Explore the various UI frameworks available for building app interfaces. Discuss the use cases for different frameworks, share best practices, and get help with specific framework-related questions.

All subtopics
Posts under UI Frameworks topic

Post

Replies

Boosts

Views

Activity

A Summary of the WWDC25 Group Lab - UI Frameworks
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 UI Frameworks. How would you recommend developers start adopting the new design? Start by focusing on the foundational structural elements of your application, working from the "top down" or "bottom up" based on your application's hierarchy. These structural changes, like edge-to-edge content and updated navigation and controls, often require corresponding code modifications. As a first step, recompile your application with the new SDK to see what updates are automatically applied, especially if you've been using standard controls. Then, carefully analyze where the new design elements can be applied to your UI, paying particular attention to custom controls or UI that could benefit from a refresh. Address the large structural items first then focus on smaller details is recommended. Will we need to migrate our UI code to Swift and SwiftUI to adopt the new design? No, you will not need to migrate your UI code to Swift and SwiftUI to adopt the new design. The UI frameworks fully support the new design, allowing you to migrate your app with as little effort as possible, especially if you've been using standard controls. The goal is to make it easy to adopt the new design, regardless of your current UI framework, to achieve a cohesive look across the operating system. What was the reason for choosing Liquid Glass over frosted glass, as used in visionOS? The choice of Liquid Glass was driven by the desire to bring content to life. The see-through nature of Liquid Glass enhances this effect. The appearance of Liquid Glass adapts based on its size; larger glass elements look more frosted, which aligns with the design of visionOS, where everything feels larger and benefits from the frosted look. What are best practices for apps that use customized navigation bars? The new design emphasizes behavior and transitions as much as static appearance. Consider whether you truly need a custom navigation bar, or if the system-provided controls can meet your needs. Explore new APIs for subtitles and custom views in navigation bars, designed to support common use cases. If you still require a custom solution, ensure you're respecting safe areas using APIs like SwiftUI's safeAreaInset. When working with Liquid Glass, group related buttons in shared containers to maintain design consistency. Finally, mark glass containers as interactive. For branding, instead of coloring the navigation bar directly, consider incorporating branding colors into the content area behind the Liquid Glass controls. This creates a dynamic effect where the color is visible through the glass and moves with the content as the user scrolls. I want to know why new UI Framework APIs aren’t backward compatible, specifically in SwiftUI? It leads to code with lots of if-else statements. Existing APIs have been updated to work with the new design where possible, ensuring that apps using those APIs will adopt the new design and function on both older and newer operating systems. However, new APIs often depend on deep integration across the framework and graphics stack, making backward compatibility impractical. When using these new APIs, it's important to consider how they fit within the context of the latest OS. The use of if-else statements allows you to maintain compatibility with older systems while taking full advantage of the new APIs and design features on newer systems. If you are using new APIs, it likely means you are implementing something very specific to the new design language. Using conditional code allows you to intentionally create different code paths for the new design versus older operating systems. Prefer to use if #available where appropriate to intentionally adopt new design elements. Are there any Liquid Glass materials in iOS or macOS that are only available as part of dedicated components? Or are all those materials available through new UIKit and AppKit views? Yes, some variations of the Liquid Glass material are exclusively available through dedicated components like sliders, segmented controls, and tab bars. However, the "regular" and "clear" glass materials should satisfy most application requirements. If you encounter situations where these options are insufficient, please file feedback. If I were to create an app today, how should I design it to make it future proof using Liquid Glass? The best approach to future-proof your app is to utilize standard system controls and design your UI to align with the standard system look and feel. Using the framework-provided declarative API generally leads to easier adoption of future design changes, as you're expressing intent rather than specifying pixel-perfect visuals. Pay close attention to the design sessions offered this year, which cover the design motivation behind the Liquid Glass material and best practices for its use. Is it possible to implement your own sidebar on macOS without NSSplitViewController, but still provide the Liquid Glass appearance? While technically possible to create a custom sidebar that approximates the Liquid Glass appearance without using NSSplitViewController, it is not recommended. The system implementation of the sidebar involves significant unseen complexity, including interlayering with scroll edge effects and fullscreen behaviors. NSSplitViewController provides the necessary level of abstraction for the framework to handle these details correctly. Regarding the SceneDelagate and scene based life-cycle, I would like to confirm that AppDelegate is not going away. Also if the above is a correct understanding, is there any advice as to what should, and should not, be moved to the SceneDelegate? UIApplicationDelegate is not going away and still serves a purpose for application-level interactions with the system and managing scenes at a higher level. Move code related to your app's scene or UI into the UISceneDelegate. Remember that adopting scenes doesn't necessarily mean supporting multiple scenes; an app can be scene-based but still support only one scene. Refer to the tech note Migrating to the UIKit scene-based life cycle and the Make your UIKit app more flexible WWDC25 session for more information.
