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Sketch templates for watchOS 11 / Series 10?
Hi, I'm getting started with designing and coding a watchOS app. I wanted to use Sketch to plan the UI before I dive into coding, but it seems like the official Sketch templates on the Design Resources page only have templates for the Series 8 and SE 2 on watchOS 10. I want to use the Series 10's screen size for my layouts since it's the model I have, but I can't find a template for it. Will the official templates be updated for the new models? If not, does anyone know of a third-party template I can use? Thanks in advance!
Topic: Design SubTopic: General
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102
Mar ’25
Guideline 5.2.5 - Legal - Intellectual Property
Your app still contains features that mimic the iOS interface or behavior. I have a simple app that uses a NavigationSplitView 3 panels I have a section for Filters and User created Categories in Panel 1 A list of "Requests" from the selected Filters/Categories in Panel 2 and details of a request in Panel 3 It's designed to be simple and easy to use. How can it NOT "mimic the iOS interface" if I am using their own APIs? What should I do to get around this
Topic: Design SubTopic: General
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1.9k
Jan ’26
Allow mildly translucent values for iPadOS app .png icons
I've been playing around with the recently published iPad PRO M5 13" and it's awesome in most ways I've been able to think of. But this video capture of the app I'm developing, for example, lacks it the app icon "should" be just slightly translucent as I see it. https://youtube.com/CAukICBrVzw However I'm not and UI/X person and this is primarily my personal preference only for an option to allow for devs.
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1.1k
Dec ’25
Icon composer won't allow me to import any files
I have been battling the new Icon Composer app for 2 days trying to build an app icon. However, I cannot get it to import any files. I have used the Apple provided App Icon Template. I have exported my layers to .svg and when I open the finder, everything is disabled. I can't find help for this anywhere. I am on Sequoia on my Mac and not sure how to design this app icon without access to the composer.
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120
Aug ’25
Gray Shades That Adapt to Dark Mode
Hi, Normally we need many shades of gray in any App and Apple system have only 3 , Primery, Secondary, and Gray, so to make Gray regress that automatically adapt to Dark Mode we just use opacity on these colors ? there's no system built in Gray degrees ? Kind Regards
Topic: Design SubTopic: General
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90
May ’25
iOS Screenshot Markup – Rounded Crop Tool (UI Concept)
🔍 Context The built-in screenshot editor in iOS and iPadOS (Markup tool) only allows users to crop images using rectangular frames. While this is sufficient for basic editing, it lacks flexibility for those who wish to tailor the screenshot to the aesthetics of iOS itself — which relies heavily on rounded shapes and smooth UI elements. ⸻ 🚫 Current Limitation • After taking a screenshot and opening it in Markup, users can only crop in rectangular or square formats. • No option is available to apply rounded corners to the crop. • As a result, many users are forced to use third-party apps just to achieve a basic rounded-edge crop, which feels unnecessary for such a common need. ⸻ ✅ Proposed Solution Add a rounded corner cropping feature to the screenshot editor. This could be implemented as: • A toggle to activate “Rounded Crop”. • A radius slider (or predefined corner radius presets). • Optional: an export option to save the result with transparent background, useful for designers and mockups. ⸻ 🎯 Why it matters • Aligns better with the iOS design language (cards, notifications, widgets, etc.). • Saves time for users who currently have to rely on external editing apps. • Greatly improves the presentation of screenshots for social media, UI/UX mockups, blogs, and professional use cases. • Useful across many professions: developers, designers, content creators, educators, marketers. ⸻ 📷 Visual Example Here’s a mockup to illustrate the proposed feature: (Add your image here) ⸻ 💡 Bonus Suggestion Allow exporting with a transparent background when cropping screenshots — especially useful for rounded crops or mockups placed on colored backgrounds.
Topic: Design SubTopic: General
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281
Aug ’25
Stacked-sheets vs. nav-stack-in-a-sheet for navigation hierarchies on top of a map
I couldn't help noticing that the Maps and Find My apps make extensive use of "sheets stacked on top of each other" to represent its navigation hierarchy, with a "new content comes in from the bottom" orientation instead of a navigation stack with "new content comes in from the right side" oriented transitions. I'm interested in this topic because I have a similar navigation-hierarchy-over-a-map case in my app (with a custom map view though) and I'm torn back and forth between the approach of replicating the "stacked sheets" vs. putting a navigation stack in a sheet, esp. with the navstack approach being way more attainable with the iOS 26 glass design. I couldn't find any guidance for this kind of UI in the Human Interface Guidelines; I'm leaning towards the navstack-approach for my app; but in terms of the behavior of the SwiftUI container views in this scenario it seems a little bit of an uphill path. Any thoughts on what pattern should be preferred for presenting a deep navigational hierarchy on top of a map-like view?
