--- title: AppKit updates framework: updates role: article role_heading: Article path: updates/appkit --- # AppKit updates Learn about important changes to AppKit. ## Overview Overview Browse notable changes in AppKit. June 2026 General Create events similar to UIControl events on NSControl with the new NSControl.Events type. Gesture recognizers Initiate a drag operation from a gesture recognizer using the new beginDraggingSession(items:gesture:source:) method on NSView. Adopt gesture recognizers to receive touch input from a Sidecar-connected iPad. For more information, see TN3212: Adopting gesture recognizers for Sidecar touch support. Scroll views Configure pull-to-refresh and touch scrolling with NSRefreshController and updated NSScrollView properties. Swift and SwiftUI Update views automatically in response to Observable model changes using the guidance in Updating views automatically with observation tracking. Limit a SwiftUI gesture to specific types of input, such as touch or mouse, using GestureInputKinds. Information property list Configure app-wide gesture recognizer exclusivity and touch emulation using the NSViewGestureRecognizerIsExclusive and NSIsTouchNative keys. Control whether gesture recognizers suppress menu keyboard shortcuts using NSGestureRecognizerSuppressesMainMenuActions. June 2025 General To use control metrics consistent with macOS 15 and earlier, use prefersCompactControlSizeMetrics. NSControl.ControlSize includes a new extra large size, NSControl.ControlSize.extraLarge. Provide seamless immersive visuals by using NSBackgroundExtensionView to extend a view’s content under sidebars and inspectors. Apply Liquid Glass effects to your custom views using NSGlassEffectView. Use NSGlassEffectContainerView to efficiently merge these views when they’re in proximity to one other. Configure buttons for Liquid Glass by setting NSButton.BezelStyle to NSButton.BezelStyle.glass. Split views Add top and bottom accessory views in split views by adding one or more NSSplitViewItemAccessoryViewController objects to the topAlignedAccessoryViewControllers and bottomAlignedAccessoryViewControllers properties. Toolbars Tint toolbar items to make them stand out and stand apart from other toolbar items by setting NSToolbarItem.Style to NSToolbarItem.Style.prominent, and setting backgroundTintColor. April 2025 macOS pasteboard privacy Prepare your app for an upcoming feature in macOS that alerts a person using a device when your app programmatically reads the general pasteboard. The system shows the alert only if the pasteboard access wasn’t a result of someone’s input on a UI element that the system considers paste-related. This behavior is similar to how UIPasteboard behaves in iOS. New detect methods in NSPasteboard and NSPasteboardItem make it possible for an app to examine the kinds of data on the pasteboard without actually reading them and showing the alert. NSPasteboard also adds an accessBehavior property to determine if programmatic pasteboard access is always allowed, never allowed, or if it prompts an alert requesting permission. You can adopt these APIs ahead of the change, and set a user default to test the new behavior on your Mac. To do so, launch Terminal and enter the command defaults write EnablePasteboardPrivacyDeveloperPreview -bool yes to enable the behavior for your app. June 2024 General Organize your windows’ display and layout with window tiling. Swift and SwiftUI Use SwiftUI menus in AppKit with the NSHostingMenu. Animate AppKit views using SwiftUI animations using animate(_:changes:completion:). API refinements Use the keyboard to open context menus for UI elements on which you are focused currently. Add repeat, wiggle, bounce, and rotate effects to SF Symbols. Leverage predefined content types when saving files using the new format picker on NSPanel. Resize frames and zoom in and out with new NSCursor APIs such as NSCursor.FrameResizeDirection and NSCursor.FrameResizePosition. Control whether your toolbars display text as well as icons using the allowsDisplayModeCustomization property. Offer customized type-ahead suggestions in NSTextField using the suggestionsDelegate. June 2023 Views and controls Use the new userCanChangeVisibilityOf delegate method on NSTableView to toggle the visibility of table columns. Use a new NSProgressIndicator property to observe progress of an ongoing task. Simplify how you display and style buttons with the new .automatic bezel style. This bezel style adapts to the most appropriate style based on the contents of the button, as well as its location in the view hierarchy. Display additional contextual information about currently selected documents with NSSplitView inspectors. New improvements to NSPopover enable you to anchor popovers from toolbar items, as well as support full-size popovers. Explore new UI elements in NSMenu. Group information more easily in section headers, lay out menu items in horizontal palettes, as well as display badge counts on menu items. Cooperative app activation App activation is now driven by the user, preventing unexpected switches between apps. Take advantage of Cooperative Activation, where your apps can yield and accept activation from other apps on the system without interrupting the user’s workflows. For more information, see the activate() function on NSApp and NSRunningApplication. Graphics CGPath and NSBezierPath are now interoperable. You can create a CGPath from a NSBezierPath and vice versa. Leverage CADisplayLink to synchronize your app’s ability to draw to the refresh of the display. Create consistent, great visuals for your controls by taking advantage of standard system fill NSColor (.systemFill, .secondarySystemFill, .tertiarySystemFill, .quaternarySystemFill, and .quinarySystemFill). Views no longer clip their contents by default. This includes any drawing done by the view and its subviews. For more information, see the clipsToBounds property on NSView. Animate symbol images with the new addSymbolEffect function on NSImageView. Symbol effects include: bounce, pulse, variable color, scale, appear, disappear, and replace. Display and manipulate high dynamic range (HDR) images. Swift and SwiftUI AppKit more fully integrates with Swift and SwiftUI with Sendable (NSColor, NSColorSpace, NSGradient, NSShadow, NSTouch) and Transferable (NSImage, NSColor, NSSound) types. Preview your views and view controllers alongside your code using the new #Preview Swift macro. Incrementally adopt SwiftUI into your AppKit life cycle by leveraging modifiers like toolbar and navigation title on NSWindows. Simplify your code with new attributes, @ViewLoading and @WindowLoading, to help with view and window loading. Text improvements Help people enter text more effectively with the NSTextInsertionIndicator that adapts to the current accent color of the app. Cursor accessories also help users visualize where and how to enter text. Simplify NSTextField entry by leveraging the new .contentType AutoFill feature, making it more convenient to enter types such as contact information, birthdays, names, credit cards, and street addresses. Adopt text styles like .body, largeTitle, and headline on NSFont.preferredFont to take advantage of enhancements to the font system, like improved hyphenation for non-English languages and dynamic line-height adjustments for languages that require more vertical space. Access localized variants of symbol images by specifying a locale. note: Session 10054: What’s new in AppKit ## See Also ### Technology and frameworks - [Accelerate updates](updates/accelerate.md) - [Accessibility updates](updates/accessibility.md) - [ActivityKit updates](updates/activitykit.md) - [AdAttributionKit Updates](updates/adattributionkit.md) - [App Clips updates](updates/appclips.md) - [App Intents updates](updates/appintents.md) - [Apple Intelligence updates](updates/apple-intelligence.md) - [AppleMapsServerAPI Updates](updates/applemapsserverapi.md) - [Apple Pencil updates](updates/applepencil.md) - [ARKit updates](updates/arkit.md) - [Audio Toolbox updates](updates/audiotoolbox.md) - [AuthenticationServices updates](updates/authenticationservices.md) - [AVFAudio updates](updates/avfaudio.md) - [AVFoundation updates](updates/avfoundation.md) - [Background Tasks updates](updates/backgroundtasks.md)