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: General
0
0
660
Jun ’25
Form - Multiplatform - Alignment off - HStack ?
Not sure what could cause this. the UI align differently running on iPhone versus running on Mac. If I remove the HStack, it works but I still would like to know why, and if there is a way to make it right on both platforms. Thank you here is my code @State private var viewModel = FirmwareSelectionViewModel() var body: some View { Form { Section("Setup Name") { TextField ( "", text: $viewModel.setupName ) .foregroundColor(.green ) .disableAutocorrection(true) .onSubmit { print ("On Submit") } } Section("Battery") { HStack() { Text("Volt") TextField("", value: $viewModel.Vnominal, format: .number) .textFieldStyle(.roundedBorder) .foregroundColor(.green ) #if !os(macOS) .keyboardType(.decimalPad) #endif .onChange(of: viewModel.Vnominal) { viewModel.checkEntryValidity() print("Updated Vnominal: \(viewModel.Vnominal)") } Text("Ah") TextField("", value: $viewModel.batteryCapacity, format: .number) .textFieldStyle(.roundedBorder) .foregroundColor(.green ) #if !os(macOS) .keyboardType(.decimalPad) #endif .onChange(of: viewModel.batteryCapacity) { viewModel.checkEntryValidity() print("Updated Battery Capacity: \(viewModel.batteryCapacity)") } } } Section("Firmware Type") { Picker(selection: $viewModel.selectedType, label: EmptyView()) { ForEach(TypeOfFirmware.allCases) { type in Text(type.rawValue).tag(type as TypeOfFirmware) .foregroundColor(.green ) } } .pickerStyle(SegmentedPickerStyle()) Picker(selection: $viewModel.selectedFirmware, label: EmptyView()) { ForEach(viewModel.availableFirmware) { firmware in Text(firmware.rawValue.capitalized).tag(firmware as Firmware) } } .pickerStyle(SegmentedPickerStyle()) } } .onChange(of: viewModel.selectedType) { viewModel.resetFirmwareSelection() } .navigationTitle("Firmware Selection") } }
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: SwiftUI
0
0
175
Jan ’25
AppClip card keeps showing up
After the user clicks the Open button in the AppClip card, the AppClip launches, but the card keeps appearing whenever the user clicks Open. It doesn’t disappear until the user clicks the Close button on the card. This issue started appearing two months ago and only occurs on iOS 17.6 and 17.7. [demo video](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vJ-7E5JSdO_xoVkDYxBJDkj8sm-dvxv1/view?usp=share_link
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: General
0
0
171
Feb ’25
ishidden not working
I set the isHidden property of a view in traitCollectionDidChange and found that sometime it does not take effect after being set(value of isHidden actually not changed either). It looks like the setting does not take effect when triggered an even number of times, but it is normal when triggered an odd number of times. When setting isHidden, what actually goes into is [UIView (Rendering) setHidden:], which internally calls [UIView _ bitFlagValueAfterIncrementingHiddenManagement CountForKey: withIncrement: bitFlagValue:] to handle the relevant logic of "_UIViewPendingHiddenCount". Is this issue related to this part of the processing? returning 0 after calling seems normal This view is a UIStackView, and it is uncertain whether it is related to the type of view
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: UIKit Tags:
0
0
370
Jan ’25
Navigation Bar Jumping Issue in SwiftUI with TabView and NavigationStack (Observed in Apple's Example Code)
I recently started exploring the latest version of SwiftUI and encountered an issue while working with TabView and NavigationStack. I downloaded the example code provided by Apple and began making changes to explore new SwiftUI features. However, I noticed that the navigation bar "jumps" or resets when switching between tabs, even in their example implementation. Here are some changes which I made below in the files: LibraryView: .navigationTitle("Library") .navigationBarTitleDisplayMode(.inline) .toolbarBackground(Color("AccentColor"),for: .navigationBar) WatchNowView: .navigationTitle("Watch Now") .navigationBarTitleDisplayMode(.inline) .toolbarBackground(Color("AccentColor"),for: .navigationBar) example code url :- destinationVideo I suspect the issue arises because each tab bar item has its own NavigationStack. When we set a navigation title for each view, the NavigationStack resets the navigation bar on view appearance, which causes this visual bug. Thank you!
