At WWDC25 we launched a new type of Lab event for the developer community - Group Labs. A Group Lab is a panel Q&A designed for a large audience of developers. Group Labs are a unique opportunity for the community to submit questions directly to a panel of Apple engineers and designers. Here are the highlights from the WWDC25 Group Lab for Design.
Can you expand on how Liquid Glass helps with navigation and focus in the UI?
Liquid Glass clarifies the navigation layer by introducing a single, floating pane that acts as the primary navigation area. Buttons within this pane seamlessly morph as you move between sections, and controls can temporarily lift into the glass surface. While avoiding excessive use of glass (like layering glass on glass), this approach simplifies navigation and strengthens the connection between menus, alerts, and the elements that trigger them.
What should I do with customized bars that I might have in my app?
Reconsider the content and behavior of customized bars. Evaluate whether you need all the buttons and whether a menu might be a better solution. Instead of relying on background colors or styling, express hierarchy through layout and grouping. This is a good opportunity to adopt the new design language and simplify your interface.
What are scroll edge effects, and what options do we have for them?
Scroll edge effects enhance legibility in controls by lifting interactive elements and separating them from the background. There are two types: a soft edge effect (a subtle blur) and a hard edge effect (a more defined boundary for high-legibility areas like column sorting). Scroll edge effects are designed to work seamlessly with Liquid Glass, allowing content to feel expansive while ensuring controls and titles remain legible.
How can we ensure or improve accessibility using Liquid Glass?
Legibility is a priority, and refinements are ongoing throughout the betas. Liquid Glass adapts well to accessibility settings like Reduce Transparency, Increase Contrast, and Reduce Motion. There are two variants of glass: regular glass, designed to be legible by default, and clear glass, used in places like AVKit, which requires more care to ensure legibility. Use color contrast tools to ensure contrast ratios are met. The Human Interface Guidelines (HIG) are a living document offering best practices. The colors and materials pages are key resources.
Do you have any recommendations for convincing designers concerned with consistency across Android and Web to use Liquid Glass?
Start small and focus on high-utility controls that don't significantly impact brand experience. Native controls offer familiarity and predictability to users. Using the native controls makes sure your app feels at home on the device. Using native frameworks provides built-in accessibility support (dynamic type, reduce transparency, increase contrast). Native controls come with built-in behaviors and interactions.
Can ScrollViews include Liquid Glass within them?
You can technically put a glass layer inside a scroll view, but it can feel heavy and doesn't align with the system's intention for Liquid Glass to serve as a fixed layer. Think of the content layer as the scrolling layer, and the navigational layer as the one using Liquid Glass. If there is glass on the content layer it will collide into the navigational layer.
What core design philosophy guided the direction of iOS 26, beyond the goal of unification?
The core design philosophy involved blurring the line between hardware and software, separating UI and navigation elements from content, making apps adaptable across window sizes, and combining playfulness with sophistication. It was about making the UI feel at home on rounded screens.
Can we layer Liquid Glass elements on top of each other?
Avoid layering Liquid Glass elements directly on top of each other, as it creates unnecessary visual complexity. The system will automatically convert nested glass elements to a vibrant fill style. Use vibrant fills and labels to show control shapes and ensure legibility. Opaque grays should be avoided in favor of vibrant colors, which will multiply with the backgrounds correctly.
What will happen to apps that use custom components? Should they be adapted to the new design within the next year?
The more native components you use, the more things happen for free. Standard components will be upgraded automatically. Look out for any customizations that might clash. Think about what is the minimum viable change, where your app still feels and looks very similar to what it did. Prioritize changes in core workflows and navigational areas. There are a number of benefits to using native components including user familiarity, built-in accessibility support, and built-in behaviors and interactions.
Will Apple be releasing Figma design templates?
Sketch kits were published on Monday and can be referenced. The goal is to ensure the resources are well-organized, well-named, and easy to use. It's a high priority.
Explore the art and science of app design. Discuss user interface (UI) design principles, user experience (UX) best practices, and share design resources and inspiration.
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Hi,
in the Human Interface Guidelines, Apple writes:
Avoid using a segmented control in a toolbar. Toolbar items act on the current screen — they don’t let people switch contexts like segmented controls do.
Along with this image:
Source
I'm confused by this example. The screenshot seems to be showing a segmented control in a toolbar.
