On the Platforms State of the Union, Apple is anticipated to element how the brand new Liquid Glass design works on every of its platforms, how Apple Intelligence might be added to third-party apps, how Swift Help in Xcode will work with third-party AI fashions and extra.
This occasion goes into all of the technical particulars behind the morning’s bulletins. Apple will speak about how builders can undertake new options of their apps and use the newest developer instruments.
You possibly can watch the Platforms State of the Union on YouTube, within the Apple Developer app or on the internet. Learn on beneath for our protection of the occasion.
Platforms State of the Union at WWDC25
The largest occasion at WWDC, Apple’s annual worldwide developer convention, is the Monday morning keynote the place new OS updates are introduced. However WWDC is definitely a week-long convention, the place Apple will define intimately how builders can undertake new options of their apps earlier than the updates are launched in September.
Lately, the Platforms State of the Union has change into like a second keynote for builders. Apple goes into extra depth about new developer instruments, explains adjustments coming to the Swift programming language and goes into extra technical depth on the brand new options.
Liquid Glass
Liquid Glass on Mac, iPad, iPhone and Apple Watch.
Picture: Apple
Billy Sorrentino, Apple’s Senior Director of Human Interface, went into depth in regards to the Liquid Glass design and its APIs. “Software program is the guts and soul of our merchandise,” mentioned Sorrentino.
The purpose of Liquid Glass is to create a common design language — one that’s constant throughout all platforms. The glass materials can mirror content material round it, shine by means of content material beneath it and “visually carry controls” for extra prominence.
New, tweaked UI parts.
Picture: Apple
Controls can float on the underside of the display, sort of like ornaments on visionOS. Buttons alongside a toolbar might be grouped collectively to point comparable performance. Nook radiuses are knowledgeable by the corners of the bodily units and the shapes of your finger. Practically each management has been redesigned — textual content packing containers at the moment are left-aligned with bigger buttons, for instance.
There’s extra consistency throughout the completely different platforms. iPad app layouts are extra knowledgeable by macOS, and the Mac has new structure types which can be extra just like iOS.
Tab-based apps on iOS will routinely undertake the brand new Liquid Glass floating tab model, as will Mac and iPad apps which have a navigation sidebar. Toolbar buttons will routinely morph into dropdown menus when tapped, with the glass materials and animations all offered by the system. Many UI parts will likely be up to date routinely, with no adjustments to code, simply by recompiling apps in opposition to iOS, iPadOS, macOS 26 and others.
Apps can simply add equipment to the underside tab bar. This can be utilized for audio gamers, in apps like Music or Podcasts; or search fields, for simple entry with one hand.
When coding in Swift UI, a easy modifier to your code can flip numerous buttons or different UI parts into the system glass materials.
Create a Liquid Glass icon.
Picture: Apple
A brand new House Display model is for clear icons. These are made out of two to 4 completely different layers. A brand new app, Icon Composer, enables you to create these customized icons on the Mac. Import vector shapes to construct your icon. You possibly can take a look at options like specular highlights, shadows and the varied visible types.
New Basis Fashions framework
That is all of the code it takes to construct a immediate and get a response.
Screenshot: Apple
Now, third-party apps can construct customized AI options on high of Apple’s customized Basis mannequin. This may let builders use the highly effective on-device capabilities totally free, relatively than spend cash on an costly third-party service. It additionally works solely offline.
Builders can immediate the mannequin with simply three traces of code. The mannequin has been fine-tuned for a lot of further use instances. It additionally helps structured knowledge output, so you possibly can make sure the outcomes you get will work in your app. Builders can construct a number of completely different AI instruments of their app — even instruments that fetch on-line knowledge from companies like Wikipedia.
After all, you can even construct a customized mannequin utilizing Apple’s current CoreML frameworks.
App Intents now superpower extra components of the system — from Highlight on the Mac to customized search instruments in Visible Intelligence on iPhone.
AI options in Xcode
ChatGPT, and different companies, are constructed into Xcode.
Screenshot: Apple
Predictive code completion, launched final 12 months in Xcode, is much more highly effective in Xcode 26.
Swift Help, launched final 12 months however solely accessible now, has expanded in scope. It now integrates third-party companies. Apple demoed integration with ChatGPT to offer coding help from a plain language immediate.
With ChatGPT, you’ll have a restricted quantity of every day prompts, or you possibly can sign up to your paid account for much more entry. You may as well use Claude or different fashions by offering an API key.
Coding Instruments is a brand new Xcode equal to Apple’s system Writing Instruments. You possibly can create feedback, Swift UI previews and extra. When your code has a syntax or compiler error, you possibly can even have it generate a repair for you.
In the event you’re frightened of AI ruining your codebase, a brand new timeline characteristic enables you to roll again its adjustments rapidly.
All of those options can be found immediately within the first Xcode 26 beta.
This text is being up to date reside because the occasion carries on. Refresh for updates.
