feat(anr): Disable ANR tracking for widgets, live activities, action, intent and share extensions

[philprime]

📜 Description

This PR addresses issue #3901 by automatically disabling App Hang (ANR) tracking for Widgets, Live Activities, (Siri) Intent Extensions, Action Extensions and Share Extensions. These components run in separate processes or sandboxes with different execution characteristics, which can cause false positive app hang reports.

• Added SentryExtensionDetector to detect the current extension context by reading Info.plist
• Added SentryExtensionType enum for extension point identifiers (WidgetKit, Intents, Action, Share extensions)
• Modified SentryANRTrackingIntegration to check for extensions before installing ANR tracking
• Extended SentryInfoPlistWrapper to support reading dictionary values from Info.plist

💚 How did you test it?

Testing:

• Added comprehensive unit tests for SentryExtensionDetector covering all extension types and error cases
• Added integration tests for SentryANRTrackingIntegration verifying correct behavior in extension contexts
• Added tests for SentryExtensionType enum

Sample Applications:

To properly test the edge cases I created additional sample apps and extensions. Some of them required newer iOS versions than iOS 15 which is still used by iOS-Swift.

Testing - General

I implemented samples with UI to visualize internal state using available UI, e.g. using a Siri Message Preview or a widget. As the App Hang tracker is disabled by default when a debugger is attached, you have two options to verify behaviour:

• Perform the test without a debugger attached
• Comment out the following lines of code, so that the App Hang Tracker is also installed with a debugger attached:

sentry-cocoa/Sources/Sentry/SentryBaseIntegration.m

Lines 136 to 140 in 3a3d93b

	if ((integrationOptions & kIntegrationOptionDebuggerNotAttached) &&
	[SentryDependencyContainer.sharedInstance.crashWrapper isBeingTraced]) {
	[self logWithReason:@"because the debugger is attached"];
	return NO;
	}

The easiest way to verify that the changes in this PR actually change anything is removing/commenting disabled extension types in the SentryExtensionDetector:

sentry-cocoa/Sources/Swift/Helper/SentryExtensionDetector.swift

Lines 5 to 12 in 00bb563

	private static var disabledAppHangTypes: [SentryExtensionType] {
	return [
	.widget,
	.intent,
	.action,
	.share
	]
	}

Testing - Share Extension

Before:

1. Remove the .share from the disabled app hang types in the SentryExtensionDetector
2. Run the Xcode scheme iOS-Swift on an iOS 18.6 simulator or iOS device
3. Stop the app
4. Open Safari on the device and navigate to any page, e.g. https://docs.sentry.io
5. Tap the share symbol in the toolbar
6. Tap on iOS-Swift in the list of applications
7. The share dialog will appear with Sentry Enabled? ✅ but ANR Disabled? ❌, indicating that we are in the falsey state and still have ANR tracking enabled.

share-before.mov

After:

1. Ensure the .share is in the list of disabled app hang types in the SentryExtensionDetector
2. Perform steps 2 to 6 similar explained above
3. The share dialog will appear with Sentry Enabled? ✅ but ANR Disabled? ✅ , indicating that we are in the truthy state and have ANR tracking disabled.

share-after.mov

Testing - Action Extension

1. Remove the .action from the disabled app hang types in the SentryExtensionDetector
2. Run the Xcode scheme iOS-Swift on an iOS 18.6 simulator or iOS device
3. Stop the app
4. Open Safari on the device and navigate to any page, e.g. https://docs.sentry.io
5. Tap the share symbol in the toolbar
6. Scroll to the bottom and tap on the action iOS-Swift-ActionExtension
7. The share dialog will appear with ✅ Sentry is enabled but ❌ ANR Tracking installed, indicating that we are in the falsey state and still have ANR tracking enabled.

action-before.mov

After:

1. Ensure the .action is in the list of disabled app hang types in the SentryExtensionDetector
2. Perform steps 2 to 6 similar explained above
3. The action view will appear with ✅ Sentry is enabled and ✅ ANR Tracking not installed , indicating that we are in the truthy state and have ANR tracking disabled.

action-after.mov

Testing - Intent Extension

Important

I was unsuccessful in using the extension in the simulator, but it worked on device. Therefore I recommend using a real device, but it might also work in the simulator

Before:

