iOS 10 - weird, how did game data synced across devices?

[beernut]

i'm used to not having game saves / data shared across devices as i'm never signed in to gamecenter and only thing enabled in icloud is Find my iphone / ipad.

so, normally, it's download game on iphone, play it, move along.
then download same game on ipad, starts fresh as if never played and that's expected.

but then the other night, i tried a new game on iphone (Lost in Harmony). played a few levels and then the next day went to try it on ipad. as soon as i launched it on ipad, all my scores and game progress that was done on iphone was there on ipad. i thought that was kinda weird since as stated earlier i'm not signed in to gamecenter and don't use icloud for anything except find my i[device]. I also then played a bit on the ipad and opened it on iphone immediately after and there was my progress/scores, all updated from the ipad instance.

there were also no settings that i went through in the game itself to enable that sort of transfer of game data, so is this something new on iOS 10 itself? or how did it sync the game data?

 

[mpavilion]

Do you register / sign in to the app itself?

 

[beernut]

Do you register / sign in to the app itself?

Nope. Game doesn't even have an option for that.

I'm stumped on this one

 

[jpn]

do you have keychain sync checked as on, in iCloud preferences?

 

[simon lefisch]

The game is most likely set to sync automatically across devices. Some games are developed that way while others aren't.

 

[beernut]

do you have keychain sync checked as on, in iCloud preferences?

no, i try to make a conscious effort to disable all of that (except on occasion when i need to update my contacts, then i'll turn on and off icloud). The only thing i keep on in icloud is Find my i[device].

The game is most likely set to sync automatically across devices. Some games are developed that way while others aren't.

but what is it using to know that it's me on both devices? apple ID?

 

[simon lefisch]

but what is it using to know that it's me on both devices? apple ID?

I would assume it's your AppleID since the game is purchased using that

 

[beernut]

I would assume it's your AppleID since the game is purchased using that

sorta makes sense. but i'm wondering how the process works -- where is one device uploading the game info / progress data to for the other to retrieve (e.g. apple servers? game developer servers?). if it's using apple ID to match the devices, it can possibly be on the dev servers, right?

 

[soulsteelgray]

Not a developer, but my guess is that the game syncs data using CloudKit.

https://developer.apple.com/icloud/
https://www.raywenderlich.com/134694/cloudkit-tutorial-getting-started

 

[Insleep]

Not a developer, but my guess is that the game syncs data using CloudKit.

https://developer.apple.com/icloud/
https://www.raywenderlich.com/134694/cloudkit-tutorial-getting-started

This is most likely the case. As an app developer, that's exactly how CloudKit works. If you sign out of iCloud on the iPad (or vice-versa), your stats shouldn't sync anymore.

 

[beernut]

Not a developer, but my guess is that the game syncs data using CloudKit.

https://developer.apple.com/icloud/
https://www.raywenderlich.com/134694/cloudkit-tutorial-getting-started

thanks! that was enlightening. now i just wonder why more devs don't use it. my total Bejeweled playtime would be some absurdly high number (to be proud and embarassed of )
[doublepost=1478634137][/doublepost]

This is most likely the case. As an app developer, that's exactly how CloudKit works. If you sign out of iCloud on the iPad (or vice-versa), your stats shouldn't sync anymore.

that's what threw me off a bit, that i didn't have the game enabled for icloud (not even an option for it); however, looks like it works simply by having the user signed in to icloud itself.

 

[KALLT]

I am actually interested in this topic. Upon inspection of the IPA bundle of this game, I cannot find any reference to CloudKit, whether as a framework nor as an entitlement. It does use iCloud key–value storage and iCloud document storage, however. I presume that these are controlled by the iCloud Drive permission?

Could it not also be Handoff?

 

[beernut]

I am actually interested in this topic. Upon inspection of the IPA bundle of this game, I cannot find any reference to CloudKit, whether as a framework nor as an entitlement. It does use iCloud key–value storage and iCloud document storage, however. I presume that these are controlled by the iCloud Drive permission?

Could it not also be Handoff?

not sure about the icloud key-value and document storage but as for Handoff, i've got that disabled, too. not sure if that helps your dev research at all but please keep updating if you find out more or if you want me to check anything else.

 

[jpn]

"Could it not also be Handoff?"

hmm.