Topic: Design SubTopic: General
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310
Jul ’25
Ios26 dev beta 7 brightness
Hi, is it me or latest beta has pronlem with brightness? i have iPhone 16 pro, and now i must keep disabled auto brightness , at keep slider more or less at maximum, in order to clearly see the screen. fabrizio
Topic: Design SubTopic: General Tags:
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176
Aug ’25
Bug on Settings Search Menu - Showing Always On Display for iPhone 14 Plus
We all know that the feature “Always On Display” is available only on pro models. I checked in iPhone 14 Plus, that feature became visible in “Search” menu under “Settings”. If a user types “Displa”, then the search results show “Always On Display” as a result. When I click on that, it navigates inside “Display and Brightness” and we found no toggle for “Always On Display”. So, displaying the same on search result is a big bug which needs immediate attention from Apple. Users are getting confused whether iPhone 14 plus has that feature or not.. **Possible reason: ** I believe Apple releases iPhone OS versions in a single release each time and must be applying any kind of feature flagging to enable / disable a feature in a version or for a model. The feature flagging might not be working with Settings menu’s Search service or the code is not properly modular.
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Jul ’25
New to macOS Development. How Do I Build a Timeline Editor UI Like Logic Pro?
Hi everyone, I’m new to macOS development and working on an app idea that needs a timeline-based editor interface, similar to what you see in Logic Pro or Final Cut. The UI I want to build would have: A horizontal beat ruler that follows BPM and shows beat positions Several vertical tracks stacked below it (for things like events or markers) Horizontal zooming and scrolling A preview panel on the right side that stays in sync with the timeline I’m currently trying this in SwiftUI, but I’m running into some limitations and wondering if AppKit would be a better fit, or maybe a hybrid of the two. My questions: Where should I start when building something like this? What’s the best way to make the beat ruler and all track layers scroll together? How should I handle zooming in/out and syncing the display to a BPM timeline? Is there a clean way to integrate AppKit for the timeline view while keeping SwiftUI elsewhere?
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Jun ’25
i am struggling to get my tab view to work,
i am struggling to get my tab view to work, when i call views in the action part of my tab view, my background creates issue? does anyone know how to fix this? struct ContentView: View { @Environment(.colorScheme) var colorMode let Color1: Color = .cyan var Color2: Color { colorMode == .dark ? .black : .white } var TextColor: Color{ colorMode == .dark ? .black : .black } let tax: Double = 0.0875 var OptionTypes: [String] = ["Breakfeast", "Lunch", "Dinner", "Dessert", "Drinks"] var BreakfeastFoods: [Food] = [ Food(Name: "Eggs Benedict", Price: 9.50), Food(Name: "Avocado Toast", Price: 5.75), Food(Name: "French Toast", Price: 12.50), Food(Name: "Waffles", Price: 7.25), Food(Name: "Pancakes", Price: 8.60) ] var LunchFoods: [Food] = [ Food(Name: "Tuna Salad", Price: 11.25), Food(Name: "Pizza", Price: 22.50), Food(Name: "Chicken Sandwitch", Price: 8.95), Food(Name: "French Fries", Price: 5.15), Food(Name: "Macaroni and Cheese", Price: 7.50) ] var DinnerFoods: [Food] = [ Food(Name: "Ribeye Steak", Price: 18.99), Food(Name: "Pork Ribs", Price: 21.75), Food(Name: "Salmon", Price: 15.00), Food(Name: "Burrito Bowl", Price: 13.99), Food(Name: "Chicken Fajitas", Price: 20.50) ] var DessertFoods: [Food] = [ Food(Name: "Ice Cream Sundae", Price: 10.00), Food(Name: "Fudge Brownie", Price: 4.85), Food(Name: "Chocolate Cake Slice", Price: 6.10), Food(Name: "Pumpkin Pie", Price: 6.10), Food(Name: "Ice Cream Float", Price: 3.50) ] var Drinks: [Food] = [ Food(Name: "Water", Price: 0.00), Food(Name: "Sparkling Water", Price: 2.15), Food(Name: "Soda", Price: 3.00), Food(Name: "Coffee", Price: 2.50), Food(Name: "Hot Chocolate", Price: 3.50) ] @State var MyCart: [Food] = [] var body: some View { NavigationStack{ ZStack{ LinearGradient(colors: [Color1, Color2], startPoint: .top, endPoint: .bottom).ignoresSafeArea() VStack(spacing: 40){ ForEach(OptionTypes, id: \.self){ OptionType in NavigationLink(value: OptionType){ Text(OptionType) }.frame(width: 250, height: 