What should I know about iOS 26 to adapt my app?
Asked on 06/11/2025
1 search
To adapt your app for iOS 26, here are some key updates and changes you should be aware of:
-
UI Scene Lifecycle: Adopting the UI Scene lifecycle is now mandatory for any UIKit app built with the latest SDK. This change is crucial for ensuring your app's flexibility and adaptability across different devices and screen sizes. You can learn more about this in the session Make your UIKit app more flexible.
-
New Design System: iOS 26 introduces a new design system with updates to structural app components like Tab View and Navigation Split View. The new design includes Liquid Glass effects, which enhance the look and feel of your app. For more details, check out the session Build a SwiftUI app with the new design.
-
Menu Bar on iPad: iOS 26 brings the menu bar from macOS to iPad, providing quick access to app functionality. This feature supports all menu images, submenus, and more. You can customize your app's menu using new APIs introduced in this release. More information can be found in the session What’s new in UIKit.
-
OpenURL Method: The OpenURL method now accepts file URLs, allowing your app to hand off documents not natively supported by your app to other apps that can handle them. This is part of the updates in the session What’s new in UIKit.
-
SwiftUI and UIKit Interoperability: iOS 26 enhances interoperability between SwiftUI and UIKit, allowing you to mix scene types in a single app. This flexibility is crucial for modern app development. For more insights, refer to the session Make your UIKit app more flexible.
-
Multilingual Experience: New features like the Arab Easy Transliteration keyboard and multiscript bilingual keyboards enhance the multilingual experience on iOS 26. These updates are discussed in the session Enhance your app’s multilingual experience.
By incorporating these updates, you can ensure your app is well-adapted to the new features and design paradigms introduced in iOS 26.
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.
Make your UIKit app more flexible
Find out how your UIKit app can become more flexible on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Vision Pro by using scenes and container view controllers. Learn to unlock your app’s full potential by transitioning from an app-centric to a scene-based lifecycle, including enhanced window resizing and improved multitasking. Explore enhancements to UISplitViewController, such as interactive column resizing and first-class support for inspector columns. And make your views and controls more adaptive by adopting new layout APIs.
Build a SwiftUI app with the new design
Explore the ways Liquid Glass transforms the look and feel of your app. Discover how this stunning new material enhances toolbars, controls, and app structures across platforms, providing delightful interactions and seamlessly integrating your app with the system. Learn how to adopt new APIs that can help you make the most of Liquid Glass.