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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Context & Issue
I am developing an iOS application.
My app icon uses colors that are relatively close to each other.
When the user enables Accessibility → Display & Text Size → Color Filters → Grayscale (or similar modes), the icon becomes harder to distinguish because it loses color and contrast is reduced.
Goal
When iOS switches to grayscale mode, I want the app icon to maintain good contrast between its elements so it remains clearly recognizable.
What I’ve tried
Redesigned the icon with more contrasting colors.
Added strokes/outlines, but it still doesn’t look much better in grayscale.
Researched how iOS renders app icons when grayscale is enabled, but couldn’t find a way to override or provide an alternative icon.
Specific questions
Is there any API or mechanism in iOS that allows providing a different version of the app icon when the user has grayscale mode enabled?
If there’s no direct API, are there any best practices for designing iOS app icons to ensure good contrast when converted to grayscale?
Do we have to design grayscale version for app icon?
Thank you!
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.
Dear Developer, Is there a way to create a function to search with inside a text without having to be outside all of the messages? In other words, could I go into one of my contact’s texts and then search specifically inside that message as can be done on Android? This would be such an amazing function And make life so much easier. Thank you.
Does iOS 26 support HDR images for app icons to be rendered in High Dynamic Range for Springboard or not?
Prior to iOS 26, this successfully gave me a modal view with a transparent background:
let settingsVC = MySettingsViewController()
settingsVC.modalPresentationStyle = .automatic
//settingsVC.modalPresentationStyle = .overCurrentContext
self.present(settingsVC, animated: true, completion: {
}
MySettingsViewController:
self.view.backgroundColor = UIColor(white: 0, alpha: 0.5)
Now in iOS 26, modal view is presented in a opaque grey background.
Hello everyone,
I'm very impressed with the Liquid Glass design introduced in iOS 26, especially how native app icons automatically adapt to the system's display mode (dark or light).
This brings me to a question: Is it possible to make a website shortcut icon created via Safari's "Add to Home Screen" feature adapt to Dark Mode in the same way?
For native apps, we can use tools like Icon Composer and asset catalogs (Assets.xcassets) to provide different icons for each mode. It would be a huge improvement for web clips if we could achieve the same with existing web technologies like apple-touch-icon or the Web App Manifest.
If anyone has figured out a way to do this, I would greatly appreciate it if you could share your knowledge.
Thanks in advance!
日本語の原文:
iOS 26から導入されたLiquid Glassデザインについて。
ネイティブアプリのアイコンがシステムの表示モード(ダークモード/ライトモード)に合わせて自動で最適化されるようになりました。
そこで疑問に思ったのですが、Safariから「ホーム画面に追加」機能を使って作成するWebサイトのショートカットアイコンは、ネイティブアプリと同じようにダークモードに対応できないのでしょうか?
ネイティブアプリの場合は、Icon Composerなどのツールでアセットカタログ(Assets.xcassets)を使い、モードごとのアイコンを用意できますよね。
Web側でも、apple-touch-iconやWeb App Manifestといった既存の仕組みを使って、アイコンを動的に切り替えられるようになると、Webクリップの使い勝手がさらに向上すると思うのですが
もし、すでに何らかの方法で対応されている方がいらっしゃれば、ぜひその知見を共有していただけると嬉しいです。
Hi everyone,
I’m currently testing iOS 26 on my iPhone as part of the developer program. According to Apple’s documentation and demo materials, a new screenshot animation was introduced in this version. However, when I take a screenshot on my device, the animation remains the same as in previous iOS versions.
I’ve double-checked that I’m running the correct build of iOS 26, and I haven’t found any settings that might enable or disable this feature.
Is anyone else experiencing the same issue? Could this new animation be device-specific, region-limited, or require additional configuration?
Any insight would be appreciated!
Thanks in advance,
Alonso Rivera
I recently detected a special crash on 18.0, 18.1, 18.1.1, 18.2,18.3 which cannot be repeated, and the page logs are related to the keyboard, is there any idea to deal with this problem?
