Dismiss/Close button - leading or trailing edge?

What is the recommended position of the "X" button dismissing a modal sheet on iOS?

When we have "X" and "✓" the case is easy, but what if we just have "X" button? For example, on a "What's New" screen.

I found guidelines here: https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/sheets

Based on resizable sheets presented there, the "X" button should be on leading edge.

However, iOS is inconsistent and sometimes it presents the button on the leading edge and sometimes on the trailing edge.

How do you approach it? Do you prefer having it on the leading or trailing edge?

SwiftUI provides ToolbarItem(placement: .cancellationAction) , but it doesn't feel like the right placement. cancellationAction sounds like something for actionable sheets when we have something to be cancelled. I'm missing placement: .dismiss :).

Inconsistency on iOS:

  • Messages: new message -> leading edge
  • App Store: event -> trailing edge
  • Calendar: tap on event -> leading edge
  • Weather: tap on day -> leading edge
  • Photos: tap on your avatar -> trailing edge
  • Find: tap on a device -> trailing edge
  • Measure: tap on a list - top-left corner -> trailing edge
  • TV: tap "more" on a description -> trailing edge
  • Mail: swipe left and select "more" -> trailing edge
Dismiss/Close button - leading or trailing edge?
 
 
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