Working with iOS App Home Screen Actions

February 28, 2026 · 7 min read · Mobile Testing

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Working with iOS App Home Screen ActionsWorking with iOS App Home Screen Actions

Working with iOS App Home Screen Actions

Published on
March 12, 2020
Updated on
Published on
February 8, 2022
Updated on
 by 
 Jonathan LippsJonathan Lipps
Jonathan Lipps
Home screen actions

iOS apps can register special shortcut activity that the app users can take from the dwelling screen app icon itself. These activeness are ringHome Screen Quick Actions, and cater a handy way to jump directly into a task in an iOS app without pilot through the initial app views.

The way that a exploiter access these activeness is by performing a & quot; tap and clench & quot; on the app icon, and so choosing one of the selection from the context menu which appears. With Appium & # x27; s XCUITest driver, nil prevents us from automating the dwelling screen itself, so we can easily open up these shortcut actions with Appium, the same way a user would. Thankfully, iOS frame helpful approachability IDs on the home screen icons as well as the activeness buttons themselves. Let & # x27; s walk through an example of how we & # x27; d implement the flow shown in the alive gif above: trip the & quot; New Reminder & quot; activeness of the Reminders app.

First, we need an Appium session. It doesn & # x27; t really weigh what app we prefer to launch, since we & # x27; re going to immediately shut it and get to the home screen. We could choose, for example, to launch the Reminders app, to remain thematically logical:

DesiredCapabilities capabilities = new DesiredCapabilities (); capabilities.setCapability (`` platformName '', `` iOS ''); capabilities.setCapability (`` platformVersion '', `` 13.3 ''); capabilities.setCapability (`` deviceName '', `` iPhone 11 ''); capabilities.setCapability (`` app '', `` com.apple.reminders ''); driver = new IOSDriver(new URL (`` http: //localhost:4723/wd/hub ''), capabilities);

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Now, we need to get back to the home screen. There are a few slipway to do this, but I opt the way which should be almost bullet-proof, which is thepressButtonnomadic method:

ImmutableMappressHome = ImmutableMap.of (`` gens '', `` home ''); driver.executeScript (`` mobile: pressButton '', pressHome); driver.executeScript (`` mobile: pressButton '', pressHome);

I call this method doubly, because we & # x27; re not necessarily guaranteed to end up on thefirstpage of the home screen. To be more intelligent about it, we & # x27; d probably require to put this in a loop and simply telephone it until we wind up on the blind with the Reminders app (because maybe the user put it on a different screen, as well). Following, we detect the icon itself and tap and hold it:

// find the reminders icon and long-press it By REMINDER_ICON = By.xpath (`` // * [@ name='Home screen ikon '] // * [@ name='Reminders '] ''); WebElement homeIcon = wait.until (ExpectedConditions.presenceOfElementLocated (REMINDER_ICON)); driver.executeScript (`` mobile: touchAndHold '', ImmutableMap.of (`` ingredient '', ((RemoteWebElement) homeIcon) .getId (), `` continuance '', 2.0));

As you can see, rather than construct a typical Action sequence for this, we take advantage of the fact that we know we & # x27; re on iOS, and use the iOS-specificmobile: touchAndHoldmethod, to make certain that the OS recognizes our intent. Notice also that the ikon we & # x27; ve elect is qualified via a more complex XPath query. This is because in the case of iPadOS, we might have two illustration of the picture on the blind -- -one in the main region, and one in the multitasking pier.

By ADD_REMINDER = MobileBy.AccessibilityId (`` New in Reminders ''); By LISTS = MobileBy.AccessibilityId (`` Lists ''); // now discover the home activity apply the appropriate accessibility id wait.until (ExpectedConditions.presenceOfElementLocated (ADD_REMINDER)) .click (); // prove we opened up the reminders app to the panorama where we can add a reminder wait.until (ExpectedConditions.presenceOfElementLocated (LISTS));

In the last section of our test, above, we actually tap on the quick activeness text which was uncovered by our long tap. Then, we look for an element in the Reminders app that we cognize only shows up when we & # x27; ve gotten directly to the activity (this is a screen which is not the typical initial screen of the app).

That & # x27; s it! Nothing magic to it -- just using Appium to script out exactly the deportment of a regular old human user.

As always, you can check out the code for this example in the context of a working task at theAppium Pro repo.

Author & # x27; s Profile

Jonathan Lipps

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Author & # x27; s Profile

Piali Mazumdar

Lead, Content Marketing, HeadSpin Inc.

Piali is a dynamic and results-driven Content Marketing Specialist with 8+ years of experience in crafting absorb narratives and marketing collateral across divers industry. She surpass in collaborating with cross-functional teams to develop innovative content scheme and deliver compelling, unquestionable, and impactful message that resonate with quarry audiences and enhances brand authenticity.

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Working with iOS App Home Screen Actions

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Gain best visibility into functional and performance issues
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