Exception Type: EXC_CRASH (SIGABRT)
Exception Codes: 0x00000000 at 0x0000000000000000
Crashed Thread: 0
CrashDoctor Diagnosis: Application threw exception NSInternalInconsistencyException: Multi layer delegate table missing.
Thread 0 Crashed:
0 CoreFoundation 0x000000018fa487cc __exceptionPreprocess + [ : 164]
1 libobjc.A.dylib 0x000000018cd1b2e4 objc_exception_throw + [ : 88]
2 Foundation 0x000000018ee188d8 _userInfoForFileAndLine
3 UIKitCore 0x0000000192ee8074 -[UIView _multiLayerDelegatesTableCreateIfNecessary:] + [ : 208]
4 UIKitCore 0x0000000192ee80c4 -[UIView _registerMultiLayerDelegate:] + [ : 36]
5 UIKitCore 0x00000001924f74c0 -[_UIPortalView setSourceView:] + [ : 132]
6 UIKitCore 0x000000019325b6bc -[_UIPortalView initWithSourceView:] + [ : 68]
7 UIKitCore 0x0000000193283ea4 -[_UITextMagnifiedLoupeView initWithSourceView:] + [ : 444]
8 UIKitCore 0x000000019373461c +[UITextLoupeSession _makeLoupeViewForSourceView:selectionWidget:orientation:] + [ : 84]
9 UIKitCore 0x00000001937347bc +[UITextLoupeSession _beginLoupeSessionAtPoint:fromSelectionWidgetView:inView:orientation:] + [ : 304]
10 UIKitCore 0x0000000192dc0ce0 -[UITextRefinementTouchBehavior textLoupeInteraction:gestureChangedWithState:location:translation:velocity:modifierFlags:shouldCancel:] + [ : 1756]
11 UIKit 0x0000000249cc89e0 -[UITextRefinementTouchBehaviorAccessibility textLoupeInteraction:gestureChangedWithState:location:translation:velocity:modifierFlags:shouldCancel:] + [ : 216]
12 UIKitCore 0x00000001935445b4 -[UITextRefinementInteraction loupeGestureWithState:location:translation:velocity:modifierFlags:shouldCancel:] + [ : 124]
13 UIKitCore 0x0000000193543f74 -[UITextRefinementInteraction loupeGesture:] + [ : 548]
14 UIKitCore 0x000000019259eac4 -[UIGestureRecognizerTarget _sendActionWithGestureRecognizer:] + [ : 128]
15 UIKitCore 0x000000019259e934 _UIGestureRecognizerSendTargetActions + [ : 92]
16 UIKitCore 0x000000019259e6f4 _UIGestureRecognizerSendActions + [ : 284]
17 UIKitCore 0x0000000192251b28 -[UIGestureRecognizer _updateGestureForActiveEvents] + [ : 572]
18 UIKitCore 0x0000000192223724 _UIGestureEnvironmentUpdate + [ : 2488]
19 CoreFoundation 0x000000018f9ea1f4 __CFRUNLOOP_IS_CALLING_OUT_TO_AN_OBSERVER_CALLBACK_FUNCTION__ + [ : 36]
20 CoreFoundation 0x000000018f9e9f98 __CFRunLoopDoObservers + [ : 552]
21 CoreFoundation 0x000000018fa19028 __CFRunLoopRun + [ : 948]
22 CoreFoundation 0x000000018fa18830 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + [ : 588]
23 GraphicsServices 0x00000001db9f81c4 GSEventRunModal + [ : 164]
24 UIKitCore 0x000000019257eeb0 -[UIApplication _run] + [ : 816]
25 UIKitCore 0x000000019262d5b4 UIApplicationMain + [ : 340]
26 顺丰小哥 0x00000001042c7cc0 main + [main.m : 13]
27 (null) 0x00000001b5406ec8 0x0 + 7335866056
Hi,
Anybody knows will this occurs when using navigationStack at iOS 18.3? The navigationStack not stay at safeareas
the code as simple as that:
NavigationStack(path: $navManager.path) {
VStack {
Text("Hello")
}
.navigationDestination(for: Route.self) { route in
switch route {
....
