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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Building an app to edit the various parameters of digital musical instruments. A typical user would have perhaps max 6 instruments, out of the hundreds of possibilities.
Would like to structure the app with a global window, menu, etc which would be a free download. The user could download editor inserts for their particular set of instruments and ignore all of the others. The downloaded editors would show as options in a menu.
It seem like more than a widget but less than a library. Building a monolithic app containing all possible editors doesn't seem like an option, but separate full-app editors for each piece of gear doesn't sound right either.
Any suggestions out there?
Thanks very much
Brian
Hi Apple developer community. I have a question a lot of users don’t like the new control center and notification center. Are you guys gonna blur the background or are you guys gonna keep it the same?
I'm trying to create custom SF symbols and am getting this error message when I validate the template. It doesn't matter if I Export Template or Symbol. Also, it doesn't even matter if I make any changes or not, as long as it is opened in Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape and then I save it, I will get this error message when validating.
We're using StoreKit for in-app purchases on iOS, and our backend has the server notification URL configured. However, during subscription renewals, Apple's server doesn't send any requests to our endpoint. What could be causing this?
Hi everyone,
I’m having trouble getting the new glassEffect() modifier to render correctly in SwiftUI.
No matter what I try, it just appears as a solid white background (instead of translucent glass). This happens both in Beta 1 and Beta 2.
My setup:
• Mac mini (M4 chip)
• macOS 15 Beta 2 (Tahoe)
• Xcode 16 Beta 2
• Samsung Odyssey G9 57” monitor (super ultrawide)
• Using Preview in SwiftUI (not the Simulator)
Even when I use Apple’s default demo code like:
Text("Hello World")
.padding()
.glassEffect()
I have an iPad developed using UIKit and storyboards now I have to develop UI for iPhone. Designs for iPhone app are completely new from iPad app also navigation is different. I have question regarding should I make different view controllers for iPhone and iPad and different storyboard
1/自从更新26.0版本 页面好看但是应用和主界面使用体验非常差很卡
2/苹果键盘功能有待优化 表情和语音文字识别还有键盘设置
3/还有手机发热卡顿 导致非常多的使用不方便 苹果官方请优化以上问题
I have a problem that my widgets don't display well on Apple Watch Ultra when it is in the Night Mode. I would like to be able to detect this state so that I can provide a better view for this. Thank you.
I am creating a Generate note app but I don't see the text in the button when I applied the MeshGradient. I removed the Mesh Gradient and text is there. Need some help to find the issue. I am new to app Development and I am learning how to use it. Below is the code:
import SwiftUI
struct ContentView: View {
@State private var inputText: String = ""
@State private var isLoading: Bool = false
var body: some View {
ZStack {
Color(.systemGray6).edgesIgnoringSafeArea(.all)
VStack (spacing: 20) {
Text("Generate Notes")
.font(.title)
.fontWeight(.bold)
.frame(maxWidth: .infinity, alignment: .leading)
Text("Transform your thoughts into well-structured notes using artificial intelligence.")
