As you read through this guide, and if you have used our web app on an iOS device, you may have noticed that there are some things that don’t work as smoothly as they should, and below is a list of those things, and an explanation about what is going on.
*Please note that the recent updates to iOS (16.4+) may have changed some of the below for iOS devices that have been updated, and we will update accordingly once we have tested them.
SentLive Registration and Links to the site #
While you can do part of the registration process in our app on iOS, you can’t complete it in the app, and have to use the Safari browser to do so. This is because Apple has not updated iOS to allow links that are either sent to you in emails and text messages, or that you click on in other websites or apps, to open most other apps, with only a few exceptions; you will probably have witnessed this behaviour before when using the Facebook app and clicking on a link to anything for example – even YouTube links won’t automatically open the YouTube app (although in that case there is normally an ‘Open in app’ link. This also means that if you receive other email or sms notifications from us that include links to particular pages on our site, these also will not open in the app but in Safari (or whatever default browser you have chosen). We are hopeful that this will change with future updates to iOS.
Push Notifications #
These are the messages you will get when, for example, a new message arrives, or someone mentioned you on Facebook; if you have agreed to these in a standard app that you have downloaded and installed from the App Store, then you will receive them, but in web apps, it is only possible in iOS 16.4 and higher (they work in Android and on all laptop/desktop configurations, including Apple’s MacOS). Unfortunately anyone on older versions of iOS does not have access to Push Notifications on SentLive, which is why we also offer other notifications.
Sounds #
Certain actions and events on SentLive (and other apps) are meant to be accompanied by a sound so that there is both a visual and audible confirmation, or warning, that something has happened (or not happened) as intended, which is, of course, particularly useful for visually impaired users, and for users who don’t want to have to stare at their phone all the time. Some of these, at certain times, will not be heard on iOS devices, either because the default setting in the phone when using a browser is to not allow these, or because when using our app, there is no support in iOS for us to provide a settings section in the device Settings where this can be altered, even if you have changed your settings within SentLive. And at present there is not even a General setting in iOS device Settings concerning sounds on websites or apps, so while we have done what we can to make sure the sounds are available, there is nothing we can do at present to make sure you hear them! Generally speaking, in our testing, it seems as though it is most often only the first time a sound is meant to be heard within each visit to the site that it is not heard, and only automatic sounds that are not triggered by a tap on the screen, such as our bell notifications. We are working to try and improve this, but we are again hopeful that future iOS updates will give more options.
Other Issues #
If you encounter any other issues while using SentLive on an iOS device, please tell us by using any of the methods we offer – the Contact Us forms, social media messaging or email – and we will look at it immediately.
