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 have a shortcut that should repeat on the 1st Saturday of every month at 8 am. However, it doesn't trigger. If I set it to trigger daily, it works; if I set it to repeat weekly, it works. But if I set it to repeat on the first Saturday, it doesn't. The option to select the first Saturday is native in the Shortcuts app. Select time of day -> Repeat -> Frequency Monthly -> Change "each" to "on the"

I recently updated to a new Mac using Migration Assistant. Xcode said it was damaged and wouldn't launch but it reinstalled fine. SF Symbols has the same problem, but reinstalling results in the same damaged message. I've deleted SF Symbol related stuff from Library > Application Support and Library > Preferences but no luck. Anyone have a suggestion on how to get it to work again?

I noticed in the PNG export of my icon in icon composer that there is a border around a layer of my icon. This doesn’t show up in the in app preview, but only when exported. My icon composer file is here: https://github.com/user-attachments/files/28973433/rootshell.27.zip This is the 1024@2x exported image https://private-user-images.githubusercontent.com/65378120/608158382-7b2a8e59-9822-465b-95d0-1dc624d6a617.png

Hello Apple Design Team, I’m an independent AI engineer with a strong background in product design, preparing to bring a new AI-powered application to market alongside a major iOS update featuring native support for iPhone Duo. With launch approaching, I’m looking for guidance on how developers should visually communicate Duo-specific experiences, particularly when preparing App Store screenshots, promotional assets, and featuring nominations. Specifically, are there examples, templates, or recommended approaches for presenting: Multitasking: Two* applications working side by side. Paired apps: Demonstrating workflows between complementary applications. Folded states: Communicating how an application adapts to different device configurations. Screenshot composition: Are larger developers using headlines, explanatory text, and custom layouts within their Duo screenshots, or are they primarily submitting unmodified simulator captures and device renders? App Store featuring: What types of visual assets best communicate Duo-specific functionality in featuring nominations? As an independent developer, I have very few public references for how larger development teams are preparing their launch materials. I’m particularly interested in understanding what Apple Design considers a strong visual demonstration of Duo integration, beyond simply showing an application running on the device. For example, should screenshots emphasize the actual interface and system multitasking experience, or is it appropriate to incorporate marketing headlines and supporting visual elements to explain the workflow? Are there recommended assets, design guidelines, templates, or examples that independent developers can reference before submitting their updates and featuring nominations? This is time-sensitive given the upcoming launch and associated submission deadlines. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for supporting the independent developer community.

With Apple HomeView announced today, is there any developer guidance on designing and optimizing existing iOS applications for the new platform? Very cool product!

Hello. Do you know how to make full screen on SwiftUI? Not like when you tap on green circle placed top-left side in any MacOS app, now my app opens on small window but I need to this app was stretched for horizontal and vertical sides

How do we post app icons using Windows. We're trying to submit our app for review and we've learned how to submit the screenshots for preview but we're having trouble uploading our logo/app icon. Can anyone help pleeeeeeaaaaasssseee?

Hi This is probably not for this particular forum but I wanted to know how I can go about adding assets, logos and images that are compatible with with iphone. I’m so new to this whole thing and I would totally use some guidance. I’m enjoying the conversations and the Q&A thanks! Isaac

Area: iPadOS / UIKit / Accessibility Summary: In iPadOS 27, the floating shortcut bar above the software keyboard (Undo, Redo, Copy, AutoFill) and the bottom keyboard toggle buttons (Globe, Microphone, Handwriting) suffer from severely reduced touch targets. This makes them difficult to tap accurately, leading to frequent mis-taps and a degraded text input experience. Steps to Reproduce: Open any app with a text input field (e.g., Safari, Notes) on an iPad running iPadOS 27. Bring up the software keyboard. Observe the floating shortcut bar and the bottom row of keyboard toggles. Attempt to tap "Undo", "Redo", or the handwriting/globe buttons. Expected Behavior: The UI elements should meet Apple's Human Interface Guidelines for minimum touch target size (44x44 pt). Alternatively, enabling "Larger Text" or "Display Zoom" in Accessibility settings should appropriately scale these system UI components. Actual Behavior: The buttons are visually cramped and their touch targets are tiny. Increasing system text size has no effect on these UI elements. It is extremely difficult to hit the correct button, and users frequently trigger the wrong action. Environment: Device: A16 iPad OS Version: iPadOS 27.0 (Build: [IpadOS27) App: System-wide (Safari, Notes, etc.) Impact: This affects accessibility and basic usability. Users with larger fingers, motor impairments, or those relying on Accessibility features are significantly impacted. The UI feels overly compressed and unintuitive.

