UI Frameworks Group Session Notes

Is AppDelegate going to be around or is being removed? It seems currently Apple wants developers to adapt UISceneDelegate, and also to make sure the RequiresFullScreen check to be removed in info.plist. Adapting multi-scene ain’t a mandatory and UIApplication will be deprecated, while AppDelegate will stick around. AppDelegate seems to be coupled tightly with iOS ecosystem that there are still many places where this is required.

What happens if an App is not ready for Glass design? How long can developers opt out? Well this was also mentioned in 2025 Platform State of the Union that on the next Major iOS release, this option will be removed and it was again stated that developers have one year to adapt the new design system. This means that all the navite UI’s like Tab bar, Navigation bar and others won’t get affected for developers who opt-in this check for over an year, and Apple seems to expect us to get adapted by changing the apps design to be compatible with the new design system.

So personally I believe if an app do not update their design and deploy their app with Xcode 26 for newer OS versions, the native UI elements will be changed to Liquid Glass design with inappropriate behaviour and bugs.

Accessibility Issues with Liquid Glass Design. It seems the current Apple apps that have adopted with Glass Design are in a way to collect feedback from Beta testers, so that they could improve their design flaws. Throughout the session, they have repeated requested people to submit feedbacks regarding difficulties, and suggestions in using their apps, which they could use to improve the Liquid Glass Design throughout the Beta program.

There are options in the accessibity settings currently like reduced transparency that makes the glass more frosty, increase contrast which pushes elements to the extremes of all black/white, reduced motion to decrease the morphing effects and it is possible to create custom traits to achive these in swift.

Advice on adopting newer design for apps that target older iOS versions. Apple stated a clear suggestion that, using the native UI elements to build apps is the easiest way to have proper support for older iOS targets. The native elements will automatically change the UI as per the host OS version. The main difficulty lies for the apps that have used major customization to their UI.

Regarding managing the code with lots of target checks and other work arounds, Apple suggested to adapt the new API’s that are provided in Tab bars, navigation bars, and to move to these native UI. If this isn’t possible, then having some level of abstraction/work-around like if \#available and if the code base ends up with a lot of if \#available then it will be better to create components that handle these checks to adapt the design as necessary.

Advice of using SwiftUI or UIKit/AppKit’s lifecycle as the base for an App that heavy relies on UIKit/Appkit customization. Using SwiftUI as the base for the multi-platform app will provide the most benefit as in the upcoming future when you are planning to adapt to SwiftUI it will be much easier. More over the SwiftUI’s lifecycles are more and more complete throughout these years. With the help of Scene Bridging feature released in iOS 26 can also provide ways to introduce complete SwiftUI views into UIKit/Appkit apps.

Is it possible to implement custom UI with glass like effect? Using the new glassEffect() and GlassEffectContainer it is possible to create custom views look like native elements. It was also adviced to use clear glass effects on for very special occasions were it makes sense for the user to be completely immersed into the screen(like the play button in the AVPlayer), and to refine from using clear views in other situations. Custom Glass Effect views, also go through the new liquid glass design guidelines.

How are size classes affect by the changes to the iPadOS 26? Size classes are not changes, Apple thinks size classes still have their place in tailing designs for smaller windows. It was also adviced to never fall into the trap of thinking size class as a fixed break point and the apps’ implementation should never assume that values always going to be the same or the UI doesn’t have to handle different sizes, there are other factors the UI should be able to handle like dynamic type or other accessibility settings.

Positioning Search Bars. The bottom aligned search is the new default in iOS, but it is noticable that few apple apps have top alignment search fields. This can be customized by the SearchFieldPlacement in SwiftUI, also check out the default tool bar item APIcheck here and when working with the TabView using searchable is preferrable as it gives the default animation and other benefits like transitions.

Can there be some UI elements that adapt Glass design and not have glass effects in other areas like custom Tab bars? Using the info.plist to opt is opting out every designs and it is present to help with transition of the app design. Developers can create custom components and choose if these should be glass or not, and it is important to understand that Apple is not asking every controls and UI to be updated to glass. Please watch the Design sessions to under the philosophy behind this new design system.

Can we use Liquid Glass Effect on the Text like in the Lockscreen or on Shapes in general? On texts, not directly.Yes on Shapes. The glassEffect() modifier does allow to be applied to custom shapes. This comes with performance and memory cost. Most of glass effects are applied by apple sparingly on capsule shapes and smaller controls.

Thanks for reading