adding a share stored it before opening the link, so a first failure left a
broken entry and every retry said "already configured". add_verified opens
the link first and stores nothing on failure, and only the new share is
crawled afterwards, so another broken share cannot fail the add.

Android drops picture-in-picture: the window sized the video wrongly and
background audio already covers leaving the app.

iOS sizes the Metal drawable on every layout, so the picture no longer
stretches after a rotation or a Split View resize. Settings show a save at
once rather than after the match run, and a failed save reverts and says
why. Both phone clients gain an activity banner naming what is running, and
the add-share, metadata and change-match forms show progress and errors in
place.
2026-10-09 03:15:39 +02:00

4.5 KiB

iOS Development

The iOS client lives in ios/. It is a SwiftUI port of the Android client, screen for screen and string for string, over the same Rust engine: crates/pstr-android builds unchanged for aarch64-apple-ios as a static library, and UniFFI writes its Swift bindings (module PstrBridge). It targets iOS 17 and newer on iPhone and iPad. Keep reusable behaviour in the Rust crates; when Android changes, the iOS file of the same name is the one to change with it.

Android iOS
ui/AppViewModel.kt App/AppModel.swift
ui/ProtonStreamApp.kt App/ProtonStreamApp.swift (RootView)
native/NativeRuntime.kt, native/KeystoreSecretStore.kt App/NativeRuntime.swift, App/KeychainSecretStore.swift
settings/SettingsStore.kt App/SettingsStore.swift (same keys, in UserDefaults)
ui/*Screen.kt, ui/AccountUi.kt, ui/LanguagePicker.kt UI/*View.swift, UI/AccountUI.swift, UI/LanguagePicker.swift
ui/RemoteArtwork.kt, ui/theme/* UI/RemoteArtwork.swift, UI/Theme/*
download/* Download/*
playback/PlayerScreen.kt, NativeMpvHost.kt, PlaybackService.kt, StreamSession.kt Player/PlayerView.swift, Player/PlayerHost.swift
cpp/pstr_mpv.cpp Player/MpvPlayer.swift, Player/StreamProtocol.swift

Playback is libmpv from MPVKit's GPL build, rendering through MoltenVK into a CAMetalLayer, with the pstr:// stream protocol reading decrypted blocks straight out of Rust as on Android.

Toolchain

macOS with Xcode 16 or newer, XcodeGen, and Rust 1.96 with the iOS targets:

brew install xcodegen
rustup target add aarch64-apple-ios aarch64-apple-ios-sim

The Xcode project and Info.plist are generated from ios/project.yml and are not committed, nor are the bindings under ios/build/generated.

scripts/build-ios.sh test    # simulator static library, bindings, unit tests
scripts/build-ios.sh all     # device static library, bindings, dist/proton-stream-<version>-ios.ipa

all is rust, bindings and ipa in order; each can be run on its own. After bindings and an xcodegen generate in ios/, the project opens in Xcode as usual, where a run on a device needs a development team set on the target.

The .ipa is unsigned. SideStore and AltStore re-sign what they install with the viewer's own Apple ID, which is also why the app has no extensions: a free Apple ID gets few app IDs, and each extension costs one.

.github/workflows/ios.yml runs the tests and builds the .ipa on macos-15 for every push to main and every pull request that touches the iOS sources or the Rust crates under them. release.yml calls it too, and publishes the .ipa next to the other artifacts.

scripts/render-ios-icon.sh renders ios/ProtonStream/Resources/AppIcon.svg, which is Android's adaptive launcher icon with both layers on one canvas, into the asset catalog.

Where iOS differs

Each of these is the platform's doing, not a choice to diverge.

  • No Picture-in-Picture. libmpv draws into a Metal layer, and AVKit's Picture-in-Picture only takes frames from AVPlayerLayer or AVSampleBufferDisplayLayer. Background audio and the lock-screen transport work as on Android.
  • No share sheet. A share extension would cost a second app ID. A link reaches the app through its URL scheme — protonstream://add?url=<link>, or the link with https swapped for protonstream — or through Paste link in the Add share form, which finds a link anywhere in the clipboard's text.
  • Downloads run while the app does. A transfer is a Rust task, not a URLSession task, so iOS has nothing to hand it to in the background. A download keeps going for the grace iOS gives a backgrounded app, then stops at a block boundary and is queued again; it resumes from its .part file when the app next comes forward. "Download on Wi-Fi only" stops transfers on a cellular or otherwise expensive network rather than holding them back.
  • Sync runs when the app leaves the screen, inside the same grace, in place of Android's WatchSyncWorker, and every five minutes while it is open.
  • Background audio off pauses the episode when the app leaves the screen, where Android stops it.
  • Nothing is backed up, as on Android (allowBackup="false"). The share secrets are this-device-only Keychain items, so a restored share list would arrive without them, and a restored sync.json would give two devices one sync identity.