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.

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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
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663
Jun ’25
Conflict between offerCodeRedemption and Camera
Hello, I implemented offerCodeRedemption recently on my app in my subscription/onboarding flow. When I did, it broke my camera functionality (elsewhere in the app; totally unrelated code). I was able to fix the issue when implementing the old "AppStore.presentOfferCodeRedeemSheet" code with UIKit. I'm not sure why this is happening, but it seemed like a bug to me.
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: SwiftUI
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138
Feb ’25
Keyboard Inaccessibility after Password Save Prompt and App Backgrounding
Hi everyone, I've come across an issue on iOS that seems to affect many apps. Here's what happens: A user logs in with correct credentials and proceeds to the OTP verification screen as part of multi factor authentication. iOS presents the system password save prompt ("Would you like to save this password?"). Without selecting an option on this prompt, the user backgrounds the app (e.g., to check their email for the OTP). Upon returning to the app, the keyboard becomes completely inaccessible on the OTP screen or any other screen. From my testing, this behavior appears to be an OS-level bug, as it occurs consistently across various apps. Has anyone else encountered this? Any known workarounds or updates from Apple on this behavior would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: UIKit
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307
Jan ’25
How to Maintain Background Color Consistency During ZoomTransitions in SwiftUI?
I’m currently working on a SwiftUI project and trying to implement a transition effect similar to ZoomTransitions. However, I’ve run into an issue. When transitioning from Page A to Page B using .navigationTransition(.zoom(sourceID: "world", in: animation)), Page A shrinks as expected, but its background color changes to the default white instead of the color I preset. I want the background color of Page A to remain consistent with my preset during the entire transition process. Here’s a simplified version of my code: Page A PartnerCard() .matchedTransitionSource(id: item.id, in: animation) Page B ``.navigationTransition(.zoom(sourceID: "world", in: animation))
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: SwiftUI
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280
Jan ’25
looking for sample code 3d wireframe (with lines ) & polygons
Looking for sample code 3d wireframe (with lines ) & polygons and should be able to rotate (set camera angles) I tried sample code seems to be complicated & getting a BLANK screen import SwiftUI import SceneKit struct SceneKitTest2: View { var body: some View { VStack{ Text("SceneKitTest2") SceneView(scene: SCNScene(named:"Earth_1_12756.scn"), options: [.autoenablesDefaultLighting,.allowsCameraControl]) .frame(width:UIScreen.main.bounds.width, height: UIScreen.main.bounds.height/2) Spacer(minLength: 0) } } }
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393
Jan ’25
Explanation of DynamicProperty's update func in SwiftUI
Could an Apple employee that works on SwiftUI please explain the update() func in the DynamicProperty protocol? The docs have ambiguous information, e.g. "Updates the underlying value of the stored value." and "SwiftUI calls this function before rendering a view’s body to ensure the view has the most recent value." From: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/swiftui/dynamicproperty/update() How can it both set the underlying value and get the most recent value? What does underlying value mean? What does stored value mean? E.g. Is the code below correct? struct MyProperty: DynamicProperty { var x = 0 mutating func update() { // get x from external storage x = storage.loadX() } } Or should it be: struct MyProperty: DynamicProperty { let x: Int init(x: Int) { self.x = x } func update() { // set x on external storage storage.save(x: x) } } This has always been a mystery to me because of the ambigious docs so thought it was time to post a question.