.font(.subheadline)
.foregroundStyle(.secondary)
.frame(maxWidth: .infinity, alignment: .leading)
TextEditor(text: $inputText)
.frame(height: 200)
.padding()
.background(RoundedRectangle(cornerRadius: 16)
.fill(Color(.systemGray6)))
Button(action: {}) {
HStack {
if isLoading {
ProgressView()
.tint(.white)
} else {
Image(systemName: "sparkles")
}
Text(isLoading ? "Generating..." : "Generate Notes")
}
.padding()
.frame(maxWidth: .infinity)
.background(
MeshGradient(width: 3, height: 3, points: [
.init(0, 0), .init(0.5, 0), .init(1, 0),
.init(0, 0.5), .init(0.5, 0.5), .init(1, 0.5),
.init(0, 1), .init(0.5, 1), .init(1, 1)
], colors: [
.blue, .purple, .indigo,
.orange, .white, .blue,
.yellow, .green, .mint
])
)
.mask(
RoundedRectangle(cornerRadius: 16)
.stroke(lineWidth: 16)
.blur(radius: 8)
)
.overlay(
RoundedRectangle(cornerRadius: 16)
.stroke(.white, lineWidth: 1)
.blur(radius: 1)
.blendMode(.overlay)
)
.background(.black)
.foregroundColor(.white)
.cornerRadius(16)
.background(
RoundedRectangle(cornerRadius: 16)
.stroke(.black.opacity(0.5), lineWidth: 1)
)
.shadow(color: .black.opacity(0.15), radius: 20, x: 0, y: 20)
.shadow(color: .black.opacity(0.1), radius: 15, x: 0, y: 15)
}
.disabled(isLoading || inputText.isEmpty)
Spacer()
}
.padding(32)
.background(Color(.systemBackground))
.cornerRadius(44)
.shadow(color: .black.opacity(0.1), radius: 20, x:0, y:10)
}
}
}
#Preview {
ContentView()
}
Hi everyone, I'm currently working on my own Apple TV app. So far, things are going pretty well, but right now, I'm stuck on the design of the categories or selection menus.
Here's a screenshot of how it looks right now:
The green color and the border are intentionally added for now so I can see what is where. My actual goal is to remove the gray bar (or is this the "main bar"?). The pink bar and its border are just design elements that can be removed if needed. I want it to look more "original," like this:
Here is the code:
let title: String
let isSelected: Bool
var body: some View {
HStack {
Text(title)
.foregroundColor(isSelected ? .black : .white)
.font(.system(size: 22, weight: .regular))
.padding(.leading, 20)
Spacer()
Image(systemName: "chevron.right")
.foregroundColor(isSelected ? .black : .gray)
.padding(.trailing, 20)
}
.frame(height: 50) // Einheitliche Höhe für die Kategorien
.background(Color.pink) // Innerer Hintergrund auf pink gesetzt
.cornerRadius(10) // Abrundung direkt auf den Hintergrund anwenden
.overlay(
RoundedRectangle(cornerRadius: 10)
.stroke(Color.green, lineWidth: 3) // Äußerer Rahmen auf grün gesetzt
)
.padding(.horizontal, 0) // Entferne äußere Ränder
.background(Color.clear) // Entferne alle anderen Hintergründe
}
}
struct SettingsView_Previews: PreviewProvider {
static var previews: some View {
SettingsView()
}
}
I’ve adjusted the code, but it’s still not quite right. When a category is not selected, it appears black instead of gray, like in the original design
Here is the code:
struct SettingsView: View {
@State private var selectedCategory: String?
var body: some View {
NavigationStack {
ZStack {
Color.black
.edgesIgnoringSafeArea(.all)
VStack(spacing: 0) {
// Überschrift oben in der Mitte
Text("Einstellungen")
.font(.system(size: 40, weight: .semibold))
.foregroundColor(.white)
.padding(.top, 30)
HStack {
// Linke Seite mit Logo
VStack {
Spacer()
Image(systemName: "applelogo")
.resizable()
.scaledToFit()
.frame(width: 120, height: 120)
.foregroundColor(.white)
Spacer()
}
.frame(width: UIScreen.main.bounds.width * 0.4)
// Rechte Seite mit Kategorien
VStack(spacing: 15) {
ForEach(categories, id: \.self) { category in
NavigationLink(
value: category,
label: {
SettingsCategoryView(
title: category,
isSelected: selectedCategory == category
)
}
)
.buttonStyle(PlainButtonStyle())
}
}
.frame(width: UIScreen.main.bounds.width * 0.5)
}
}
}
.navigationDestination(for: String.self) { value in
Text("\(value)-Ansicht")
.font(.title)
.foregroundColor(.white)
.navigationTitle(value)
}
}
}
private var categories: [String] {
["Allgemein", "Benutzer:innen und Accounts", "Video und Audio", "Bildschirmschoner", "AirPlay und HomeKit", "Fernbedienungen und Geräte", "Apps", "Netzwerk", "System", "Entwickler"]
}
}
struct SettingsCategoryView: View {