0
0
300
Dec ’24
Reduce padding, spacing between list section header and search bar
Anyone know how to reduce the padding between list section header (plain style) and search bar? I have tried all available method on google but none work. The default list style does not have this big padding/space between the section header and the search bar. struct Demo: View { @State private var searchText: String = "" var body: some View { NavigationStack { List { Section { ForEach(0..<100) { index in Text("Sample value for \(index)") } } header: { Text("Header") .font(.headline) } } .listStyle(.plain) .navigationTitle("Demo") .navigationBarTitleDisplayMode(.inline) .searchable(text: $searchText) } } }
0
0
234
Feb ’25
Using AsyncStream vs @Observable macro in SwiftUI (AVCam Sample Code)
I want to understand the utility of using AsyncStream when iOS 17 introduced @Observable macro where we can directly observe changes in the value of any variable in the model(& observation tracking can happen even outside SwiftUI view). So if I am observing a continuous stream of values, such as download progress of a file using AsyncStream in a SwiftUI view, the same can be observed in the same SwiftUI view using onChange(of:initial) of download progress (stored as a property in model object). I am looking for benefits, drawbacks, & limitations of both approaches. Specifically, my question is with regards to AVCam sample code by Apple where they observe few states as follows. This is done in CameraModel class which is attached to SwiftUI view. // MARK: - Internal state observations // Set up camera's state observations. private func observeState() { Task { // Await new thumbnails that the media library generates when saving a file. for await thumbnail in mediaLibrary.thumbnails.compactMap({ $0 }) { self.thumbnail = thumbnail } } Task { // Await new capture activity values from the capture service. for await activity in await captureService.$captureActivity.values { if activity.willCapture { // Flash the screen to indicate capture is starting. flashScreen() } else { // Forward the activity to the UI. captureActivity = activity } } } Task { // Await updates to the capabilities that the capture service advertises. for await capabilities in await captureService.$captureCapabilities.values { isHDRVideoSupported = capabilities.isHDRSupported cameraState.isVideoHDRSupported = capabilities.isHDRSupported } } Task { // Await updates to a person's interaction with the Camera Control HUD. for await isShowingFullscreenControls in await captureService.$isShowingFullscreenControls.values { withAnimation { // Prefer showing a minimized UI when capture controls enter a fullscreen appearance. prefersMinimizedUI = isShowingFullscreenControls } } } } If we see the structure CaptureCapabilities, it is a small structure with two Bool members. These changes could have been directly observed by a SwiftUI view. I wonder if there is a specific advantage or reason to use AsyncStream here & continuously iterate over changes in a for loop. /// A structure that represents the capture capabilities of `CaptureService` in /// its current configuration. struct CaptureCapabilities { let isLivePhotoCaptureSupported: Bool let isHDRSupported: Bool init(isLivePhotoCaptureSupported: Bool = false, isHDRSupported: Bool = false) { self.isLivePhotoCaptureSupported = isLivePhotoCaptureSupported self.isHDRSupported = isHDRSupported } static let unknown = CaptureCapabilities() }
0
0
376
Dec ’24
Putting buttons over SwiftUI map view
Has anyone gotten custom buttons to work on top of tvOS Map()? I've tried many variations of FocusState focusSection .defaultFocus() and as soon as the map appears at startup the buttons never get focus again. They are on a ZStack over the map. I could post code but truthfully nothing works for me. I'm wondering if anyone has successfully put focusable buttons on top of the map view.