IOS27 force the developer to apply the new look and feel. My project set the Navigation View background to red and there is a search bar on the section which background is set to white. It work well under IOS25 and IOS26 by using UIDesignRequiresCompatibility It won't work any more under IOS27 and result a ugly background color on the searchbar, the goal is do the same in IOS27.

When previewing the new header asset, I noticed a peculiarity with the iPad in landscape mode. See the reflected objects at the top of the image; those reflections are at the bottom of my header asset. Is there a bug in  connect that displays the header with a vertical wrap, or will the wrap be present in the distributed build? For reference, none of the other iOS devices have this in either dark/light and portrait/landscape modes. Hope someone sees this and catches the bug.

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 :).

I'm developing an PWA app which really needs the whole screen real estate in focus... Any idea if Apple will make the status bar blur a choice for the developer, not something that is forced? It drives me nuts!

I’m preparing my existing App Store app for iOS 27 and want to test interface resizability on iPhone Duo. I cannot find the iPhone Duo simulator in Device Hub. Is it currently available? If so, what Xcode version/runtime is required and how do I add it? Thanks! I have the latest Xcode 27 from downloads section and Device Hub 27. Where is 27.1 download?

Hello Apple Design and macOS Engineering Teams, With macOS 27 Golden Gate, the introduction of custom color tinting, dark, and clear icon styles has significantly modernized the desktop and application experience. However, there is a noticeable inconsistency in this design language that directly impacts the overall user experience. While all application icons on the left side of the Dock immediately adapt to the selected icon style (Dark, Clear, Tinted), the folder shortcuts, Downloads, Applications directories, and the Trash on the right side of the Dock remain entirely excluded from this visual transformation. As a user who values visual symmetry, color harmony, and attention to detail, having default bright yellow folders and legacy icons sitting right next to dark/clear-themed app icons completely breaks the interface's consistency. The dynamic GPU-layer style transformation applied to the left side should naturally extend to the folder and directory shortcuts on the right side of the Dock as a system standard. In an effort to resolve this locally via scripts or automation, I found that these icon style preferences are not written to any user-accessible system parameters (plist) nor exposed via APIs. Consequently, users have no means to manually or automatically align these visual styles. I have attached screenshots that clearly demonstrate this visual discrepancy. I would like to inquire whether this design gap will be addressed in upcoming macOS updates and if dynamic theme support is planned for the right side of the Dock. I look forward to your feedback on this matter. Sincerely,

Among the major user problems on iPhone that still remain unsolved, which ones do you think an independent developer outside Apple could realistically start tackling today? And if I built a prototype to solve one of them, what would you look for to decide, “This is something real”?

Hi everyone, Following the update to macOS 27, we have observed a regression/behavioral change in PDFKit regarding how markup annotations (particularly highlights, underlines, and strike-outs) are drawn. Issue Description Whenever a markup annotation (PDFAnnotationSubtypeHighlight / PDFAnnotation) has associated text or contents, PDFKit now automatically renders a yellow speech-bubble / comment note icon directly adjacent to the highlighted region in the margins. Visual Symptom: Instead of a clean text highlight overlay, the document margin is immediately cluttered with comment bubble icons for every single highlighted passage or line. Impact across applications: Because this rendering occurs within the native PDFKit.framework rendering layer, rolling back host applications to earlier releases does not alleviate the issue. It affects both system PDF rendering and third-party PDFKit-based viewers (such as Skim). Expected Behavior: Standard highlight and markup annotations should display their color fill over the text without forcing an external comment icon unless an explicit pop-up / sticky note annotation is requested. Third-Party Tracker Reference This issue is actively being investigated and tracked in the Skim open-source project here: https://sourceforge.net/p/skim-app/bugs/1617/ Questions for DTS / Community: Is there an undocumented flag, preference, or API attribute on PDFAnnotation / PDFView in macOS 27 to disable or hide these automatic markup pop-up icons globally or per annotation? Is this change intentional as part of a redesigned annotation interaction model, or is it an unintended side effect of internal note rendering changes? Any workarounds or insights would be greatly appreciated.