1. Remove the .intent from the disabled app hang types in the SentryExtensionDetector
2. Run the Xcode scheme iOS-Swift on an iOS device
3. Stop the app
4. Trigger Siri and ask it to "Send a message via iOS-Swift".
5. The sample will pick a fake recipient "John Snow" and show a preview message with Sentry Enabled? ✅ but ANR Disabled? ❌
6. Tap on "Send" to view the sent message UI
7. The sample will show a sent message UI with Sentry Enabled? ✅ but ANR Disabled? ❌ too

NOTE: iOS sometimes seems to cache the preview but the message after "sending it" should be correct.

intent-before.MP4

After:

1. Ensure the .intent is in the list of disabled app hang types in the SentryExtensionDetector
2. Perform steps 2 to 4 as explained above
   ...
3. The sample will pick a fake recipient "John Snow" and show a preview message with Sentry Enabled? ✅ but ANR Disabled? ✅
4. Tap on "Send" to view the sent message UI
5. The sample will show a sent message UI with Sentry Enabled? ✅ but ANR Disabled? ✅ too

intent-after.MP4

Testing - Widget

For this test we are disabling debugger detection and keep the debugger attached, because it causes a widget refresh on every run.

Before:

1. Remove the .widget from the disabled app hang types in the SentryExtensionDetector
2. Disable the debugger detection by commenting out the following code:

sentry-cocoa/Sources/Sentry/SentryBaseIntegration.m

Lines 136 to 140 in 3a3d93b

	if ((integrationOptions & kIntegrationOptionDebuggerNotAttached) &&
	[SentryDependencyContainer.sharedInstance.crashWrapper isBeingTraced]) {
	[self logWithReason:@"because the debugger is attached"];
	return NO;
	}

3. Run the Xcode scheme iOS-SwiftUI-Widgets-WidgetsExtension on an iOS simulator
4. It will install the app and create a widget on the home screen.
5. The widget will display SDK Enabled? ✅ but ANR Disabled? ❌ with the current timestamp (which is important because widgets can be outdated)

widget-before.mov

After:

1. Ensure the .widget is in the list of disabled app hang types in the SentryExtensionDetector
2. Perform steps 2 to 4 from the before test
3. The widget will display SDK Enabled? ✅ and ANR Disabled? ✅ with the current timestamp (which is important because widgets can be outdated)

widget-after.mov

Testing - Widget Control

Before:

1. Remove the .widget from the disabled app hang types in the SentryExtensionDetector
2. Disable the debugger detection by commenting out the following code:

sentry-cocoa/Sources/Sentry/SentryBaseIntegration.m

Lines 136 to 140 in 3a3d93b

	if ((integrationOptions & kIntegrationOptionDebuggerNotAttached) &&
	[SentryDependencyContainer.sharedInstance.crashWrapper isBeingTraced]) {
	[self logWithReason:@"because the debugger is attached"];
	return NO;
	}

3. Run the Xcode scheme iOS-SwiftUI-Widgets-WidgetControl on an iOS simulator
4. It will install the app and create a control in the widget control center.
5. If the symbol of the control is a X, it indicates ANR tracking is enabled.

widget-control-before.mov

After:

1. Ensure the .widget is in the list of disabled app hang types in the SentryExtensionDetector
2. Disable the debugger detection by commenting out the following code:

sentry-cocoa/Sources/Sentry/SentryBaseIntegration.m

Lines 136 to 140 in 3a3d93b

	if ((integrationOptions & kIntegrationOptionDebuggerNotAttached) &&
	[SentryDependencyContainer.sharedInstance.crashWrapper isBeingTraced]) {
	[self logWithReason:@"because the debugger is attached"];
	return NO;
	}

3. Run the Xcode scheme iOS-SwiftUI-Widgets-WidgetControl on an iOS simulator
4. It will install the app and create a control in the widget control center.
5. If the symbol of the control is a ✔️, it indicates ANR tracking is enabled.

widget-control-after.mov

Testing - Live Activities

Live Activities are displayed differently on different devices, so I recommend you use an iPhone 16 Pro with an dynamic island to see it there too.

IMPORTANT:

During testing I experience multiple times that Live Activities were not started properly, with the push notification token never showing up. Further investigation showed that the live activity is actually a separate process which is called WidgetRenderer_Activities in combination with chronod. During compile-time some of the extensions seemed to perform only partial rebuilds, causing theses processes to not being able to unarchive the live activities.

