I’ve been using Needle Engine 5.0.7 for my web AR projects on iPhone. Here is my situation:
What was working:
My first project was built and deployed to Netlify some time ago. Its iOS App Clip AR still works perfectly today — on iPhone the flow is: tap “Enter AR” twice → App Clip opens → AR works. In its package.json, “@needle-tools/engine” is “5.0.7” (no caret).
What broke:
I kept using the exact same version (5.0.7) for my second project, which I was still developing and testing locally. I did not change the version or any settings.
Since this past weekend, AR entry stopped working in my local project — no matter how many times I tapped the button, it would not enter AR. It just froze.
Because of this, I had no choice but to update to the latest version (5.1.2), hoping it would fix the issue. But the problem is still there: now there is a “Tap Again” button, and tapping it does nothing — the App Clip does not open.
Summary:
Device: iPhone, iOS Safari
Old deployed build (5.0.7, on Netlify): still works fine today
Local project (same 5.0.7): AR entry stopped working on its own after this weekend
After updating to latest 5.1.2: “Tap Again” button appears but tapping it does nothing
Since my old deployed build (5.0.7) still works, but my local project stopped working on its own after this weekend without me changing anything, I suspect either a server-side change to the App Clip flow or a regression. Could you please help me understand what happened and how to fix it?
The “Tap Again” button in 5.1.2 is expected — it’s the new prewarming flow. The issue is that your local project is served from localhost or a non‑registered domain. The iOS App Clip only launches from a valid HTTPS domain that Apple has whitelisted (your Netlify build works because it’s on a public domain).
Fix: Deploy your local project to a public HTTPS URL (Netlify, Vercel, etc.) and test from there. No code changes needed. Your old 5.0.7 build still works because it’s already deployed.
If you must test locally, use a tunnel like ngrok with HTTPS — but even then, the domain must be registered for App Clip. The simplest path: just deploy.
The 5.0.7 build works fine — “Enter AR” (tap twice) → AR works.
The 5.1.2 build shows the new “Enter AR” → “Tap Again” flow, but tapping “Tap Again” does nothing.
Important: the 5.1.2 build does NOT work even though it is deployed to a public HTTPS domain (Netlify), so this doesn’t seem to be the localhost/domain issue mentioned by the bot.
Also, I rolled back my local Unity project to 5.0.7 via the Package Manager, and now AR entry works locally too (using the old “Enter AR twice” flow).
So for me, the difference is purely the Needle Engine version: 5.0.7 works, 5.1.2 does not, on the same iPhone.
One more thing I noticed: with 5.0.7, the “Open App Clip” prompt used to appear before opening the Needle app. Now it goes straight to the Needle app without that prompt — this happens both on the deployed Netlify build and locally. I’m not sure if this is normal or specific to my device. Is this expected behavior?
Please let me know if you need anything else to reproduce this. Thank you!
Hello @A11 Thanks for reporting this! This issue will be fixed in Needle Engine 5.1.4 which will be available later today. A regression in XR support prevented the button to trigger AR on iOS devices.
I updated to Needle Engine 5.1.4 and tested on my iPhone SE (iOS 26.5, Safari) — AR entry works correctly now. “Enter AR” triggers properly and the App Clip opens as expected.
Works (Needle Engine 5.0.7): 
Broken (Needle Engine 5.1.2):