Is this saying that the Phone app's All/Missed toggle is different from a segmented control? Under iOS 26 it seems to take a different style compared to a regular segmented control. If so, which component is used to create this filter?
Could you please clarify the guidelines? Thank you.
I see the logo all over the internet, but the only Official logo I can find is the swift logo, the orange one, but the blue one I do not see a place to download it nor the usage guidelines. I have seen it on various Icon site like Icon8. I would like to use it on my reddit forum that is dedicated to SwiftUI but I want to be legal. Is it allowed to use and if so, where can you download the official verison?
Hi everyone,
since updating to Xcode 26 Beta 3, I’m seeing some really strange behavior. I just changed the color of a Color asset in my SwiftUI view – literally just switched from one named color to another – and suddenly:
• Previews stopped working completely, with vague or no error messages.
• Even when I changed the color back to what it was before, the previews still refused to build.
• In addition, Xcode no longer restores the open tabs/windows when reopening the project. It just shows a blank editor every time I open it.
This all happened without touching any project settings or code structure – just a simple color swap.
Has anyone else run into this with Xcode 26 Beta 3?
Would love to know if it’s a known bug or if there’s a workaround (besides nuking Derived Data, which I’ve already tried).
Thanks!
While the activityBackgroundTint modifier is intended to set the background color of a Live Activity, it often fails to dynamically update, leaving the activity with an incorrect background. Replacing it with
ZStack {
Color(.background)
....
}
solves the problem, but this is a workaround. The activityBackgroundTint modifier is still needed, at a minimum, so that the "Allow Live Activity for the app" extension does not have the default color.
I have accidentally missed the sign up window for the UX Writing lab by 1 hour, but I'd still love to join it if at all possible. I have had this lab several times in the past and it was always very informative.
I have a time tracking app that helps people make the most of their time. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/timelines-time-tracking/id1112433234
I'm looking for guidance on how to improve copywriting in my onboarding sequence, on my paywall, and overall throughout the app.
Thank you for considering. My Apple ID is lukas[at]glimsoft.com.
I've been playing around with the recently published iPad PRO M5 13" and it's awesome in most ways I've been able to think of. But this video capture of the app I'm developing, for example, lacks it the app icon "should" be just slightly translucent as I see it.
https://youtube.com/CAukICBrVzw
However I'm not and UI/X person and this is primarily my personal preference only for an option to allow for devs.
I found that on my cutomer's mac device, webflterproxyd start interferiing with the NE traffic. Tried to stop it, but "screen time" was not enabled at all.
Who started this webfilterproxyd process and how to stop it?
I am developing an app that requires calling the iPhone's Face ID module to scan users' facial data. Where can I find Apple's design resources and guidelines for Face ID? The Face ID resources available in Figma are incomplete, and I need more support.
For example, in the iPhone settings, the scenario: the UI interface for scanning the user's face to collect data, specifically the circular design in the "How to Set Up Face ID" screen.
What is the step-by-step process to run an iOS application paired with the Mac in my MAUI project?
I am using Windows with Visual Studio 2022 V17.13.5.
Application: Multiplatform;
Language: C#;
Framework: MAUI 8;
Xcode: 16.2;
Objective: Identify and fix the issue to allow the application to run correctly.
I'm looking for a way to display a notification badge without showing a number—essentially, just an empty badge to indicate the presence of notifications. From my research, it seems like this functionality isn't available . Is there any workaround or method to achieve this?
I’m working on a SwiftUI sheet that has a specific size 624 x 746, but I’m running into issues on certain devices like the iPad mini in landscape or when using Stage Manager. The sheet sometimes gets cut off, and the content inside isn’t fully visible.
Current Implementation:
The sheet is 624 x 746, but if there's less width or height around the sheet, I want it to scale dynamically while maintaining the aspect ratio (to ensure the content can always be shown)
Ideally, I’d love for the sheet to increase in size on larger screens to cover more of the page behind it.
The sheet contains a NavigationStack with multiple pages.
Problems I’m Facing:
iPad mini (landscape): The bottom content (like buttons) gets cut off when the sheet height is constrained.
Stage Manager: If the user resizes the window, the sheet doesn’t adjust properly, leading to UI clipping.
Ideal behavior: I want the sheet to dynamically scale its width and height while maintaining the aspect ratio.
Questions
How can I prevent content from being cut off when using the sheet in iPad mini landscape?