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: SwiftUI
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218
Jan ’25
Crash on Intel during UI layout
We've got a hard to repro issue on Intel only when performing UI layout. It seems the collection view code gets into a recursive loop of doom and eventually the app crashes. This is only happening on Intel, the ARM version is fine. It seems related to this issue: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/732580 There an Apple Dev acknowledges that there are issues with the Intel version of the OS. Here's the simplified stack we're seeing: -[NSISEngine _coreReplaceMarker:withMarkerPlusDelta:]" -[NSISEngine constraintDidChangeSuchThatMarker:shouldBeReplacedByMarkerPlusDelta:]", -[NSISEngine tryToChangeConstraintSuchThatMarker:isReplacedByMarkerPlusDelta:undoHandler:]", -[NSLayoutConstraint _tryToChangeContainerGeometryWithUndoHandler:]", -[NSLayoutConstraint _setSymbolicConstant:constant:symbolicConstantMultiplier:]", -[NSLayoutConstraint setConstant:]", -[NSView(NSConstraintBasedLayoutInternal) _updateSimpleAutoresizingConstraintsInPlace:forAutoresizingMask:]", NSViewUpdateConstraintsForFrameChange -[NSView setFrameSize:]", -[NSView setFrame:]", -[NSClipView _updateOverhangSubviewsIfNeeded]", -[NSClipView _reflectDocumentViewFrameChange]", -[NSView _postFrameChangeNotification]"," -[NSView setFrameSize:]", -[NSCollectionView setFrameSize:]", -[NSView setFrame:]", NSViewActuallyUpdateFrameFromLayoutEngine", -[NSView resizeSubviewsWithOldSize:]", -[NSView setFrameSize:]", -[NSClipView setFrameSize:]", -[NSView setFrame:]", -[NSScrollView _setContentViewFrame:]", -[NSScrollView tile]", -[NSScrollView _tileWithoutRecursing]", -[NSScrollView reflectScrolledClipView:]", -[NSClipView _reflectDocumentViewFrameChange]_block_invoke", -[NSClipView _reflectDocumentViewFrameChange]", -[NSView _postFrameChangeNotification]", -[NSView setFrameSize:]", -[NSCollectionView setFrameSize:]", -[NSView setFrame:]", -[NSCollectionView _resizeToFitContentAndClipView]", -[_NSCollectionViewCore setContentSize:]", -[_NSCollectionViewCore _updateVisibleCellsNow:]" -[_NSCollectionViewCore _updateVisibleCellsNow:]" -[_NSCollectionViewCore _updateVisibleCellsNow:]" -[_NSCollectionViewCore _updateVisibleCellsNow:]" . . It seems to be limited to macOS 13.1 too. Hoping someone might have a clue? Thanks, Robert. Here's a link to the full stack: https://www.icloud.com/notes/076h1RXj4rvv7TzS5ICnvG6vw#NSCollectionView_crash_stack:
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: AppKit
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363
Dec ’24
Monitoring of the paste(GUI based) operation
I am working on the EndPoint DLP solution project. So I want to monitor the paste operation peformed by the user. So when he uses the keyboard keys then I can monitor them using the event callback. But if user uses the GUI for pasting the data then how can I monitor that ?
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: General
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219
Jan ’25
AVQueuePlayer Error: LoudnessManager.mm:709 unable to open stream for LoudnessManager plist
Getting this error in iPhone Portrait Mode with notch. Currrently using AVQueuePlayer to play more than 30 mp3 files one by one. All constraint properties are correct but error occures only in Apple iPhone Portrait Mode with notch series. But same code works on same iPhone in Landscape mode. **But I get this error: ** LoudnessManager.mm:709 unable to open stream for LoudnessManager plist Type: Error | Timestamp: 2025-02-07 | Process: | Library: AudioToolbox | Subsystem: com.apple.coreaudio | Category: aqme | TID: 0x42754 LoudnessManager.mm:709 unable to open stream for LoudnessManager plist LoudnessManager.mm:709 unable to open stream for LoudnessManager plist Timestamp: 2025-02-07 | Library: AudioToolbox | Subsystem: com.apple.coreaudio | Category: aqme
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947
Feb ’25
iPhone mirroring and controlling
One of my clients is interested in developing a system similar to BrowserStack for internal team usage. Could you please guide me on how to approach the development of this system? Specifically, the project requires: Full iPhone screen recording. Capturing and executing click events on the iPhone. Do I need to obtain permission from Apple for these functionalities?
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367
Jan ’25
UIDocumentPickerViewController dismisses presenting view controller when selecting a file multiple times quickly
Description When using UIDocumentPickerViewController with allowsMultipleSelection = false, I expect that selecting a file will dismiss only the document picker. However, if a user quickly taps the same file multiple times, the picker dismisses both itself and the presenting view controller (i.e., it pops two levels from the view controller stack), which leads to unintended behavior and breaks presentation flow. Expected Behavior Only UIDocumentPickerViewController should be dismissed when a file is selected—even if the user taps quickly or multiple times on the same file. Actual Behavior When tapping the same file multiple times quickly, the picker dismisses not only itself but also the parent view controller it was presented from. Steps to Reproduce Create a simple view controller and present another one modally over it. From that presented view controller, present a UIDocumentPickerViewController with allowsMultipleSelection = false. Tap quickly on the same file in the picker 2 times. Result: Both the document picker and the presenting view controller are dismissed. Reproducible Code Snippet class ViewController: UIViewController { override func viewDidLoad() { super.viewDidLoad() view.backgroundColor = .green addLabel("Parent View Controller") DispatchQueue.main.async { [unowned self] in let child = UIViewController() child.view.backgroundColor = .yellow present(child, animated: true) child.addLabel("Child View Controller") let vc = UIDocumentPickerViewController( forOpeningContentTypes: [.pdf, .jpeg, .png], asCopy: true ) vc.allowsMultipleSelection = false child.present(vc, animated: true) } } } extension UIViewController { func addLabel(_ text: String) { let label = UILabel(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 50, width: view.bounds.width, height: 30)) label.text = text view.addSubview(label) } } Environment Device: iPhone 15 Pro and others iOS version: 18.2 (reproduces on multiple iOS versions) Occurs with: .pdf, .jpeg, .png file types Mode: Both simulator and real device Notes Happens consistently with fast multiple taps on the same file. This breaks expected view controller stack behavior.
