What's the recent tabtar changes?
Generated on 8/5/2024
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Recent changes to the tab bar, as presented at WWDC, include several updates and new features across iPadOS, iOS, and other Apple platforms:
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Visual Refresh and Integration:
- The tab bar now shares a safe area with the navigation bar for a more integrated appearance. Items from the navigation bar will automatically move to overflow if there's not enough room to show alongside the tab bar (Elevate your tab and sidebar experience in iPadOS).
- The tab bar has a new compact look that reduces the amount of empty vertical and horizontal space, bringing app content to the forefront (What’s new in UIKit).
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Customization and Personalization:
- Users can now customize the tab bar by adding their favorite tabs through drag and drop, reordering them, or hiding infrequently used options (Elevate your tab and sidebar experience in iPadOS).
- Tabs have a preferred placement to determine their customization and visibility preferences. The tab bar contains three sections: fixed, customizable, and pinned (Elevate your tab and sidebar experience in iPadOS).
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New APIs and Syntax:
- In iOS 18,
TabViewhas a new syntax in SwiftUI to make it easier to catch common errors at build time. You now declare a tab struct with a title, image, and its content view (Elevate your tab and sidebar experience in iPadOS). - UIKit has new APIs to better describe your app hierarchy to
UITabBarController, allowing for immediate reflection of changes made to theUITabinstance (Elevate your tab and sidebar experience in iPadOS).
- In iOS 18,
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Platform-Specific Enhancements:
- On visionOS, the tab bar displays in an ornament on the leading edge of the window for root tabs (Elevate your tab and sidebar experience in iPadOS).
- On tvOS 18, SwiftUI apps can use the
TabViewandTabSectionAPI to adopt the new collapsible sidebar (Elevate your tab and sidebar experience in iPadOS).
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User Customization in SwiftUI and UIKit:
- To enable user customization on a
TabViewin SwiftUI, attach aTabViewCustomizationto theTabView(Elevate your tab and sidebar experience in iPadOS). - Customization features allow people to configure the sidebar to their specific needs, such as hiding non-essential tabs or rearranging groups (Elevate your tab and sidebar experience in iPadOS).
- To enable user customization on a
For a detailed overview of these changes, you can watch the session Elevate your tab and sidebar experience in iPadOS.
Elevate your tab and sidebar experience in iPadOS
iPadOS 18 introduces a new navigation system that gives people the flexibility to choose between using a tab bar or sidebar. The newly redesigned tab bar provides more space for content and other functionality. Learn how to use SwiftUI and UIKit to enable customization features – like adding, removing and reordering tabs – to enable a more personal touch in your app.
What’s new in SwiftUI
Learn how you can use SwiftUI to build great apps for any Apple platform. Explore a fresh new look and feel for tabs and documents on iPadOS. Improve your window management with new windowing APIs, and gain more control over immersive spaces and volumes in your visionOS apps. We’ll also take you through other exciting refinements that help you make expressive charts, customize and layout text, and so much more.
Platforms State of the Union
Discover the newest advancements on Apple platforms.
What’s new in UIKit
Explore everything new in UIKit, including tab and document launch experiences, transitions, and text and input changes. We’ll also discuss better-than-ever interoperability between UIKit and SwiftUI animations and gestures, as well as general improvements throughout UIKit.