What’s new in UIKit
Asked on 06/15/2025
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At WWDC, Apple introduced several new features and improvements in UIKit across different sessions. Here are some of the highlights:
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New Design System: UIKit has been updated with a new design system featuring a material called Liquid Glass, which is translucent and dynamic. This new material is used across various components like navigation bars, toolbars, and more, providing a modern and cohesive look (What’s new in UIKit).
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SwiftUI Integration: There are enhanced integrations between UIKit and SwiftUI, allowing for more seamless use of both frameworks in the same app. This includes the ability to use SwiftUI animations with UIKit views, making it easier to create fluid and interactive animations (What’s new in UIKit).
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Architectural Improvements: UIKit now supports Swift observable objects, which simplifies the process of tracking changes and updating views. This is part of a broader effort to modernize UIKit and improve its interoperability with SwiftUI (What’s new in UIKit).
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UI Update Link: A new feature in iOS 18, UIUpdateLink, allows for easier implementation of complex animations that require periodic UI updates. It offers advanced features for better performance and battery efficiency (What’s new in UIKit).
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Document Launch Experience: There are improvements to the launch experience for document-based apps, providing more control over launch views and supporting template document creation (What’s new in UIKit).
These updates are part of Apple's ongoing efforts to enhance UIKit, making it more powerful and easier to use in conjunction with SwiftUI. For a comprehensive overview, you can watch the sessions "What’s new in UIKit" from both 2024 and 2025.
What’s new in UIKit
Modernize your app with the latest APIs in UIKit, including enhanced menu bar support, automatic observation tracking, a new UI update method, and improvements to animations. We’ll also cover how you can include SwiftUI scenes in your UIKit app and explore SF Symbols, HDR color pickers, and more.
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.
Build a UIKit app with the new design
Update your UIKit app to take full advantage of the new design system. We’ll dive into key changes to tab views, split views, bars, presentations, search, and controls, and show you how to use Liquid Glass in your custom UI. To get the most out of this video, we recommend first watching “Get to know the new design system” for general design guidance.