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110
Apr ’25
must use voip + livekit to developing, When incoming offline messages arrive at the device through VoIP, call ConversationManager The method of reporting NewIncomingConversation (uuid: update:) will crash in second or more time
now i must use voip + livekit to developing, When incoming offline messages arrive at the device through VoIP, call ConversationManager The method of reporting NewIncomingConversation (uuid: update:) only first time can push new system UI,second or more time will crash, and acrsh stack appears to indicate that callkit has not been called
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: General
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340
Feb ’25
MVVM design and data dependency
According to the MVVM design pattern, one of my views depends on many properties in my model. Can I use logic like @published var model = MyModel()? Will there be a large performance loss? Will the UI be refreshed when other unrelated properties in the model are modified? What is the best practice in this case?
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: General
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242
Jan ’25
detecting modifier keys using UITextFieldDelegate protocol
I have a UITextField in my application, and I want to detect all the keys uniquely to perform all relevant task. However, there is some problem in cleanly identifying some of the keys. I m not able to identify the backspace key press in the textField(_:shouldChangeCharactersIn:replacementString:) method. Also I don't know how to detect the Caps Lock key. I am intending to so this because I want to perform some custom handling for some keys. Can someone help me with what is the way of detecting it under the recommendation from apple. Thanks in advance. Note: checking for replacementString parameter in shouldChangeCharactersIn method for empty does not help for backspace detection as it overlaps with other cases.
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: UIKit Tags:
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143
Mar ’25
view controller life cycle bug in xcode 16 ios 18
hi does any one know if there changes in lifecycle in xcode 16 ios 18 cause i notice that my view will appear does what view didappear use to do in older version and it kind of a problem cause all the rest of ios work diffrently does anyone else found a problem with it? or does anyone know if there was a known change to life cycles
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429
Jan ’25
SensorKit Data Not Retrieving
I have received permission from Apple to access SensorKit data for my app. I have granted all necessary permissions, but no data is being retrieved. The didCompleteFetch method is being called, but I’m unsure where to find event data like Device Usage and Ambient Light. Additionally, the didFetchResult method is never called. Could anyone please assist me in resolving this issue? Any guidance or troubleshooting steps would be greatly appreciated. import SensorKit class ViewController: UIViewController, SRSensorReaderDelegate { let store = SRSensorReader(sensor: .deviceUsageReport) override func viewDidLoad() { super.viewDidLoad() requestSensorAuthorization() } func requestSensorAuthorization() { var sensors: Set<SRSensor> = [ .accelerometer, .deviceUsageReport, .messagesUsageReport, .visits, .keyboardMetrics, .phoneUsageReport, .ambientLightSensor ] if #available(iOS 16.4, *) { sensors.insert(.mediaEvents) } SRSensorReader.requestAuthorization(sensors: sensors) { error in if let error = error { print("Authorization failed: \(error.localizedDescription)") } else { self.store.startRecording() self.requestSensorData() print("Authorization granted for requested sensors.") } } } func requestSensorData() { let fromTime = SRAbsoluteTime.fromCFAbsoluteTime(_cf: Date().addingTimeInterval(-60 * 60).timeIntervalSinceReferenceDate) let toTime = SRAbsoluteTime.fromCFAbsoluteTime(_cf: Date().timeIntervalSinceReferenceDate) let request = SRFetchRequest() request.from = fromTime request.to = toTime request.device = SRDevice.current store.fetch(request) store.delegate = self } func sensorReader(_ reader: SRSensorReader, didCompleteFetch fetchRequest: SRFetchRequest) { print("Fetch request completed: \(fetchRequest.from) to \(fetchRequest.to)") Task { do { let samples = try await reader.fetch(fetchRequest) print("Samples count: \(samples)") } catch { print("Error Fetching Data: \(error.localizedDescription)") } } } func sensorReader(_ reader: SRSensorReader, fetching fetchRequest: SRFetchRequest, didFetchResult result: SRFetchResult<AnyObject>) -> Bool { print(result) return true } }
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188
Mar ’25
NSDocument duplicate problem
The aim is to save the data of a program in 2 different formats of choice, say type1 (default) and type2. No problem when + (BOOL)autosavesInPlace is NO, you can save as… and get a choice. No problem when + (BOOL)autosavesInPlace is YES and you created a new document, you can choose when saving. But you do not get a choice when you created the new file by duplicating a existing file. It takes the type of the latter. (Using dataOfType:error:, but did not find a solution either by using writeToURL:ofType:error:, duplicateDocument:, etc.)
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: AppKit
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301
Jan ’25