Is there a better approach to handle Stage Manager resizing dynamically?
Any insights or alternative approaches would be greatly appreciated! 🚀
Also, I’m a designer, and I’m doing this to help our development team—so please bear with my code 😅
Thanks in advance! 😊
Hello All,
I used to own an app named LOLIIPOP, and am in the process of transferring it to my new apple account.
I am having two problems....
How do I transfer the source code and binary to my new apple account?
My developers have an old code, so I need to send them the LAST code they uploaded to the App Store.
How do I do that as well???
Please any help!!!
Thanks,
Mr. LM
I use swiftui to build apps on iPhone and iPad.
There is no problem with the iPhone app.
The game display is fully shown on iPhone.
However, for the iPad, the game display is not shown and the screen goes black.
I had to tap the button on the upper left side.(looks like a side view button)
After that, the game display is only shown in the left side in a very small size.
How can I make the game display fully shown in the iPad?
As a very exclusive Apple only I want to share my thoughts on the new iOS 26 update, which I recently installed on my iPhone 16. While I genuinely appreciate Apple’s drive for innovation and personalization, this update introduces visual and stylistic changes that, in my opinion, compromise what has made iOS feel uniquely Apple for so long.
Liquid Glass & Home Screen Aesthetics:
When I first saw previews of the “Liquid Glass” design, I was excited. I assumed it would add more flexibility to things like the home screen customization — something like an optional effect that builds on the popular app tinting feature introduced in the previous iOS version. But instead, it appears that the Liquid Glass look is now the default and, more concerningly, unavoidable.
The result is a visual experience that feels dramatically more bubbly and less refined. App icons appear more rounded and inflated in a way that — and I say this as constructively as I can — reminds me more of Android or Samsung’s One UI than of Apple’s signature design language. For someone who’s chosen Apple specifically because of its clean, crisp, and elegant UI, this shift is disappointing. iOS has always felt visually mature and thoughtfully minimal. With this update, it starts to feel overly stylized and visually heavy, which I don’t associate with Apple’s identity.
Camera App – Icon Design:
While I don’t have major concerns with the layout of the Camera app itself, the new Camera app icon is something I feel very strongly about. The previous design was balanced, clear, and professional — instantly recognizable. The new icon, is completely different, and it has more the camera that look like the actual iPhone camera, which I can respect the want to identify the app the iPhone. But this is not the effect I felt it has, I feel like it is less professional than before, which again makes me think a little bit about androids. This minor change feels bit because icons are what we see every day, and this one doesn’t feel quite right for Apple.
Along with the new camera icon, the other new icons like the notes app, and the slight change in the message app icon, these small shifts aren’t ones I was overly pleased with, kind of felt like something that wasn’t broke and didn’t need fixed
Messages App:
The Messages app is where I felt the biggest disconnect. The updated keyboard with the “keys” looking more bubbly which again, makes me think android. And with the new monogram icons (initials in thick fonts with purple backgrounds), make the app feel — again — much more like an Android UI. While that might sound superficial, it doesn’t make me feel like it’s an iPhone.
As someone who’s always preferred the Apple system, I’ve come to expect a particular standard of visual design — one that’s distinct from other platforms. This new look blurs that line. The once refined look of Messages is not as clean and simple as it used to be. I also preferred the gray background for monogram icons. The new colors and heavy fonts draw attention in ways that don’t feel as clean and simplistic which I have loved Apple for in the past.
Control Center:
Another area where I noticed a slight change is the Control Center. It’s not a big difference to the previous one, which I liked. The main difference I noticed was the brightness and sounds “bar” seems more elongated. Not a major difference but I would rather see the older design if I were to be honest.
What I Did Like:
There are some positives: I think the new lock screen notification styling works well, and the Liquid Glass effect looks great in that specific context. I actually really like the looks that it has with the notifications on the lock screen, having it be that transparent gives a clean and simple look. Lots of the new things that can be done in this update are very nice and convent, the more customization is great.
Final Thoughts:
To be clear, I offer this feedback not because I’m resisting change, but because I value what makes iOS feel like iOS. This update, while visually bold, feels like a departure from Apple’s strengths — the clean and simplistic look. If there’s one big takeaway I hope you’ll consider, some of the new looks that have been put in place give a feeling that’s not Apple, and more Android. it’s that many of these new visual styles would be better received as optional customizations, not system-wide defaults.