let title: String
let isSelected: Bool
var body: some View {
HStack {
Text(title)
.foregroundColor(.white)
.font(.system(size: 22, weight: .medium))
.padding(.leading, 20)
Spacer()
Image(systemName: "chevron.right")
.foregroundColor(.gray)
.padding(.trailing, 20)
}
.frame(height: 50) // Einheitliche Höhe für die Kategorien
.background(isSelected ? Color.gray.opacity(0.3) : Color.clear) // Hervorhebung des ausgewählten Elements
.cornerRadius(8) // Abgerundete Ecken
.scaleEffect(isSelected ? 1.05 : 1.0) // Fokus-Animation
.animation(.easeInOut, value: isSelected)
}
}
struct SettingsView_Previews: PreviewProvider {
static var previews: some View {
SettingsView()
}
}
Hi,
I have the following code, which for some reason is not working as expected. I have an .onAppear and a .task function that isn't running, which I can see isn't running because nothing is printing. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
struct ContentView: View {
var body: some View {
ZStack {
switch view {
case .view1: View1()
case .view2: View2()
case .view3: View3()
case .view4: View4()
case .view5: View5()
default: SubscriptionStoreView(groupID: "")
}
}
.onAppear() {
view = .view6
print("test 1")
}
.task {
print("test")
await refreshPurchasedProducts()
}
}
func refreshPurchasedProducts() async {
// Iterate through the user's purchased products.
for await verificationResult in Transaction.currentEntitlements {
switch verificationResult {
case .verified(let transaction): print("verified")
case .unverified(let unverifiedTransaction, let verificationError): print("unverified")
default: print("default")
}
}
}
}
I'm coding an iPhone app using Swift and I'm getting this scoping error. Attached.
I previously written here, and some advices were to appeal to rejection sending them message describing uniqueness of the app. Nothing is working.
In short, i have a vpn app (of course by design shares some concept with other apps that are in the app store). But since the rejection i have completely changed the ui, added built in browser, p2p messenger so users could interact with each other without any interference. The app is completely free with no ads. I thought this is it, there's no way it would reject this time, but... i get a notification with rejection repeating the same old message. I'm extremely frustrated and don't know what to do.
Tried changing the logo of the app, the name to "Incognito - Messenger, VPN", app store screenshots.
I've already appealed with screenshots describing unique features that other vpn apps don't have, but the message just repeats from app review team.
Submission ID: 1a49ee0b-c4e2-4a36-8372-e4d3b9a8b13f
Does anybody have an advice what i can do?
Hello Apple Developer Support,
We initially uploaded our INRx App on a different Apple Developer account for internal testing purposes.
Now, we would like to publish the same app under a new Apple Developer account for production, but we're currently facing a design-related rejection during the review process.
We believe the app meets all guidelines, and there were no design issues flagged previously when submitted from the testing account.
Could you please help us understand:
Why the same app is now being rejected for design issues?
Is there a way to resolve this while moving the app to the new account?
Any advice or clarification would be greatly appreciated so we can successfully proceed with publishing.
Thank you!
Is there anyway I can customize Carplay template look like this
I have an ongoing activity in progress.
Think of:
a delivery in progress
house internet reboot in progress
some water / electricity / internet / tv outage.
(food) order processing
I want to show a persistent toast message above the tab bar, across all tabs and screens across the app. It could take 15 minutes until the activity is finished.
Obviously there's a challenge of:
accessibility
content overlaying with each other
extra engineering effort.
What we've thought of doing is:
Option1: show a toast message, but when a modal is presented then it presents on top of the toast message. The toast message no longer updates itself. Once the modal is finished, then the toast message re-appears and continues to update.