0
0
225
Mar ’25
UIDocumentPickerViewController
I'm upgrading my app from minVersion iOS 11 to iOS 12. My compiler says that UIDocumentMenuViewController with UIDocumentPickerViewController is deprecated, they recommend to use directly the last one. So I change the code. fileprivate func openDocumentPicker() { let documentPicker = UIDocumentPickerViewController( documentTypes: [ "com.adobe.pdf", "org.openxmlformats.wordprocessingml.document", // DOCX "com.microsoft.word.doc" // DOC ], in: .import ) documentPicker.delegate = self view.window?.rootViewController?.present(documentPicker, animated: true, completion: nil) } When I open the picker in iOS 17.2 simulator and under it is well shown, like a page sheet. But in iOS 18.0 and up at first it opens like a page sheet with no content but then it is displayed as a transparent window with no content. Is there any issue with this component and iOS 18? If I open the picker through UIDocumentMenuViewControllerDelegate in an iphone with iOS 18.2 it is well shown. Image in iOS 18.2 with the snippet The same snippet in iOS 17.2 (and expected in older ones)
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: UIKit Tags:
0
0
348
Jan ’25
Detect change to apps Screen Time Access
I'm creating an app which gamifies Screen Time reduction. I'm running into an issue with apples Screen Time setting where the user can disable my apps "Screen Time access" and get around losing the game. Is there a way to detect when this setting is disabled for my app? I've tried using AuthorizationCenter.shared.authorizationStatus but this didn't do the trick. Does anyone have an ideas?
0
0
405
Feb ’25
How to remove margins around built-in views?
I want to have my own background and foreground colors for some views and I am having a bit of trouble. I cannot figure out how to remove the margins around some built-in views. One example is below. The ScrollView portion is always black or white, depending on whether I am I dark mode or not. I've added various colors and borders to see what is going on below. I've also tried adding the modifiers to the Scroll View rather than the TextEditor and it doesn't work at all. If I don't have the .frame modifier on the ScrollView, the TextEditor moves to the top of its frame for some reason. I've played with .contentMargins, .edgeInsets, etc. with no luck How do I get the TextEditor to fill the entire ScrollView without the margin? Thanks! import SwiftUI struct TextEditorView: View { @Binding var editString: String var numberOfLines: Int var lineHeight: CGFloat { UIFont.preferredFont(forTextStyle: .body).lineHeight } var viewHeight: CGFloat { lineHeight * CGFloat(numberOfLines) + 8 } var body: some View { ScrollView([.vertical], showsIndicators: true) { TextEditor(text: $editString) .border(Color.red, width: 5) .foregroundStyle(.yellow) .background(.blue) .frame(minHeight:viewHeight, maxHeight: viewHeight) .scrollContentBackground(.hidden) } .frame(minHeight:viewHeight, maxHeight: viewHeight) } }
0
0
195
Jan ’25
How do I make a UIViewRepresentable beneath SwiftUI elements ignore touches to these elements?
Hello, and an early "Merry Christmas" to all, I'm building a SwiftUI app, and one of my Views is a fullscreen UIViewRepresentable (SpriteView) beneath a SwiftUI interface. Whenever the user interacts with any SwiftUI element, the UIView registers a hit in touchesBegan(). For example, my UIView has logic for pinching (not implemented via UIGestureRecognizer), so whenever the user holds down a SwiftUI element while touching the UIView, that counts as two touches to the UIView which invokes the pinching logic. Things I've tried to block SwiftUI from passing the gesture down to the UIView: Adding opaque elements beneath control elements Adding gestures to the elements above Adding gesture masks to the gestures above Converting eligible elements to Buttons (since those seem immune) Adding SpriteViews beneath those elements to absorb gestures So far nothing has worked. As long as the UIView is beneath SwiftUI elements, any interactions with those elements will be registered as a hit. The obvious solution is to track each SwiftUI element's size and coordinates with respect to the UIView's coordinate space, then use exclusion areas, but this is both a pain and expensive, and I find it hard to believe this is the best fix for such a seemingly basic problem. I'm probably overlooking something basic, so any suggestions will be greatly appreciated
0
0
434
Dec ’24
Full Screen Tile: Left of Screen
I want to use Objective C language to implement a button, click the button to achieve the function of Menu Bar - Full Screen Tile - Left of Screen. What should I do? I couldn't find the relevant API.
