How to send new message-based invites without GKMatchmakerViewController

Question

For some reasons we do not want to use the GKMatchmakerViewController. Currently we are offering the user of our App the possibility to invite their Game Center friends via a friends list displayed in our UI.

While this is still possible in iOS 10, the user will no longer have the possibility to add the GC friends. Therefore we want to use the new message-based invites introduced in iOS 10.

How can this be archived without using the GKMatchmakerViewController? I just want to display a button invite friends which opens the view to send message-based invites to anybody exactly as the button in the GKMatchmakerViewController does.

Answer 1

It is currently (iOS 10.2) not possible to display the iMessage view without the GKMatchmakerViewController.

In my app, I'm going to still provide fully custom views for the matchmaking. Only if a player on a device with iOS 10 wants to invite a friend, I'll display the GKMatchmakerViewController. This is not a great solution but currently, it seems like the most feasible workaround.

I'll also file an issue for that in Apple's bug reporter.