what's new in UIKit 2025?

Asked on 06/16/2025

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In the "What's new in UIKit" session at WWDC 2025, several enhancements and new features were introduced for UIKit:

  1. New Design System: The introduction of a new material called Liquid Glass, which is translucent and dynamic, is central to the new design system. This material is used across system materials and controls, providing a vibrant look with effects like specular highlights and refraction. UIKit components have been updated to incorporate this new design, offering a more responsive and visually appealing user interface.

  2. Containers and Adaptivity: Improvements have been made to help your app's content adapt smoothly across various devices and screen shapes. For instance, UISplitViewController now supports inspectors, allowing additional details to be displayed alongside selected content. Columns in split views can be resized by dragging, enhancing flexibility.

  3. Architectural Improvements: UIKit now integrates Swift's observation at its core, allowing for automatic tracking of observable view references and dependencies. This reduces the need for manual updates and improves performance.

  4. Menu Bar and Scene Updates: New APIs for the menu bar have been introduced, and there are updates to the scene-based lifecycle, making apps more portable and flexible.

  5. Improved Animations and Notifications: Enhancements to animations and the introduction of Swift notifications provide more robust and modern APIs for developers.

For a detailed overview of these updates, you can watch the session What’s new in UIKit (00:59).

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What’s new in UIKit

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.

Build a UIKit app with the new design

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.

Build a SwiftUI app with the new design

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.