How use Menu

Generated on 4/10/2025

1 search

To use menus in your app, you can leverage the new capabilities introduced in the WWDC sessions. Specifically, in the session titled "What’s new in AppKit," there are several enhancements related to menu usage:

SwiftUI Menus in AppKit: You can now use SwiftUI menus within AppKit contexts using NSHostingMenu, a new NSMenu subclass. This allows you to share menu definitions between parts of your app that use AppKit and those that use SwiftUI. You can create your menu definition using a SwiftUI view and use it in any AppKit context that accepts an NSMenu. This is covered in the session What’s new in AppKit (06:21).
Context Menu Positioning: In macOS Sequoia, you can use the keyboard to open a context menu for the currently focused UI element. The default shortcut is Control + Return, but it can be customized. The menu is positioned automatically over the view's bounds if your view has a value for the menu property. This is discussed in the session What’s new in AppKit (08:44).
Menu Actions in UIKit: Menu actions provide all of an app's commands in the macOS menu bar and in the iPadOS and visionOS keyboard shortcut menus. iOS 18 makes menu actions more useful for iPhone-only apps. This is detailed in the session What’s new in UIKit (18:14).

These enhancements make it easier to integrate and manage menus across different Apple platforms, providing a more cohesive user experience.

Provide feedback

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.

What’s new in AppKit

Discover the latest advances in Mac app development. Get an overview of the new features in macOS Sequoia, and how to adopt them in your app. Explore new ways to integrate your existing code with SwiftUI. Learn about the improvements made to numerous AppKit controls, like toolbars, menus, text input, and more.

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.

What’s new in Wallet and Apple Pay

Take passes and payments to the next level with new enhancements to Wallet and Apple Pay. Make your event tickets shine with rich pass designs in Wallet, and bring great Apple Pay experiences to even more people with third-party browser support. We’ll also look at how to disburse funds with Apple Pay on the Web and highlight new API changes that help you integrate Apple Pay into even more purchasing flows.

Meet the Translation API

Discover how you can translate text across different languages in your app using the new Translation framework. We’ll show you how to quickly display translations in the system UI, and how to translate larger batches of text for your app’s UI.

Design advanced games for Apple platforms

Learn how to adapt your high-end game so it feels at home on Mac, iPad, and iPhone. We’ll go over how to make your game look stunning on different displays, tailor your input and controls to be intuitive on each device, and take advantage of Apple technologies that deliver great player experiences.

What’s new in Quick Look for visionOS

Explore how Quick Look in visionOS can elevate file preview and editing experiences in your app. We’ll cover the integration of in-app and windowed Quick Look, as well as a brand-new API that customizes the windowed Quick Look experience in your app. We’ll also share the latest enhancements to viewing 3D models within Quick Look.

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.

Get started with Writing Tools

Learn how Writing Tools help users proofread, rewrite, and transform text in your app. Get the details on how Writing Tools interact with your app so users can refine what they have written in any text view. Understand how text is retrieved and processed, and how to support Writing Tools in custom text views.

Meet the next generation of CarPlay architecture

Dive into the architecture for the next generation of CarPlay. Learn how your vehicle system works with iPhone to create a single cohesive experience that showcases the best of your car and iPhone. Learn how UI is rendered and composited, and explore ways to configure and customize a special experience for each vehicle model. This session is intended for automakers and system developers interested in the next generation of CarPlay.

Bring your app’s core features to users with App Intents

Learn the principles of the App Intents framework, like intents, entities, and queries, and how you can harness them to expose your app’s most important functionality right where people need it most. Find out how to build deep integration between your app and the many system features built on top of App Intents, including Siri, controls and widgets, Apple Pencil, Shortcuts, the Action button, and more. Get tips on how to build your App Intents integrations efficiently to create the best experiences in every surface while still sharing code and core functionality.