What's new in UIKit

Generated on 8/3/2024

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What's New in UIKit

At WWDC 2024, Apple introduced several enhancements and new features in UIKit for iOS 18. Here are the key updates:

  1. Document Launch Experience:

    • Redesigned launch experience for document-based apps.
    • Full control over launch views and design.
    • First-class support for template document creation.

  2. Tabs and Sidebar:

    • Major updates to tabs and sidebar.
    • New API to better describe app hierarchy to UITabBarController.
    • Changes made to UITab instances are reflected immediately.

  3. Fluid Transitions:

    • Support for new fluid transitions across the system.
    • Enhanced interoperability of SwiftUI and UIKit, making it easier to use them interchangeably in apps.

  4. SwiftUI Animations in UIKit:

    • Use SwiftUI animation types to animate UIKit views.
    • Build fluid gesture-driven animations using SwiftUI spring animations.

  5. Coordinated Gesture Recognizers:

    • Add existing UIKit gesture recognizers directly to SwiftUI hierarchies using the new UIJsRecognizerRepresentable protocol.

  6. Automatic Trait Tracking:

    • Easier to use traits and handle changes in iOS 18.
    • Propagates data to view controllers and views in the app's hierarchy.

  7. List Improvements:

    • New header and footer configurations.
    • UIBackgroundConfiguration constructors for list cell, list header, and list footer.
    • Automatic appearance updates from the list environment trait.

  8. UIUpdateLink:

    • Easier implementation of complex animations requiring periodic UI updates.
    • Features like automatic view tracking and low latency mode for drawing applications.

  9. SF Symbol Animations:

    • New animations for SF Symbols.

  10. Sensory Feedback:

    • Enhancements to sensory feedback mechanisms.

  11. Text Improvements:

    • Various improvements to text handling and rendering.

  12. Menu Actions:

    • New capabilities for menu actions.

  13. Apple Pencil Pro and PencilKit:

    • Enhanced support for Apple Pencil Pro and updates to PencilKit.

For a detailed overview, you can watch the session What’s new in UIKit.

Relevant Sessions

Feel free to explore these sessions for more in-depth information on the updates and enhancements in UIKit.

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