}
}
}
.environmentObject(navManager)
.environment(logic)
I am trying to resize a Window Form after it loads and have done quite a bit of searching for code to do it.
Here is one code snippet that works to size the form during the design phase.
self.view.window?.contentMinSize = CGSize(width: 1100, height: 310)
I have tried code like below to increase the window size after the Form loads
if let myWindow = self.view.window ?? NSApplication.shared.mainWindow
{
// Increase window size and position after it loads
let newRect = NSRect(x: 100, y: 100, width: 1400, height: 900)
}
It seems that this code not only changes the Form size after loading, but also changes the size of the Form in Main.swift, which is something I don't want.
I read elsewhere that I had to disable constraints to resize the Form, so I tried code below.
let tableView = NSTableView()
tableView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
let newRect = NSRect(x: 100, y: 0, width: 1100, height: 600)
myWindow?.setFrame(newRect, display: true)
That code did not seem to do anything as well.
Also, the Form displays in the lower left of the screen.
Note that main reason I want to resize the Form after loading is to keep it smaller during design development. The same goes for the NSTableView, which I have not gotten to yet.
I had, a long time ago (over 10 years) developed an application that is connected to my UPS (for solar panels).
Until yet it worked very well, and I didnot have to compute more than making updates of XCode. That was all.
But yet I have swiched to the latest value of switch, and it continue to compile, but it does'not work. I am asking to yo in order keeping my app working as previously. As it does not work, which library is replacing Cloudkit.framework ?
and which library is replacing InsPersistantContainer.framework ?
Have a good day
Guy Desbief
Hi is there possibly to put text data or information into Roomplanapi elements like data wall color etc and export to usdz after lidar scan
Hello,
I used icon composer to create an icon for my Mac OS app and it seemed to have worked. I see the app icon everywhere except for window expose or stage manager.
Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated!
Hi,
Normally we need many shades of gray in any App and Apple system have only 3 , Primery, Secondary, and Gray, so to make Gray regress that automatically adapt to Dark Mode we just use opacity on these colors ? there's no system built in Gray degrees ?
Kind Regards
Hello Apple Developers i am here write down my experience with the IOS 26 Beta
first off i would like to say that i kind of do/don't like the new iquid glass UI/UIX Designs in some parrts of the ios like in m ust 3rd Party Apps like Uber Lyrith MJ Access Link Moblie app DoorDash VLC And Apple Music App just to name of few
since i have installed the beta i have ran into a few bugs i have alread sent to the feeback app via iphone but i'm going to write them here as will i'm not looking for troubleshoots or tech support i'm just shareing my experience with the apple community and the Apple Development/Enginer Team to fine tone for release Time
please note that i am a user with Vision impairment so please by respect to me due to my writteing issues and grammer and spelling
so here i go my first bug that i ran into on the first day was when i was listening to some music trakcs in the apple muisc app when scrolling down or up fast the app will froze for mill secend then contiune as noraml
my second bug that i ran into dureing music play was with my Crossfade settings not working on some tracks im not sure if this is due to BMP alignment or AI algorithm integration with in the software itseif but for me this takes me out of the listening experince that i have when i enjoy listening to music
My suggestion Move the AutoMix and Crossfade Settings in to the Apple Music its seif and give the user more controll over how long or how short they want the crossfade or autmix to happen dureing the ending of each tracked play also for the cross fade option is set at 12 increase this to 30 secs or more if possiable or add an BPM options for the Automix to mix in the next track via BMP for simple of my rock track is at 148 BMP the next track should be pop or kpop or rap synceing up with that same BMP speed or similar at 148 BMP my next suggestion for the Apple Music App Shameless track mode (this mode to can be Incorporated) in to the Automix Featrue this redue some music tracks that ends abruptly some MP3 tracks added outside of the Apple Music App seems to broke dureing playback
My 3rd bug that i ran in to with the Glass UI for controll Center like i stated before i am Vision impaired with the clear Glass over lapping the current UI for me this hard for me to tell what icons i am looking atside from the Voolum and Brightness Bars i am asking please make this more dark theme and make the icons brigher or add name undernearth the icons or Flip the Dark them or dan the current UI over lapping the Controlor center or add White colors with Black Arrows/icons for all Apple App that has this Glass UI in side of cause this is driving me nuts
My 4th Bug that i ran into was with the lock screen/restart/reboot ohh girl where do i began with this one let's with the notifications i don't know who through it was a good idea to have a Clear Bright UI over lapping the Notifications this is very annoying via imessage Texting cause my custom wallpaper Blends in with a white background and this is Worst
My suggestion for this is very simple darkering the background on the lock screen abit more so the text is more reader or increase the Notification bars (this is for users like myseif that use Dark mode)
My 5th Bug involves my Back ups/Restore/Corrupated < is seif explanatory when i tryed to downgrand back to Version 18.5/18.6 nothing happened so please fix this or make it a bit more easyer for users to be able to back up/Retore their Devices now i has to wait until (Tomttow morning Friday) to factory reset my phone
my conclusion since Beta Users and Developers and Engiers are Still testing please take look at my suggestion and try to bring not all but some of them in to public Release
Thank You!
Update i would like to Downgrad from IOS 26 Developer Beta back to IOS 18.5
This has been an issue since installing the first beta and I haven't seen anyone else say anything about it so I feel like I'm going kind of bonkers. While using Dark Mode, double-tapping to select a word while using the Liquid Glass keyboard, like in Messages or Safari, produces a flashlight-like effect over the text with each tap. While this is a fine animation and pretty helpful when moving the cursor, the brightness of the flashlight effect on white text in Dark Mode makes it impossible to see what you're actually tapping to select. The brightness seems to intensify 100x when rapidly tapping. This is not an issue in Light Mode when the text itself is black.
To recreate this, just turn your phone to Dark Mode, go into Messages and type a few words into a thread. Try to double-tap to select a word in the text box. The brightness of the selected word should intensify to the point of being unable to see the word itself.
Has anyone been bothered by this? Is there a way to fix or adjust it? I've tried reducing transparency and a bunch of other settings but nothing has worked.
I've noticed that the App Store app tends to make the selected tab indicator darker on light mode and lighter on dark mode.
Is there any easy way to ensure better legibility out of the box with Tab View (SwiftUI) when using the tint modifier with custom colors?
Add slim horizontal bar at the top of the Notification Center that displays the apps with current notifications, along with a badge showing the number of notifications for each app. Each app icon is clickable, allowing users to filter the Notification Center and view only the notifications from the selected app.
The first button in the slider should be “All” to show all notifications, followed by app icons (Excluding notifications summary)
This bar Appears only when notifications are from more than one app.
Hidden if there’s only one app in Notification Center (no need to filter).
Benefits:
Better organization: Helps users quickly identify which apps have unread notifications.
Reduced distraction: Allows focusing on notifications from one app at a time.
Easier navigation: Especially helpful when notifications from multiple apps are mixed together by time.
Faster interaction: Saves time by letting users jump directly to the relevant group of grouped or multiple notifications.
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.
Hello,
I want to make an app that displays the current event(s) (The ones that are ongoing at any given moment) on my Google calendar and shows how far through the event(s) I am with a progress bar, and updates live.
I want it to be as simple as possible and don't want it to take up too much space. I have a little window with some text elements and a progress bar that works if you manually put in values. But I still think the window is too big and clunky and I wonder if it's possible to change it's style?
I'm a bit inexperienced with coding and am completely new to xcode and swift. What approach would you recommend I take with this project? Or what resources would you refer me to?