70).background(LinearGradient(colors: [.cyan, .white,.cyan], startPoint: .topLeading, endPoint: .bottom)).foregroundStyle(TextColor).cornerRadius(100).font(.system(size: 25, weight: .medium)).padding(.top, 16) } }.navigationDestination(for: String.self) { OptionType in switch OptionType{ case "Breakfeast": BreakFeastView(BreakfeastList: BreakfeastFoods, Color1: Color1, Color2: Color2) case "Lunch": LunchView(LunchList: LunchFoods, Color1: Color1, Color2: Color2) case "Dinner": DinnerView(DinnerList: DinnerFoods, Color1: Color1, Color2: Color2) case "Dessert": DessertView(DessertList: DessertFoods, Color1: Color1, Color2: Color2) case "Drinks": DrinksView(DrinksList: Drinks, Color1: Color1, Color2: Color2) // case "My Cart": // MyCartView(MyCartList: MyCart, Color1: Color1, Color2: Color2) default: Text("Error") } } } .navigationTitle("Choose Menu") TabView{ Tab("Menu", systemImage: "fork.knife"){ } Tab("My-Cart", systemImage: "cart.fill"){ } Tab("Store Location", systemImage: "mappin"){ } } } } }
Topic: Design SubTopic: General Tags:
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474
Jul ’25
Inconsistencies with activityBackgroundTint when a device switches between light and dark modes
While the activityBackgroundTint modifier is intended to set the background color of a Live Activity, it often fails to dynamically update, leaving the activity with an incorrect background. Replacing it with ZStack { Color(.background) .... } solves the problem, but this is a workaround. The activityBackgroundTint modifier is still needed, at a minimum, so that the "Allow Live Activity for the app" extension does not have the default color.
Topic: Design SubTopic: General Tags:
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525
Sep ’25
Liquid glass - precent automatic color changes
I have an app that displays a MapView. While I am in light mode everything is fine. I can scroll around the map and my overlays (made by UIVisualEffectView containing an UIGlassEffect) stay light and look well! As soon as I change my phone to dark mode, depending on what's underneath the buttons (a light residential area or darker wooded areas) some of my buttons change color. But not all, only where it's supposedly lighter or darker underneath. This makes my whole UI look strange. Some buttons bright, some dark. Is there a way to lock a "color" or interfaceStyle to the effects-view? In light mode everything is fine, but in dark mode it just looks super strange.
Topic: Design SubTopic: General Tags:
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1.2k
Sep ’25
What is the best way to design a UITabBarController (or Sidebar) combined with a UISplitViewController on iPadOS 18 and later, while avoiding memory management issues?
I'm developing an iPadOS 18+ application that uses a UITabBarController, styled as a sidebar, to serve as the primary navigation interface. This setup includes 20 different tabs, each representing a distinct section of the app. For the user experience, each tab needs to present a master-detail interface, implemented using a UISplitViewController. The goal is to allow users to navigate between tabs via the sidebar, and within each tab, access related content through the split view's list-detail pattern. The Problem: Currently, my implementation involves instantiating a separate UISplitViewController for each tab, resulting in 20 unique split view instances embedded inside the UITabBarController. While this works functionally, it leads to significant memory usage, especially after the user opens each tab at least once. The accumulation of all these instantiated view controllers in memory eventually causes performance degradation or even memory warnings/crashes on lower-end iPads. The Question: What is the best approach to implement this type of architecture without running into memory management issues? Specifically: Is there a way to reuse or lazily load the UISplitViewController instances only when needed? Can we unload or release split view controllers that haven't been used for a while to reduce memory pressure? Would a custom container controller be more appropriate than using UITabBarController in this case? Are there iPadOS 18+ best practices or newer APIs that support this kind of complex multi-tab, multi-split-view structure efficiently? Any advice on how to optimize memory usage while preserving the sidebar navigation and split view layout would be highly appreciated.
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May ’25