Silent 3D Touch Quick Action

Question

As of the new 3D Touch capabilities with the new iPhone 6s/6s+, I'm trying to add some home screen quick actions to my app.

I was able to implement the normal flow of force touching the app's icon in the home screen -> choose one of the quick actions available -> taking care of it properly in all possible app states.

My question is: Is it possible to create a silent action among the available quick actions? By silent I mean that a certain action will take place, yet the app won't complete its launch? Or alternatively launch but won't be in foreground?

UPDATE
I'll elaborate on what I'm trying to achieve - I want to have similar behaviour to the one HealthKit offer with its background delivery - where upon a change in the store, HealthKit wakes my app and give me a chance to do something in the background (with HealthKit example - query for the new data in the store).

After reading much of Apple's documentation on the topic I have the feeling it is not possible with the current API available - but I hope someone will surprise me...

Answer 1

Nope. The user invoking a home screen Quick Action always activates the app.

If your app was already running and is suspended, it comes to the foreground and your app delegate gets the application:performActionForShortcutItem:completionHandler: message. If your app has not been running (i.e. has not been run since install, or was previously backgrounded/suspended but later purged from memory), it launches and your app delegate gets the application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions: message and then the application:performActionForShortcutItem:completionHandler: message. (So, your did/willFinishLaunching handler needs to check the options dictionary for the possibility of launch via quick action.)

Either way, your app comes to the foreground.