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.
Explore the art and science of app design. Discuss user interface (UI) design principles, user experience (UX) best practices, and share design resources and inspiration.
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Not sure if anyone else has this issue, however with the new appearances when i use the dark appearance and then open the app "TickTick", the icon goes to its original colour until the app is closed.
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 have many Apple devices, such as macbook, iPad and iPhone. It's very convenient for me to transfer files between devices. However, when I want to send files to my own device in public places, I often click on the wrong recipient because the list avatar keeps changing. I hope the list of recipients can be grouped One group is my own device (or the one I often send to), and the other group is other devices. When the user is about to send, the mouse will be in a relatively fixed and mentally expected area. I feel that this can reduce the probability of sending wrongly
Does iOS 26 support HDR images for app icons to be rendered in High Dynamic Range for Springboard or not?
I placed apple.logo symbol image on the top of a view. This view is used to link or unlink Apple ID for user. In the middle is the apple sign in button. I want to use something to describe or represent what the view is, instead of using text description. so I think sign in's company logo is a good choice. Is it allowed by apple official?
Hi guys, I've exported the images with transparency for a Vision OS icon but I still keep getting a weird shadow on the top of the icon when I focus on it.
Do you guys had this issue before?
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?
Hey, everyone. I'm having an issue with my modal shadows when building for macOS. I've attached an image to show you what's going on.
I have a rounded corner window, and when the In-App Purchase overlay opens, the modal shadow of that rounded window is square (which doesn't make sense, and looks bad).
Can somebody please help me address this? I've tried searching high and low for a solution but I can't find anything :-(
I really appreciate you taking a look! -Logan
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'
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'
I’m developing an app that includes a navigation bar with a centered title and a single right bar button item. I’ve noticed that when both the navigation bar title and the right bar button item’s title are relatively long, the navigation bar title becomes hidden.
This issue only occurs on iOS 26. When running the same code on iOS 18, the layout behaves as expected, with both elements visible.
Has anyone else experienced this behavior on iOS 26? Is this a known layout change or a possible bug?
I’m not a developer - I’m just trying to find out where to post a question I have that might relate to iOS 26.
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.
The problem is the same in all of my applications. To reproduce it, in iOS 26, set the dark mode in the Brightness and display settings and in Accessibility, Display and text size, activate Increase contrast and bold text. With these settings, all the controls will be surrounded by a thin white line. When in the app a keyboard is dispayed, the thin white line does not appears correctly around the keyboard like in the capture joined, it is present on top and partially on bottom but not on sides
I found that unofficial apps like ChatGPT and Shadowrocket can use widgets in VisionOS 26. How is this achieved? How can I also enable widgets for apps I develop?
I would like to propose a design enhancement for future iPhone models: using the existing bottom-right antenna line (next to the power button area) as a capacitive “volume control zone” that supports swipe gestures.
Today this line is a structural antenna break, but it is also located exactly where the thumb naturally rests when holding the phone in one hand. With a small embedded capacitive/force sensor, the user could slide their finger along this zone to control volume without reaching for the physical buttons.
Why this makes sense:
• Perfect ergonomic thumb position in both portrait and landscape
• One-handed volume adjustment becomes easier for large-screen devices
• Silent and frictionless vs. clicking buttons (useful in meetings / night mode)
• Consistent with Apple’s recent move toward contextual hardware input (Action Button, Capture Button, Vision Pro gestures)
The interaction model would be:
• Swipe up → increase volume
• Swipe down → decrease volume
• (Optional) long-press haptic = mute toggle
This could also enhance accessibility, especially for users with reduced hand mobility who struggle to press mechanical buttons on tall devices.
Technically, this would be similar to the Capture Button (capacitive + pressure layers), but linear instead of pressure-based. It does not replace physical buttons, it complements them as a silent gesture-based alternative.
Thank you for considering this as a future interaction refinement for iPhone hardware design.
I'm using a NavigationSplitView on macOS which needs to show 2 or 3 columns depending on the selection of the sidebar.
Column 1 has a list of main activities. Some of these just have some data to show and some have a sublist.
Currently, when an item that has no sublist is selected, I set the 2nd column (content:) to:
Spacer()
.navigationSplitViewColumnWidth(0)
This works, although it started hitting bugs requiring a workaround on macOS 26, which got me wondering, what is the correct approach here?
NavigationSplitViewVisibility.doubleColumn is not the solution, as this hides column 1, not column 2.
Hello everyone,
In the current iOS version, changes in the "liquid glass" light shining effects can repeatedly be observed on older iPhone devices (12/13/14).
This change is often seen after the device is rebooted or after a SystemMemoryReset.ips (System Analysis Data).
It changes very often...
I'm not currently working on apps myself, but perhaps someone has ideas for the upcoming updates involving Liquid Glass.
(please also check the screenshots)
Prior to iOS 26, this successfully gave me a modal view with a transparent background:
let settingsVC = MySettingsViewController()
settingsVC.modalPresentationStyle = .automatic
//settingsVC.modalPresentationStyle = .overCurrentContext
self.present(settingsVC, animated: true, completion: {
}
MySettingsViewController:
self.view.backgroundColor = UIColor(white: 0, alpha: 0.5)
Now in iOS 26, modal view is presented in a opaque grey background.
let glassView = UIVisualEffectView(effect: UIGlassEffect(style: .clear))
glassView.frame = CGRect(x: 100, y: 200, width: 200, height: 400)
self.view.addSubview(glassView)
Though UIGlassEffect has two variants: .regular and .clear, even the clear one has some blur on the background.
Is there a way to do get absolute no blur? Edges still have the glass effect.
Apple does this in two places:
Camera app:
Text magnifier: