MIT App Inventor for iOS version 2.74 in TestFlight

ewpatton · August 26, 2025, 4:22pm

The MIT App Inventor for iOS companion app has been updated on TestFlight to version 2.74 build 24. It contains the following improvements and bugfixes:

Fix a crash in the app library feature
Improve AR capabilities (needs ar.appinventor.mit.edu)
Fix progress view animations
Fix LocationSensor Geocode causing an error on failure
Handle more error conditions in Web component

Please continue to help test as we work on bug fixes.

Cheers,
Evan W. Patton, Ph.D.
Lead Software Engineer, MIT App Inventor

Ferran_SIMON · August 26, 2025, 5:24pm

@ewpatton : Is solved in this version the issue of Time and Data Picker that they are occupying the full screnn app when we select it?

ewpatton · August 27, 2025, 3:31pm

The MIT App Inventor for iOS companion app has been updated on TestFlight to version 2.74 build 25. It contains the following bug fixes:

Fix an issue with Spreadsheet calls not working in Screen1.Initialize
Fix RequestFocus/HideKeyboard not working on TextBox

Please continue to help test as we work on bugs.

Cheers,
Evan W. Patton, Ph.D.
Lead Software Engineer, MIT App Inventor

ewpatton · August 27, 2025, 3:31pm

Not yet, no. We're working through a long list of issues right now.

ewpatton · August 27, 2025, 10:34pm

MIT App Inventor for iOS version 2.74 build 26 is now available with the following changes:

Add physics for some nodes in AR
Make date and time picker UIs use wheels on iPhone similar to earlier versions

Ferran_SIMON · August 28, 2025, 9:47am

Tested and now runs well!. Thanks a lot of.
Edit: When will this solved issue be actived in the Builder Server?

Ferran_SIMON · August 28, 2025, 9:55am

Tested and now runs well¡ Thks

Ferran_SIMON · August 28, 2025, 10:00am

What new error conditions can we test for the web component?
Please, say us if they are ErrorOcurred or GotText?

ewpatton · August 28, 2025, 1:04pm

The timeout, connection failure, and not connected to internet as Timeout events (an error will also be dispatched to the Screen). All other errors reported by the OS will be just sent via ErrorOccurred. The relevant patch is here:

github.com/mit-cml/appinventor-sources

Improve error handling in iOS Web component

mit-cml:master ← ewpatton:hotfix/ios-web-timeout

opened 12:43PM - 27 Aug 25 UTC

ewpatton

+12 -1

Change-Id: I28437c483ed09800193b2c2471af3d97a4b31ddd General items: - [ ] …I have updated the relevant documentation files under docs/ - [ ] My code follows the: - [ ] [Google Java style guide](https://google.github.io/styleguide/javaguide.html) (for .java files) - [ ] [Google JavaScript style guide](https://google.github.io/styleguide/jsguide.html) (for .js files) - [x] `ant tests` passes on my machine For all other changes: - [x] I branched from `master` - [x] My pull request has `master` as the base What does this PR accomplish? This PR fixes an issue where most Web related errors on iOS are eaten by the error handler. We only ever checked specifically for a Timeout error and then dropped the others. I mapped a few additional error conditions that might reasonably be considered timeouts to that particular handler and all other errors will now go to ErrorOccurred rather than silently disappearing.

Ferran_SIMON · August 28, 2025, 1:41pm

OK. Thanks a lot of.
When will be moved these correction issues to the Builder Server?

ewpatton · August 28, 2025, 1:44pm

Hopefully tomorrow depending on my schedule.

mamante · August 28, 2025, 5:36pm

@ewpatton Thanks for sharing this update! Really excited to see the AR improvements coming into the iOS companion. Do you happen to have any documentation or sample projects that show how the AR components work with ar.appinventor.mit.edu?

I’d also be interested in specific use cases or example projects that would let us test the other updated features (app library fix, progress view animations, LocationSensor Geocode handling, Web component error conditions). Having concrete scenarios would be great for classroom use — and I’d be happy to test them out and share results with the community.

Profi · September 3, 2025, 1:15pm

Over the past three weeks, I have been developing applications for iOS using MIT App Inventor.
During this process, I encountered several important limitations and issues:

When the application size exceeds 30 MB, a QR code cannot be generated and the build process gets stuck at 100%.
Audio files with the .ogg extension are not supported.
The “do not play music in the background” option is not supported.
Since MIT App Inventor 2 does not have a built-in block to detect when the screen is turned off, Apple’s guideline 2.5.4 (which requires music to stop when the app is not in the foreground) cannot be triggered for music apps, and as a result, these apps are rejected. I tried countless block-based variations to solve this issue, but none of them worked reliably.
Screen orientation (landscape or portrait) cannot be locked using blocks.
It was already mentioned that nested horizontal or vertical arrangement components do not resize correctly.
Immediately after launching an app, I observed that buttons sometimes fail to grab focus, depending on the device.
In addition, while programming, it is necessary to check very frequently whether the blocks editor is still active, as the “page refresh” warning appears far too often.

For me, the most important improvement would be the addition of a feature that can trigger an event when the screen turns off.