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By "legally" I meant methods which will be accepted to App Store.

I have read this one, but I feel that it could be out-date (a question and most answers are dated back 2008)

How to share custom data between iPhone applications?

And these provides minimal info:

Sharing files Between Apps on iOS Devices

Sharing data between different apps in the same iOS device

As I understand these methods are

Completely legal

1) UIApplication openURL

2) Keychain can be used if both applications are developed by the same team

3) iCloud could be used if both application are developed by the same team

Grey area.

4) Global notification using CFNotificationCenterGetDarwinNotifyCenter, CFNotificationCenterAddObserver, CFNotificationCenterPostNotification

5) Use TCP/IP sockets (if one of applications run in background)

6) Use Unix sockets (if one of applications run in background)

7) Use custom UIPasteBoard

Did anybody got rejected or accepted who used this?

Does anybody know any other methods?

-- Update 1--

Both apps will be running on the same device.

There is a chance that one of the apps will be running in the background (VOIP)

Apps will be developed by different teams (won't be signed with the same certificates).

Community
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Victor Ronin
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2 Answers2

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i would recommend using icloud because apple sends the files to all devices, and you can get the files in both apps using it. if you want to do it with someone elses apps, you would have to ask that developer. but icloud is probably the easiest and fastest way.

Chris Loonam
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  • Since you mentioned it. A subquestion. Are sharing through iCloud between two different teams fine (when one app is developed by one company and another app by another company)? – Victor Ronin Jan 25 '13 at 20:49
  • im not sure since ive never tried it, however you may be able to access the files that the user has for that app using iCloud, but you would have to research that and if apple allows that – Chris Loonam Jan 25 '13 at 21:00
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What about using a service like dropbox? It's used by quite a lot of apps, and I think they provide a rich API.

Thorsten
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  • That's interesting idea. I would probably even generalize it - store shared content on the server. In such case main question is authentication of each app to the server. – Victor Ronin Jan 25 '13 at 20:55