what is new in ipados tab bar

Generated on 8/6/2024

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In iPadOS 18, the tab bar has received several updates to enhance its functionality and appearance. Here are the key changes:

  1. Compact Look: The tab bar now has a more compact design, reducing unused vertical and horizontal space to bring app content to the forefront. This new look is closer to other navigation controls, making it easier to reach (Elevate your tab and sidebar experience in iPadOS).

  2. Integration with Navigation Bar: The tab bar shares a safe area with the navigation bar, creating 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).

  3. Customization Features: Users can now customize the tab bar by adding their favorite tabs through drag and drop. The tab bar contains three sections: fixed, customizable, and pinned. The fixed section is for important destinations and disallows customization, the customizable section allows rearrangement and addition of items, and the pinned section is for items like search that are always available (Elevate your tab and sidebar experience in iPadOS).

  4. Sidebar Integration: The tab bar can now optionally be displayed as a sidebar. When the sidebar is hidden, it animates back into the tab bar, bringing focus back to the app's content. This allows for a combined tab and sidebar experience, providing quick navigation and access to deeper sections of the app (Elevate your tab and sidebar experience in iPadOS).

  5. New APIs: New APIs in both SwiftUI and UIKit make it easier to build and customize tab bars. In SwiftUI, a new syntax for TabView helps catch common errors at build time and ensures consistency in tab selection types. In UIKit, new APIs allow for better description of app hierarchy and immediate reflection of changes made to UITab instances (Elevate your tab and sidebar experience in iPadOS, What’s new in UIKit).

For more detailed information, you can refer to the session Elevate your tab and sidebar experience in iPadOS.

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