I think it’s fair to say that we broke new ground with our iOS remote signer. People have been trying to build something like this for a long time (even predating Nostr) and afaik all those attempts have been shut down by Apple. Some of our well informed users are concerned that our implementation breaks Apple’s rules and that Primal might get banned from the App Store. I’ll share our experience here so that other builders can benefit from it.
First and foremost: we didn’t try to sneak this feature in. We provided a detailed explanation to the app store review team outlining exactly what we are doing and how. The technical tldr is: the only way to keep your iOS app running in the background is to play sound or dox user location. There is a history of developers trying to hack their way in by playing silent audio tracks or attempting to trick the reviewers (and confuse the users) in other ways.
The key to our success was that we actually built a polished ambient sound feature for our signer. Some users might actually want ambient sound for their remote sessions, so we took great care to pick the appropriate sounds and build polished UI that enables users to control those sounds via the dynamic island or the live activity UI on the lock screen. We also designed an informative sound opt in screen at the beginning of the session. This is important: the user is fully informed and totally in control every step of the way. I am not sure, but it might be helpful that Primal was already a multimedia app so this feature doesn’t feel out of place.
In any case, that’s how we did it; hope it helps other builders. 🫡
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Very interesting approach here. Sharing with our team
Thank you for all the efforts. This is really huge what you have achieved. Not only have you created the first usable signer for iOS, but you also managed to be the only signer for iOS and Android that is directly available in the normal app stores. This gives us for the first time ever a way to onboard new users smoothly into the ecosystem. Really huge for the Nostr ecosystem 💜
can i generate a connection string to paste into an app rather than scan or paste a string into primal?
👏👏👏
I thought it was proof that iOS is gay. 🤔
😂🤣
You can mute the sound via the dynamic island or lock screen UI. Also the signer should be running only while you have remote sessions going.
Yes, click the "Use keyboard instead" button on the scan screen.
To clarify, we don't yet support generating the bunker:// string that you can paste into the remote app
is there a uri scheme or something that apps should be using to "trigger" the device's signer? i think this is a great feature, but in reality a lot of people are just trying to use another nostr app on the same device so the qr scanner and even the keyboard option feel a bit clunky and not the best ux flow for such a scenario
Yes, you can easily trigger the signer by using the standard nostrconnect:// uri scheme. That's what a "Login with Nostr" button should do.
We even added support for a convenient "callback" parameter, so Primal will redirect back to your app immediately after establishing the remote connection. If it's a browser app, simply use callback=https://[your_app_login_progress_page] to get redirected back to your app.
@Derek Ross implemented this flow for some of his web apps; it works great. Derek, maybe you could share a quick video of this in action?
cool, if you know of any web or ios apps that work this way id like to test 😬
ooook. as long as ios recognizes the qr it allows you to tap it to switch to primal. that is slick. thanks!
Aegis uses audio? So if other audio source is playing it won’t work?
Not sure. But the signer hasnt been working for me
Yes, our signer is built on the standard NIP-46 spec. We follow the spec precisely, there is nothing proprietary in our implementation.
You don't need to trust Primal with your nsec; our entire stack is open, so you can see precisely how we handling it. The idea behind building a signer is precisely to minimize the need for our users to paste their nsec into any new nostr app they wish to try.


NIPs
NIP 46 - Nostr Remote Signing — Nostr Implementation Possibilities
remote-signer-key is introduced, passed in bunker url, clients must differentiate between remote-signer-pubkey and user-pubkey, must call get_publi...
Wow that's so smooth. I've just added it to https://like2rss.com and this is what it should feel like to sign in. Will have to add it to all my apps now.
I just added it to https://like2rss.com and will add it in the next step to https://nostrpad.org and then all my other apps/services. This is just so smooth, love it.