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.

I noticed a discrepancy between the Material specifications for tvOS on the Developer page and the naming in the Design Resources (Sketch files). Which one should we consider authoritative? https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/materials

I have the following code that renders a one-page PDF: func render() -> URL { let renderer = ImageRenderer(content: pdfView()) let url = URL.documentsDirectory.appending(path: "filename.pdf") renderer.render { size, context in var document = CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 2550, height: 3300) guard let pdf = CGContext(url as CFURL, mediaBox: &document, nil) else { return } pdf.beginPDFPage(nil) context(pdf) pdf.endPDFPage() pdf.closePDF() } return url } func pdfView() -> some View { Text("View") } How can this be modified so that it renders a PDF with more than one page?

Is it possible to use the new variable draw feature for a custom SF Symbol without it leaving the background behind it when it is not drawn? I am trying to make a tally icon that is drawn with the variable draw, but it doesn't look good if the tally is visible in the background before it is drawn.

I accedently removed my info.plist can someone help me make one based on this image

While the activityBackgroundTint modifier is intended to set the background color of a Live Activity, it often fails to dynamically update, leaving the activity with an incorrect background. Replacing it with ZStack { Color(.background) .... } solves the problem, but this is a workaround. The activityBackgroundTint modifier is still needed, at a minimum, so that the "Allow Live Activity for the app" extension does not have the default color.

[Iphone11]

Hello All, I used to own an app named LOLIIPOP, and am in the process of transferring it to my new apple account. I am having two problems.... How do I transfer the source code and binary to my new apple account? My developers have an old code, so I need to send them the LAST code they uploaded to the App Store. How do I do that as well??? Please any help!!! Thanks, Mr. LM

I have really examined the swipe left Camera function mode and sincerely believe it is no more important especially when there no option in the settings to turn it on or off. I will highly recommend a total scrap in the iOS 26 or if possible a function to activate and deactivate it.

When receiving or dialing a call, the green (answer) and red (decline) icons appear blurry, and there is a black screen overlay around the icons. This makes it difficult to interact with the call interface properly.

I am struggling with exactly how to set up SwiftData relationships, beyond the single relationship model... Let's say I have a school. Each school offers a set of classes. Each class is taught by one teacher and attended by several students. Teachers may teach more than one class, but only at one school. Similarly students may attend more than one class, but only at one school. Classes themselves may be offered at more than one school. Can someone create a class for School, SchoolClass, Teacher, and Student with id, name, and relationships... I have tried it unsuccessfully about 10 different ways at this point. My most recent is below... I am struggling getting beyond a school listing in the app, and I'll cross that bridge next. I am just wondering if all the trouble I am having is because I am not smart with the class definitions. And wondering if this is to complex for SwiftData and CoreData is the requirement. This is not a real app, just my way of really trying to get a handle on Swift Data models and Navigation. I am very new to Swift, and will take any and all suggestions with enthusiasm! Thanks for taking the time. import Foundation import SwiftData @Model class School: Identifiable { var id: UUID = UUID() var name: String var mascot: String var teachers: [Teacher] var schoolClasses: [SchoolClass] init (name: String, mascot: String = "", teachers: [Teacher] = [], schoolClasses: [SchoolClass] = []) { self.name = name self.mascot = mascot self.teachers = teachers } class SchoolClass: Identifiable { var id: UUID = UUID() var name: String var teacher: Teacher? var students: [Student] = [] init (name: String, teacher: Teacher? = nil, students: [Student] = []) { self.name = name self.teacher = teacher self.students = students } } class Teacher: Identifiable { var id: UUID = UUID() var name: String var tenured: Bool var school: School? var students: [Student] = [] init (name: String, tenured: Bool = false, students: [Student] = []) { self.name = name self.tenured = tenured self.students = students } } class Student: Identifiable { var id: UUID = UUID() var name: String var grade: Int? var teacher: Teacher? init (name: String, grade: Int? = nil, teacher: Teacher? = nil) { self.name = name self.grade = grade self.teacher = teacher } } }

Hey there, I redesigned my apps icons for Liquid Glass in the icon composer app. I have to say it's been a pleasure to use and my icons look stunning when rendered in the icon composer app, whatever rendering mode and context I've been testing. But once in a developer release on my device (iOS 26 beta 3), the rendering is very disappointing. They look blurry, very far from what icon composer is showing. I would like to know whether I have a design issue, or if the current state of the beta release is known to not render icon properly. I'm kind of panicking :)