Furthermore, live activities can be considered special kinds of widgets, therefore they are in the same kind of app extension.

Before:

1. Remove the .widget from the disabled app hang types in the SentryExtensionDetector
2. Disable the debugger detection by commenting out the following code:

sentry-cocoa/Sources/Sentry/SentryBaseIntegration.m

Lines 136 to 140 in 3a3d93b

	if ((integrationOptions & kIntegrationOptionDebuggerNotAttached) &&
	[SentryDependencyContainer.sharedInstance.crashWrapper isBeingTraced]) {
	[self logWithReason:@"because the debugger is attached"];
	return NO;
	}

3. Run the Xcode scheme iOS-SwiftUI-Widgets on an iOS simulator
4. Tap on the button "Start Live Activity"
5. It will start an indefinite local live activity and display the push notification token locally with "✅ Live Activity is running"
6. Lock the screen (CMD + L)
7. In the lockscreen it should display a live activity with "SDK Enabled? ✅" and "ANR Disabled? ❌) indicating that the ANR tracker is still installed
8. Unlock the simulator and go to the home screen (CMD + SHIFT + H, repeat 3x)
9. It will display a ✅ left to the dynamic island indicating the SDK is enabled, but ❌ on the right side indicating that the ANR tracker is still installed

live-activity-before.mov

After:

1. Ensure the .widget is in the list of disabled app hang types in the SentryExtensionDetector
2. Perform steps 2 to 6 from the before test
3. In the lockscreen it should display a live activity with "SDK Enabled? ✅" and "ANR Disabled? ✅ ) indicating that the ANR tracker is not installed anymore
4. Unlock the simulator and go to the home screen (CMD + SHIFT + H, repeat 3x)
5. It will display a ✅ left to the dynamic island indicating the SDK is enabled, but ✅ on the right side indicating that the ANR tracker is not installed

live-activity-after.mov

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Performance metrics 🚀

	Plain	With Sentry	Diff
Startup time	1218.48 ms	1246.26 ms	27.78 ms
Size	23.75 KiB	1.00 MiB	1001.61 KiB

Baseline results on branch: main

Startup times

Revision	Plain	With Sentry	Diff
d1c4916	1216.66 ms	1244.73 ms	28.08 ms
d1c0538	1227.49 ms	1246.96 ms	19.47 ms
cc02c0d	1234.69 ms	1247.15 ms	12.46 ms
23b6a91	1227.73 ms	1262.93 ms	35.20 ms
ea2e54c	1207.78 ms	1218.13 ms	10.35 ms
6c0b61e	1194.21 ms	1218.74 ms	24.53 ms
83d27f6	1233.56 ms	1259.24 ms	25.68 ms
1a34ddc	1217.79 ms	1242.17 ms	24.38 ms
d05d866	1211.78 ms	1230.96 ms	19.18 ms
bc0a04c	1226.83 ms	1255.04 ms	28.21 ms

App size

Revision	Plain	With Sentry	Diff
d1c4916	23.75 KiB	981.31 KiB	957.56 KiB
d1c0538	23.75 KiB	928.87 KiB	905.12 KiB
cc02c0d	23.75 KiB	912.37 KiB	888.62 KiB
23b6a91	23.75 KiB	1004.80 KiB	981.06 KiB
ea2e54c	23.75 KiB	919.70 KiB	895.95 KiB
6c0b61e	23.75 KiB	1.02 MiB	1019.10 KiB
83d27f6	23.75 KiB	928.88 KiB	905.13 KiB
1a34ddc	23.75 KiB	919.90 KiB	896.15 KiB
d05d866	23.75 KiB	878.60 KiB	854.85 KiB
bc0a04c	23.75 KiB	933.32 KiB	909.57 KiB

Previous results on branch: philprime/disable-live-activity-widgets

Startup times

Revision	Plain	With Sentry	Diff
10db8d4	1225.04 ms	1254.57 ms	29.53 ms
1171923	1232.80 ms	1251.69 ms	18.90 ms

App size

Revision	Plain	With Sentry	Diff
10db8d4	23.75 KiB	1.00 MiB	1003.65 KiB
1171923	23.75 KiB	1.00 MiB	1001.57 KiB