"When handling deeplinks from notifications or widgets on Apple Duo, how should the fold state affect deeplink execution? Should a deeplink arriving during fold be executed immediately or queued until fold completes? Can pending deeplinks be interrupted if a fold occurs during navigation? Should navigation state be restored after the device unfolds?"

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.

On iPhone 18 Pro, the Now Playing panel and bottom Lock Screen controls can use different material opacity and foreground colors for the same wallpaper and settings. The final appearance depends on the preceding wallpaper-editing sequence. Environment Device: iPhone 18 Pro iOS: 27.2 beta (24B5084k) Liquid Glass: Clear / most transparent setting Wallpaper: Built-in iPhone 18 Pro wallpaper collection Variants tested: Silver and Black within the same saved wallpaper configuration Feedback Assistant: FB24866793 Two observed appearance states For clarity, I use the following labels: Higher-opacity state (S_s): The Now Playing panel and bottom buttons have a light or gray, relatively solid fill with dark foreground icons. Translucent state (S_t): The same elements are more transparent and use light foreground icons. In Sleep mode, they darken and blend into the background more naturally. No Liquid Glass setting is changed during the following sequence. Shortest reproduction sequence 1. Change Silver to Black Start with the Silver variant displaying the higher-opacity state (Silver S_s). Open the Lock Screen wallpaper carousel, tap Customize, change Silver to Black within the same iPhone 18 Pro wallpaper configuration, tap Done, and exit the carousel. Observed result: Black retains the higher-opacity state (Black S_s). 2. Save Black without changing it Reopen the same Black wallpaper in Customize, make no changes, tap Done, and exit. Observed result: Black changes to the translucent state (Black S_t). 3. Change Black back to Silver Reopen Customize, change Black back to Silver, tap Done, and exit. Observed result: Silver retains the translucent state (Silver S_t). 4. Save Silver without changing it Reopen the same Silver wallpaper in Customize, make no changes, tap Done, and exit. Observed result: Silver changes back to the higher-opacity state (Silver S_s). The complete sequence is therefore: Silver S_s → Black S_s → Black S_t → Silver S_t → Silver S_s The two actual appearance changes occur after reopening Customize and saving without changing the selected wallpaper. Actual result When switching between Silver and Black inside the same saved wallpaper configuration, the existing material state can be preserved even though the new wallpaper has a different brightness. Reopening the configuration and saving it without making a change can then alter: Now Playing panel opacity Notification material appearance Bottom shortcut-button opacity Foreground or icon colors As a result, the exact same Silver or Black wallpaper can appear in either state solely because of the preceding editing history. Expected result The material opacity and foreground colors should be determined consistently from the currently selected wallpaper and the Liquid Glass setting. Switching between Silver and Black should update the appearance immediately if different treatments are intended for them. Saving an unchanged wallpaper should not alter the Lock Screen appearance. Sleep mode impact The issue is especially noticeable in Sleep mode. In the higher-opacity state, the Now Playing panel and bottom buttons remain conspicuous gray elements against the darkened Lock Screen. In the translucent state, the same controls darken and integrate with the background. Supporting evidence The corresponding Feedback Assistant report, FB24866793, includes: A screen recording of the complete sequence in normal mode A screen recording of the same sequence in Sleep mode A detailed PDF report containing screenshots, terminology, additional observations, and reproduction paths Both recordings show the following sequence: Silver S_s → Black S_s → Black S_t → Silver S_t → Silver S_s The recordings and PDF cannot be attached directly to this Developer Forums post, but they are available to Apple through the Feedback Assistant report. Request for confirmation Could anyone else with an iPhone 18 Pro test this sequence on the same iOS build? If you can reproduce it, please consider filing a separate Feedback Assistant report and referencing FB24866793.