Option2: keep the toast message across all tabs and modals and work through the challenges mentioned
Question:
What are some other design approaches that could be taken to persist an ongoing activity (much like 'Live Activity', but just across the app when it's in foreground) or what are some design reasons that the two options considered are bad?
This is a follow-up to my previous question: How to attribute/credit Apple Fonts added to app?
In that previous post, I misremembered what I did and said I found fonts via macOS' FontBooks, when instead I came acrossUIFont.familyNames. Since these are included via UIKit, the legal implications should be different.
I looked at various license agreements that govern iOS app development but haven't found anything mentioning fonts. Since these are included as part of UIKit, its reasonable to assume that developers are allowed to include these fonts--but in what ways?
Am I allowed to let users create, say, documents with these fonts?
Am I only allowed to display these fonts?
There are 84 fonts, and judging by their FontBook entries, there is a wide range of licenses and restrictions. It seems unnecessarily harsh to have every iOS developer verify each one and figure out which they can legally keep if they want to offer their users access to all (for, say, a text-editing app). There must be some overarching rule that supersedes/encapsulates them, but this rule isn't clear to me after hours of research. I'm not a lawyer, and I don't think Apple expects every app developer to consult their lawyers on whether they can use system fonts.
I'm about to send an email to Apple's legal team (I will post their response here if allowed), but in the meantime I want to hear what other devs think about this.
In Xcode, entering UIFont.familyNames returns the following:
["Academy Engraved LET", "Al Nile", "American Typewriter", "Apple Color Emoji", "Apple SD Gothic Neo", "Apple Symbols", "Arial", "Arial Hebrew", "Arial Rounded MT Bold", "Avenir", "Avenir Next", "Avenir Next Condensed", "Baskerville", "Bodoni 72", "Bodoni 72 Oldstyle", "Bodoni 72 Smallcaps", "Bodoni Ornaments", "Bradley Hand", "Chalkboard SE", "Chalkduster", "Charter", "Cochin", "Copperplate", "Courier New", "Damascus", "Devanagari Sangam MN", "Didot", "DIN Alternate", "DIN Condensed", "Euphemia UCAS", "Farah", "Futura", "Galvji", "Geeza Pro", "Georgia", "Gill Sans", "Grantha Sangam MN", "Helvetica", "Helvetica Neue", "Hiragino Maru Gothic ProN", "Hiragino Mincho ProN", "Hiragino Sans", "Hoefler Text", "Impact", "Kailasa", "Kefa", "Khmer Sangam MN", "Kohinoor Bangla", "Kohinoor Devanagari", "Kohinoor Gujarati", "Kohinoor Telugu", "Lao Sangam MN", "Malayalam Sangam MN", "Marker Felt", "Menlo", "Mishafi", "Mukta Mahee", "Myanmar Sangam MN", "Noteworthy", "Noto Nastaliq Urdu", "Noto Sans Kannada", "Noto Sans Myanmar", "Noto Sans Oriya", "Optima", "Palatino", "Papyrus", "Party LET", "PingFang HK", "PingFang SC", "PingFang TC", "Rockwell", "Savoye LET", "Sinhala Sangam MN", "Snell Roundhand", "STIX Two Math", "STIX Two Text", "Symbol", "Tamil Sangam MN", "Thonburi", "Times New Roman", "Trebuchet MS", "Verdana", "Zapf Dingbats", "Zapfino"]
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.
The problem is the same in all of my applications. To reproduce it, in iOS 26, set the dark mode in the Brightness and display settings and in Accessibility, Display and text size, activate Increase contrast and bold text. With these settings, all the controls will be surrounded by a thin white line. When in the app a keyboard is dispayed, the thin white line does not appears correctly around the keyboard like in the capture joined, it is present on top and partially on bottom but not on sides
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.