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.

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.

Dear Apple, please make sure this bug gets delivered to whoever is responsible. That's all I ask. Please don't let it sit for months unassigned. This is, by far, the worst bug I've ever found with the macOS wallpaper system. FB21532401 If you own a 13" 2020 or newer MacBook pro model, set to the default resolution, and are running macOS Tahoe, macOS will significantly degrade the quality of any image set as wallpaper. When a still image is set as the wallpaper on macOS Tahoe, on some display configurations, the systems downscales the image to an incorrect size, resulting in pixelated wallpaper. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that macOS Wallpaper Agent appears to be using a less than ideal downscaling algorithm, which results in Super Mario Bros’ type pixelation (nearest neighbor) as opposed to any other reasonable modern method (like bicubic.) The issue does not repro on macOS Sequoia. Every model MacBook we’ve tested offers some resolutions with some form of this problem, but the 13” is the only one where it is notably awful. The most evident default case of this is the 13” MacBook Pro models with a 2560x1600 physical display (for example, 2020 MacBook Pro 13” (17,1.)) These models have a physical display resolution of 2560x1600, and a default scaled resolution of 1440x900. The relationship between the physical resolution and scaled resolution is not an even ratio (1:1 or 2:1), which seems to be the common condition under which this issue occurs. Repro steps: Set the systems display resolution to the default resolution - ideally on the model described above (see details on this below) Set a high resolution image (in this example 5120x2880) as the system wallpaper using any method Results: On the model described above, Wallpaper Agent will generate and display a 1440x810 image as the wallpaper. It should be generating and displaying at a minimum of 2560x1600, or more appropriately at 2880x1800 which is the proper 2X resolution. This can be confirmed by viewing the properties of the generated images in the macOS wallpaper cache here: ~/Library/containers/com.apple.wallpaper.agent/Data/Library/Caches/com.apple.wallpaper.caches/extension-com.apple.wallpaper.extension.image On modern Apple systems, the only situation in which the wallpaper should be generated at 1X is when the physical resolution and set resolution are 1:1. In any situation where the physical resolution is larger than the set resolution, the image should be generated at 2X the set resolution. As far as we can tell, this issue impacts any format, and any resolution of image, and occurs independent of the set image resolution.

Hi, Upon reviewing our app, we got feedback that our app icon within the Wallet app is not behaving as expected when the home screen is set to "light mode" only. In that case, on the home screen, the app icon remains its default color (e.g., red), regardless of the device's appearance settings (light or dark), which is expected. However, in the apple Wallet, e.g., under the From Apps from your device, app icons change their color (e.g., red in light mode, black in dark mode) when iOS appearance is changed - which is reported as an app issue. I've noticed that all apps in that section are changing the color, not just ours, so it seems to me like a bug in iOS or a behavior that was not clearly defined in the app store guidelines. If there is an API we must use to cover that case, which one would that be? Is this a bug that Apple should resolve, or is this the intended behaviour?

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.

Hey there! I'd love to know if theres a way where you can animate items between ZStack and VStacks? Just like the native iOS notifications on the Lockscreen stack at the bottom and if tapped, they convert from a Stack to a List - I have a list with items, displayed in a VStack, and I make the list collapsable when swiping down, where the items stack behind eachother with a progresisve reduction in opacity & scale, but I havent figured out a way to animate the items between the list and the stack - where you can visually see items starting to overlap and stack ontop of eachother when collapsing the list.

Hello, I recently submitted my app to the Apple Store and received a rejection under Guideline 4.3(a) - Design - Spam, stating that my app is similar to others on the store. However, my app has a unique feature set, offers more functionality and content than competitors, and is completely free with ad monetization, unlike most similar apps that require subscriptions. I have spent five months developing this app from scratch, ensuring it provides an original and valuable experience for users. I did not use an app template or repackaged code, and my app is not a reskinned version of any existing app. I genuinely believe it brings meaningful differentiation to the market. I would appreciate any guidance on how I can better communicate my app’s uniqueness to the review team or what specific aspects I should adjust to comply with Apple's guidelines. Thank you for your time and support.

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

I see the logo all over the internet, but the only Official logo I can find is the swift logo, the orange one, but the blue one I do not see a place to download it nor the usage guidelines. I have seen it on various Icon site like Icon8. I would like to use it on my reddit forum that is dedicated to SwiftUI but I want to be legal. Is it allowed to use and if so, where can you download the official verison?

I'm developing an iPadOS 18+ application that uses a UITabBarController, styled as a sidebar, to serve as the primary navigation interface. This setup includes 20 different tabs, each representing a distinct section of the app. For the user experience, each tab needs to present a master-detail interface, implemented using a UISplitViewController. The goal is to allow users to navigate between tabs via the sidebar, and within each tab, access related content through the split view's list-detail pattern. The Problem: Currently, my implementation involves instantiating a separate UISplitViewController for each tab, resulting in 20 unique split view instances embedded inside the UITabBarController. While this works functionally, it leads to significant memory usage, especially after the user opens each tab at least once. The accumulation of all these instantiated view controllers in memory eventually causes performance degradation or even memory warnings/crashes on lower-end iPads. The Question: What is the best approach to implement this type of architecture without running into memory management issues? Specifically: Is there a way to reuse or lazily load the UISplitViewController instances only when needed? Can we unload or release split view controllers that haven't been used for a while to reduce memory pressure? Would a custom container controller be more appropriate than using UITabBarController in this case? Are there iPadOS 18+ best practices or newer APIs that support this kind of complex multi-tab, multi-split-view structure efficiently? Any advice on how to optimize memory usage while preserving the sidebar navigation and split view layout would be highly appreciated.

