What is new in UIKit

In the "What’s new in UIKit" session at WWDC 2024, several enhancements and new features were introduced for iOS 18. Here are the key updates:

1. Document Launch Experience:

   • Redesigned launch experience for document-based apps, allowing full control over launch views and design.
   • First-class support for template document creation to guide users in creating their first document.

2. Tabs and Sidebar Updates:

   • Major updates to tabs and sidebar, including new API to better describe app hierarchy to UITabBarController.
   • New syntax in SwiftUI for TabView to catch common errors at build time and ensure consistent selection types.

3. Fluid Transitions:

   • Support for new fluid transitions across the system, enhancing the sense of continuity in apps.

4. SwiftUI and UIKit Interoperability:

   • Enhanced interoperability between SwiftUI and UIKit, making it easier to use them interchangeably.
   • Ability to use SwiftUI animation types to animate UIKit views, including custom animations.
   • New UIJsRecognizerRepresentable protocol to add existing UIKit gesture recognizers directly to SwiftUI hierarchies.

5. General Enhancements:

   • Automatic trait tracking to propagate data to view controllers and views in the app's hierarchy.
   • New constructors for UIBackgroundConfiguration to automatically update appearance from the list environment trait.
   • Introduction of UIUpdateLink for implementing complex animations requiring periodic UI updates, with features like automatic view tracking and low latency mode for drawing applications.
   • Expanded SF Symbols with new symbol animations and three new animation presets.

For more detailed information, you can watch the session What’s new in UIKit.