what is new in uikit in wwdc25

At WWDC 2025, several new features and enhancements were introduced for UIKit. Here are some of the key updates:

1. New Design System: UIKit now supports a new design system featuring a material called Liquid Glass, which is translucent and dynamic. This material is used across system materials and controls, providing a vibrant look with effects like specular highlights and refraction. This update affects components such as navigation bars, toolbars, and split views (What’s new in UIKit).

2. Swift Observable Objects: UIKit has integrated Swift observation at its core, allowing for automatic tracking of observable view references and dependencies. This feature is enabled by default in iOS 26 and can be back-deployed to iOS 18 (What’s new in UIKit).

3. Menu Bar on iPadOS: New APIs for the menu bar have been introduced, bringing the familiar macOS element to iPadOS. This allows for a more consistent user experience across devices (What’s new in UIKit).

4. Architectural Improvements: UIKit has undergone architectural improvements to support modern patterns and best practices, including deeper SwiftUI interoperability (What’s new in UIKit).

5. Container View Controllers: Enhancements have been made to container view controllers like UISplitViewController, which now supports inspectors and column resizing (What’s new in UIKit).

6. New UI Update Method: A new method for updating UI has been introduced, streamlining the process and improving performance (What’s new in UIKit).

These updates aim to enhance the visual appeal and functionality of apps built with UIKit, making them more adaptable and responsive across different Apple platforms.