While build now I receive this error help me to resolve it Showing Recent Errors Only Prepare build error: Multiple commands produce '/Users/mayankjain/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/PCS_EmpApp-chsylqbxjptobeawzzckymqzagvr/Build/Products/Debug-iphonesimulator/PCS_EmpApp.app/Info.plist' note: Target 'PCS_EmpApp' (project 'PCS_EmpApp') has copy command from '/Users/mayankjain/Documents/05-NOV-2025-SWETA_IOS/PCS_EmpApp/PCS_EmpApp/xcode-out/Platforms/iOS/Info.plist' to '/Users/mayankjain/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/PCS_EmpApp-chsylqbxjptobeawzzckymqzagvr/Build/Products/Debug-iphonesimulator/PCS_EmpApp.app/Info.plist' note: Target 'PCS_EmpApp' (project 'PCS_EmpApp') has process command with output '/Users/mayankjain/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/PCS_EmpApp-chsylqbxjptobeawzzckymqzagvr/Build/Products/Debug-iphonesimulator/PCS_EmpApp.app/Info.plist' Multiple commands produce '/Users/mayankjain/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/PCS_EmpApp-chsylqbxjptobeawzzckymqzagvr/Build/Products/Debug-iphonesimulator/PCS_EmpApp.app/Info.plist'

As of right now Icon Composer does not support creating app icons for visionOS and tvOS. It appears that only system apps can provide glass icons for those platforms. How should developers handle this? In extreme cases, the flat icon on those platforms will look wildly different from their glass counterparts. From what I have seen visionOS and tvOS also do not apply any automatic treatment like on iOS where legacy icons get a glass effect. So, third party app icons are just going to look out of place for (hopefully just) a year on those platforms? What is the recommended approach here? You could obviously fake the effect, but I feel like that would be worse.

Hi everyone 👋 I’m a new iOS developer working on my first app and I’ve run into a frustrating visual bug involving my app icon during the launch/close transition. Issue: When I use Icon Composer (the new tool introduced for iOS 26) to generate my app icon, I consistently see a thin white border or “fringe” around the icon only during the transition animation (when the app opens or closes). It disappears once the animation ends. What I tested and confirmed: • I exported the exact same design directly from Adobe Illustrator as a 1024×1024 PNG, fully opaque, RGB color mode, background color filling the entire canvas (no transparency, no borders, no rounded corners). • When I place that exported PNG directly into the AppIcon asset catalog in Xcode, the icon renders perfectly — no white fringe appears, just a slightly darker shade of blue during transitions (expected and acceptable). • But when I generate the icon using Icon Composer, the white edge always appears, even if I disable effects, use full coverage layers, or only keep a flat color layer. Notes: • Tested on iOS 26 (latest beta) using Xcode 16. • The issue seems specific to Icon Composer’s export format or metadata — maybe it’s not stripping alpha correctly or something related to the squircle mask? • I followed all recommended specs: 1024×1024 px, PNG, sRGB, no transparency, exported from Illustrator at 72ppi with solid background. Even tested without the logo, just the icon made with icon composer Is anyone else experiencing this issue with Icon Composer exports? Is there an official recommendation to avoid this during transitions or should I simply avoid Icon Composer for production icons for now and stick with Illustrator / Figma exports? Thanks so much Here’s a visual example:

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'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?

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!

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.

Showing Recent Errors Only Prepare build error: Multiple commands produce '/Users/mayankjain/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/PCS_EmpApp-chsylqbxjptobeawzzckymqzagvr/Build/Products/Debug-iphonesimulator/PCS_EmpApp.app/Info.plist' note: Target 'PCS_EmpApp' (project 'PCS_EmpApp') has copy command from '/Users/mayankjain/Documents/05-NOV-2025-SWETA_IOS/PCS_EmpApp/PCS_EmpApp/xcode-out/Platforms/iOS/Info.plist' to '/Users/mayankjain/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/PCS_EmpApp-chsylqbxjptobeawzzckymqzagvr/Build/Products/Debug-iphonesimulator/PCS_EmpApp.app/Info.plist' note: Target 'PCS_EmpApp' (project 'PCS_EmpApp') has process command with output '/Users/mayankjain/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/PCS_EmpApp-chsylqbxjptobeawzzckymqzagvr/Build/Products/Debug-iphonesimulator/PCS_EmpApp.app/Info.plist' Multiple commands produce '/Users/mayankjain/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/PCS_EmpApp-chsylqbxjptobeawzzckymqzagvr/Build/Products/Debug-iphonesimulator/PCS_EmpApp.app/Info.plist'

Hi, I'm getting started with designing and coding a watchOS app. I wanted to use Sketch to plan the UI before I dive into coding, but it seems like the official Sketch templates on the Design Resources page only have templates for the Series 8 and SE 2 on watchOS 10. I want to use the Series 10's screen size for my layouts since it's the model I have, but I can't find a template for it. Will the official templates be updated for the new models? If not, does anyone know of a third-party template I can use? Thanks in advance!

Hi, Just want to check is there a requirement for Apple that for App Digital Wallet provisioning that Apple Pay button is not more than 2 taps away from Home Screen?