I would love to see an update to help fix some of this. I don’t believe there is a way to “un-update” my phone but if I could I would, even though some of these new things do look and feel good.
I am struggling with exactly how to set up SwiftData relationships, beyond the single relationship model...
Let's say I have a school. Each school offers a set of classes. Each class is taught by one teacher and attended by several students. Teachers may teach more than one class, but only at one school. Similarly students may attend more than one class, but only at one school. Classes themselves may be offered at more than one school.
Can someone create a class for School, SchoolClass, Teacher, and Student with id, name, and relationships... I have tried it unsuccessfully about 10 different ways at this point.
My most recent is below... I am struggling getting beyond a school listing in the app, and I'll cross that bridge next. I am just wondering if all the trouble I am having is because I am not smart with the class definitions. And wondering if this is to complex for SwiftData and CoreData is the requirement.
This is not a real app, just my way of really trying to get a handle on Swift Data models and Navigation.
I am very new to Swift, and will take any and all suggestions with enthusiasm! Thanks for taking the time.
import Foundation
import SwiftData
@Model
class School: Identifiable {
var id: UUID = UUID()
var name: String
var mascot: String
var teachers: [Teacher]
var schoolClasses: [SchoolClass]
init (name: String, mascot: String = "", teachers: [Teacher] = [], schoolClasses: [SchoolClass] = []) {
self.name = name
self.mascot = mascot
self.teachers = teachers
}
class SchoolClass: Identifiable {
var id: UUID = UUID()
var name: String
var teacher: Teacher?
var students: [Student] = []
init (name: String, teacher: Teacher? = nil, students: [Student] = []) {
self.name = name
self.teacher = teacher
self.students = students
}
}
class Teacher: Identifiable {
var id: UUID = UUID()
var name: String
var tenured: Bool
var school: School?
var students: [Student] = []
init (name: String, tenured: Bool = false, students: [Student] = []) {
self.name = name
self.tenured = tenured
self.students = students
}
}
class Student: Identifiable {
var id: UUID = UUID()
var name: String
var grade: Int?
var teacher: Teacher?
init (name: String, grade: Int? = nil, teacher: Teacher? = nil) {
self.name = name
self.grade = grade
self.teacher = teacher
}
}
}
App design: macos, Xcode 16.4, Sequioa 15.5, it is sandboxed
Uses: Pods->HotKey for a global hotkey which xcode says "binary compatibility can't be guaranteed"
This app is on the Apple Store and supposedly apps on the Apple Store can't use global hotkeys. Someone internally, installed it from the store and the global hotkey works just fine.
I'm concerned for two potential problems;
I need to find a hotkey library or code that is known to work with a sandbox'd Apple Store app.
Why is it working now when everything I have read says it shouldn't.
I've been playing around with iPad PRO M5 13" as part of my goal to implement some music relating SPH particle simulation effects on it - and this involves utilizing tap events also from the incredible looking fresh screen the device has.
See more information from here, all should be overreactively implemented but the ideas remain (with almost zero cost copy fragment shader) :
`https://youtu.be/ci-GSgQ0wlM`
This attached image shows the tap effects implementation brought just bit a little further than in the video.
Hi,
Just want to check is there a requirement for Apple that for App Digital Wallet provisioning that Apple Pay button is not more than 2 taps away from Home Screen?
Hello, I am looking to develop a relationship with a developer that has experience running through the IOS build approval process. To elaborate, my team and I have designed and built a software application which is working through the Apple Developer review process to have the app approved and released to the App Store. Unfortunately, there has been some challenges, simple challenges in my eyes with our interface preventing Apple from approving our application. Happy to elaborate further.
A primary problem and solution I have seen is the software build was testing solely on the iPhone but as recently directed it seem the application must be accessible on iPad as well. With this the case, I have experience some software platforms where on the ipad the interface is not displayed on the whole screen. I am looking for direction on how to implement this setup for the 1st IOS build. Another concern from Apples Developer Review team is the App Tracking Transparency kit may need to be implemented.
I am working on a Mac App that was developed with Objective C and Interface Builder. In earlier versions of Mac OS the window title was centered. Now in Tahoe it's left-justified. Is there some way to set this? There is no setting for this in Interface Builder and I can't see any way to do it programmatically by reading the developer documentation. Is this even possible?