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: AppKit
0
0
366
Dec ’24
Disabling App Clip's Initial App Store Notification Banner
We're encountering a UX challenge with the automatic App Store notification banner that appears when users first launch our App Clips (not the App Clip sheet). This notification, which suggests downloading the full app, is creating confusion among our users. We've observed that some users tap the notification instead of completing their intended action within the App Clip, interrupting their workflow. Is there a way to disable this banner?
0
1
350
Jan ’25
Replacing top view in navigation stack
Hello. I use NavigationStack for navigating in app. I have 4 screens - A, B, C, D. In some moment I have path [A, B, C] for NavigationStack. After user did action I should show path [A, B, D]. In other hands I should replace screen C with screen D. struct HomeView: View { @ObservedObject var viewModel: HomeViewModel var body: some View { NavigationStack(path: $viewModel.path) { ContentView() .navigationDestination(for: HomeViewModel.Path.self) { destination in // B, C, D views here... } } .navigationViewStyle(StackNavigationViewStyle()) } } Solution looks like same as for UIKit. I replaced last item in stack. It works, but "push" animation broke. var updatedPath = self.path updatedPath.removeLast() updatedPath.append(newPathItem) self.path = updatedPath I found suggest in Internet that you can remove view from stack after some delay. But it has some magic. For example 1 second delay works properly on iOS 18, but cause crash on iOS 16. 1 millisecond delay works on iOS 16, but sometimes didn't. self.path.append(newPathItem) DispatchQueue.main.asyncAfter(deadline: .now() + .milliseconds(1000)) { UIView.setAnimationsEnabled(false) self.path.remove(at: self.path.count - 2) DispatchQueue.main.asyncAfter(deadline: .now() + .milliseconds(1)) { UIView.setAnimationsEnabled(true) } } It is easy task to replace current top screen in UINavigationController of UIKit. How I can do it properly in SwiftUI and save animation?
0
1
123
Mar ’25
AppKit: presentAsModalWindow doesn't center the presented window on macOS 15
When I present a view controller, whose view is a SwiftUI View, via presentAsModalWindow(_:) the presented window is no longer centered horizontally to the screen, but rather its origin is there. I know this issue occurs for macOS 15.2+, but can't tell if it is from 15.0+. I couldn't find any documentation on why was this changed. Here's an example code that represents my architecture: class RootViewController: NSViewController { private lazy var button: NSButton = NSButton( title: "Present", target: self, action: #selector(presentView)) override func viewDidLoad() { super.viewDidLoad() // Add button to tree } @objc func presentView() { presentAsModalWindow(PresentedViewController()) } } class PresentedViewController: NSViewController { override loadView() { view = NSHostingView(rootView: MyView()) } } struct MyView: View { /* impl */ }
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: AppKit Tags:
0
0
171
Mar ’25
How to replace default user location annotation with custom avatar in SwiftUI Map with selection parameter?
I'm implementing a Map with user location customization in SwiftUI using iOS 17+ MapKit APIs. When using the selection parameter with Map, the default blue dot user location becomes tappable but shows an empty annotation view. However, using UserAnnotation makes the location marker non-interactive. My code structure: import SwiftUI import MapKit struct UserAnnotationSample: View { @State private var position: MapCameraPosition = .userLocation(fallback: .automatic) @State private var selectedItem: MapSelection<MKMapItem>? var body: some View { Map(position: $position, selection: $selectedItem) { // UserAnnotation() } .mapControls { MapUserLocationButton() } } } Key questions: How can I replace the empty annotation view with a custom avatar when tapping the user location? Is there a way to make UserAnnotation interactive with selection? Should I use tag modifier for custom annotations? What's the proper way to associate selections?
0
0
309
Mar ’25
How do I obtain the preview image for a PDF?
I have a SwiftUI view of the form struct ContentView: View { // ... .onDrop(of: [.pdf], isTargeted: $isDropTargeted) { pdfs in for pdf in pdfs { I'm just not sure what to do next, I see there's a loadPreviewImage() that if I use like: Task.detached { // returns any NSSecureCoding object let image = try! await pdf.loadPreviewImage() } Not sure how I'm supposed to get my preview image from that NSSecureCoding object
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: SwiftUI
0
0
233
Jan ’25