Glassifying Tabs (SwiftUI)

Liquid Glass, from WWDC25, reshapes tab navigation. The Tab API from iOS 18 is the entry ticket: the old TabView item style still renders glassy, but only the new API gets the new interactions, the search role, the bottom accessory, and minimize-on-scroll.

The Tab API with selection

Wrap each tab's content in a Tab. Bind selection through value:, and store it in @SceneStorage so state restoration brings the user back to the same tab.

@SceneStorage("selectedTab") private var selectedTabIndex = 0

TabView(selection: $selectedTabIndex) {
  Tab("feed", systemImage: "list.star", value: 0) { /* content */ }
  Tab("settings", systemImage: "gear", value: 1) { /* content */ }
}

The search role

role: .search is the only TabRole so far. The system separates that tab from the others on iOS and styles it as the search affordance.

Tab("search", systemImage: "magnifyingglass", value: 2, role: .search) {
  // content
}

Tabs become a sidebar automatically

tabViewStyle(.sidebarAdaptable) keeps tabs on iOS and watchOS and swaps them for a sidebar on iPadOS and macOS without a hand-built sidebar.

TabView(selection: $selectedTabIndex) { /* tabs */ }
  .tabViewStyle(.sidebarAdaptable)

Accessory view and minimize behavior

tabViewBottomAccessory pins an always-visible view above the tab bar, the Apple Music now-playing pattern, meant for global status or one global action. tabBarMinimizeBehavior collapses the bar to the current tab while the user scrolls.

TabView(selection: $selectedTabIndex) { /* tabs */ }
  .tabViewStyle(.sidebarAdaptable)
  .tabBarMinimizeBehavior(.onScrollDown)
  .tabViewBottomAccessory {
    Button("Do Action") { }
  }