As a very exclusive Apple only I want to share my thoughts on the new iOS 26 update, which I recently installed on my iPhone 16. While I genuinely appreciate Apple’s drive for innovation and personalization, this update introduces visual and stylistic changes that, in my opinion, compromise what has made iOS feel uniquely Apple for so long. Liquid Glass & Home Screen Aesthetics: When I first saw previews of the “Liquid Glass” design, I was excited. I assumed it would add more flexibility to things like the home screen customization — something like an optional effect that builds on the popular app tinting feature introduced in the previous iOS version. But instead, it appears that the Liquid Glass look is now the default and, more concerningly, unavoidable. The result is a visual experience that feels dramatically more bubbly and less refined. App icons appear more rounded and inflated in a way that — and I say this as constructively as I can — reminds me more of Android or Samsung’s One UI than of Apple’s signature design language. For someone who’s chosen Apple specifically because of its clean, crisp, and elegant UI, this shift is disappointing. iOS has always felt visually mature and thoughtfully minimal. With this update, it starts to feel overly stylized and visually heavy, which I don’t associate with Apple’s identity. Camera App – Icon Design: While I don’t have major concerns with the layout of the Camera app itself, the new Camera app icon is something I feel very strongly about. The previous design was balanced, clear, and professional — instantly recognizable. The new icon, is completely different, and it has more the camera that look like the actual iPhone camera, which I can respect the want to identify the app the iPhone. But this is not the effect I felt it has, I feel like it is less professional than before, which again makes me think a little bit about androids. This minor change feels bit because icons are what we see every day, and this one doesn’t feel quite right for Apple. Along with the new camera icon, the other new icons like the notes app, and the slight change in the message app icon, these small shifts aren’t ones I was overly pleased with, kind of felt like something that wasn’t broke and didn’t need fixed Messages App: The Messages app is where I felt the biggest disconnect. The updated keyboard with the “keys” looking more bubbly which again, makes me think android. And with the new monogram icons (initials in thick fonts with purple backgrounds), make the app feel — again — much more like an Android UI. While that might sound superficial, it doesn’t make me feel like it’s an iPhone. As someone who’s always preferred the Apple system, I’ve come to expect a particular standard of visual design — one that’s distinct from other platforms. This new look blurs that line. The once refined look of Messages is not as clean and simple as it used to be. I also preferred the gray background for monogram icons. The new colors and heavy fonts draw attention in ways that don’t feel as clean and simplistic which I have loved Apple for in the past. Control Center: Another area where I noticed a slight change is the Control Center. It’s not a big difference to the previous one, which I liked. The main difference I noticed was the brightness and sounds “bar” seems more elongated. Not a major difference but I would rather see the older design if I were to be honest. What I Did Like: There are some positives: I think the new lock screen notification styling works well, and the Liquid Glass effect looks great in that specific context. I actually really like the looks that it has with the notifications on the lock screen, having it be that transparent gives a clean and simple look. Lots of the new things that can be done in this update are very nice and convent, the more customization is great. Final Thoughts: To be clear, I offer this feedback not because I’m resisting change, but because I value what makes iOS feel like iOS. This update, while visually bold, feels like a departure from Apple’s strengths — the clean and simplistic look. If there’s one big takeaway I hope you’ll consider, some of the new looks that have been put in place give a feeling that’s not Apple, and more Android. it’s that many of these new visual styles would be better received as optional customizations, not system-wide defaults. I would love to see an update to help fix some of this. I don’t believe there is a way to “un-update” my phone but if I could I would, even though some of these new things do look and feel good.

I'm looking for a way to display a notification badge without showing a number—essentially, just an empty badge to indicate the presence of notifications. From my research, it seems like this functionality isn't available . Is there any workaround or method to achieve this?

Hi guys, I've exported pngs for the middle and front images of an icon but I still se this weird shadow on top of the icon. Do anyone knows how to solve this?

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've been playing around with iPad PRO M5 13" as part of my goal to implement some music relating SPH particle simulation effects on it - and this involves utilizing tap events also from the incredible looking fresh screen the device has. See more information from here, all should be overreactively implemented but the ideas remain (with almost zero cost copy fragment shader) : `https://youtu.be/ci-GSgQ0wlM` This attached image shows the tap effects implementation brought just bit a little further than in the video.

Hi, 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 developing an app in Swift Playground (No Xcode). All my Views respond to the navigation call when I click NEXT except one. When I click NEXT the app hangs then crashes. The error message does not identify the cause of the crash. I have research every possible lead with no success. I would like to get some ideas on how to resolve this issue.

I have the June 2025 version, but I'd like to find the 2022. There was something removed from the 2022 that I would like to check out.

I am requesting a dedicated toggle in Settings > Display & Brightness (or Accessibility) to enable/disable the Liquid Glass UI effects so that I am able to get frosted glass thingy effect that was in iOS 18 back.