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No. Apple’s documented custom-keyboard APIs do not provide a way for a keyboard extension to retrieve the bundle ID of the app currently using it. The containing app can read its own bundle ID, but that is a different app identity from the host.
Why a keyboard extension cannot identify its current host
A custom keyboard runs in its own extension process, separate from the app that contains it and from the app displaying the text field. Apple describes the keyboard’s main interaction as text input through UITextDocumentProxy, including inserting text and accessing selected text where available. That interface does not provide general access to information about the host app.
Apple’s documentation for custom keyboards does not describe a supported API that returns the current host app’s bundle identifier. Do not infer the app’s identity from the text field or the text it provides: those are not documented host-identification mechanisms.
Which app’s bundle ID can the containing app read?
The containing app can identify itself: it is the app that bundles the keyboard extension. The app hosting the keyboard is whichever app currently presents a text input field. These roles may belong to different developers and have different bundle IDs. Knowing the containing app’s ID does not reveal the host’s ID.
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Does Allow Full Access change this?
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Shared-container access concerns the keyboard and its containing app. It does not identify an unrelated app that happens to be hosting the keyboard. Apple also cautions that keyboard input is sensitive and should be used only for purposes obvious to users.
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Why ExtensionFoundation host identity is not the answer
Apple documents a host-app bundle identifier within AppExtensionIdentity for the ExtensionFoundation app-extension discovery model. That documentation does not establish that a custom keyboard can use the same mechanism to identify whichever app is currently hosting it. Likewise, UIApplicationKeyboardExtensionPointIdentifier identifies the keyboard extension point, not the host app.
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What to do if your feature depends on host-app identity
- Use user-controlled configuration. Let users select a setting or profile in the containing app, then make the keyboard’s behavior depend on that choice rather than an inferred host identity.
- Keep app-specific behavior in the containing app. If a feature must respond to the containing app’s own context, implement it there rather than assuming the keyboard can inspect other apps.
- Revisit the requirement if it needs the current host. The reviewed custom-keyboard APIs do not support that lookup. Do not rely on private APIs or guess the host from text-field behavior.
Apple documentation
- Configuring open access for a custom keyboard
- App Extension Programming Guide: Custom Keyboard
- Creating a custom keyboard
- Discovering app extensions from your app
- UIApplicationKeyboardExtensionPointIdentifier
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