Best of iOS — 2025
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ThomasHanning.com·1y
Why Building Mobile Apps Is So Much Harder Than It Looks
Mobile development is a demanding field requiring careful management of limited hardware resources, unpredictable network conditions, strict app store review processes, and high privacy expectations. Developers must optimize for smooth performance, handle offline capabilities, and ensure robust security, all while meeting high user expectations and dealing with difficult testing and debugging processes.
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Hacker News·34w
Apple has a private CSS property to add Liquid Glass effects to web content
Apple has developed a private CSS property called `-apple-visual-effect` that enables Liquid Glass effects in web content within iOS apps. The property supports various system materials including the new glass effects from iOS 26, but requires enabling a private WKPreferences setting called `useSystemAppearance`. While this feature can't be used in App Store apps due to its private nature, it suggests Apple is using webviews with native UI integration in their own applications without users realizing it.
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Snapchat/Valdi: Valdi is a cross-platform UI framework that delivers native performance without sacrificing developer velocity.
Valdi is an open-source cross-platform UI framework from Snapchat that compiles TypeScript components directly to native iOS, Android, and macOS views without web views or JavaScript bridges. Battle-tested in Snap's production apps for 8 years, it features automatic view recycling, instant hot reload, full VSCode debugging, and flexible integration with existing native codebases. The framework includes a C++ layout engine, worker thread support, native animations, and type-safe bindings between TypeScript and platform-specific code.
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Laravel News·1y
NativePHP for Mobile v1 — Launching May 2
NativePHP for Mobile v1 launches on May 2, allowing developers to use Laravel to build native iOS and Android apps without needing to learn Swift, Kotlin, Flutter, or React Native. The release provides access to device APIs such as camera, biometric scanning, and push notifications while using familiar Laravel tools. Early access pricing ends on May 31.
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Liquid Glass Is Cracked, and Usability Suffers in iOS 26
iOS 26's new Liquid Glass visual language prioritizes aesthetics over usability, introducing translucent UI elements that obscure content, animated buttons that distract users, and smaller tap targets that violate established guidelines. The update breaks long-standing iOS conventions by moving search to the bottom, removing breadcrumbs from back buttons, and adopting Android-style design patterns. Controls now appear and disappear unpredictably, making the interface harder to learn. The emphasis on visual effects creates readability issues with text overlaying images and other text, while constant animations compete for attention instead of supporting content.
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Lobsters·49wPhysicality: the new age of UI
A comprehensive exploration of iOS design evolution from skeuomorphic to flat design, leading to a prediction of the next era focused on 'physicality' and dynamic glass-like interfaces. The author analyzes how VisionOS design principles might influence future iOS redesigns, proposing a 'Living Glass' concept where UI elements behave like real materials with dynamic lighting, reflections, and spatial depth. The piece examines the technical and design challenges of implementing such interfaces across Apple's ecosystem.
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Linear·29w
A Linear spin on Liquid Glass
Linear rebuilt Apple's Liquid Glass design system from scratch for their mobile app redesign, creating custom SwiftUI shaders and visual effects to maintain design flexibility while supporting customizable navigation. The team implemented their own glass material using Gaussian blur, signed distance fields, and GPU-calculated lighting instead of adopting Apple's APIs, allowing them to support iOS 18 users and build expandable tab bars that adapt to different user roles. The custom implementation includes tactile feedback, variable blur effects, and accessibility features like Increase Contrast mode support.
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Emerge Tools·26w
Reaper - An open-source SDK for finding dead code
Sentry open-sourced Reaper, an SDK for detecting dead code in iOS and Android apps through runtime analysis. Unlike static analysis tools, Reaper monitors actual user sessions to identify code that's never executed in production. The iOS version leverages Objective-C and Swift runtime metadata to track type initialization with zero runtime overhead. The Android version instruments bytecode at build time, injecting tracking calls into class initializers. Both implementations allow teams to aggregate usage data across app versions and safely identify unused code for deletion, helping manage codebase complexity and technical debt.
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Jacob’s Tech Tavern·29w
My wife gave me 100 days to make it as an indie creator
An iOS developer announces his transition to full-time indie content creation, setting a 100-day goal to reach £50k ARR through his tech publication. The strategy focuses on growing the subscriber base through new content formats like developer interviews and creator spotlights, while improving paid conversion rates by developing tools for iOS developers. Success means sustainable independence; failure means returning to traditional employment.
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YouTube·43w
iOS 26 is terrible.
iOS 26 introduces a controversial 'liquid glass' design inspired by Vision Pro, featuring transparent, glass-like UI elements. The redesign has been criticized for poor visibility, contrast issues, and feeling rushed. The author argues this represents a broader decline in Apple's software quality, comparing it unfavorably to previous major iOS redesigns and suggesting Apple is losing control amid pressure from AI competition.
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Noted·21w
Helmarr for iOS 26 — Beta Expanding
Helmarr is an iOS 26 app entering expanded beta testing that provides a unified mobile dashboard for managing self-hosted media services. It integrates Sonarr, Radarr, Overseerr/Jellyseerr, Tautulli, Lidarr, Wizarr, and Unraid with features including push notifications, widgets, customizable dashboards, release calendars, and multi-network support. The app requires iOS 26 for its glass UI elements and is available through TestFlight, with a Discord server for community feedback.
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I forced myself to spend a week in Instagram instead of Xcode
An iOS developer experiments with spending a full week focused on marketing and social media promotion instead of coding new features for their fitness app. The week involved creating Instagram content, cold messaging studios and trainers, and meeting with fitness industry influencers. Key insights include the surprising difficulty of content creation, the effectiveness of direct outreach, and how marketing opens doors that code alone cannot.
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Product Hunt·45w
a0.dev: AI Platform for Mobile App Development
a0.dev is a Y Combinator-backed AI platform that generates complete React Native mobile apps in seconds. The integrated platform handles the entire development lifecycle from UI creation and backend logic to payment processing and App Store deployment. It features an AI agent that can build apps, debug code, and create iOS builds instantly, aiming to democratize mobile app development.
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Hacktivate
Paul Hudson built Hacktivate, a capture-the-flag game teaching cybersecurity fundamentals to teens through 240 challenges covering SQL injection, cryptography, networking, and steganography. The app runs entirely locally on Apple devices using Swift and SwiftUI, featuring a sandboxed environment with simulated servers, terminals, and networks. Inspired by classic games like Syndicate and Command & Conquer, it combines retro aesthetics with practical skills like packet sniffing, hash cracking, and digital forensics. The 45,000+ lines of code include a Linux terminal emulator, web server, and various security tools, all designed to provide structured, privacy-preserving learning without external dependencies.
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Ionic Blog·22w
Announcing Capacitor 8
Capacitor 8 has been released with two major updates: Swift Package Manager (SPM) replaces CocoaPods as the default dependency manager for new iOS projects, and Android now includes built-in edge-to-edge support through a new SystemBars plugin that automatically handles status and navigation bar appearance. Existing CocoaPods projects remain supported, and the new SystemBars API provides fine-grained control when needed. The framework continues growing rapidly, approaching one million weekly downloads.
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Simon Grimm·20w
I Reviewed 3 REAL React Native Apps (Here's what I thought)
A video review of three React Native applications (District walking game, Zyotes note-taking app, and Rail Ruckus dice game) analyzing their UI/UX design, user onboarding flows, and implementation quality. The reviewer provides specific feedback on improving native feel, visual consistency, animation patterns, paywall design, and emotional engagement in game interfaces. Key takeaways include the importance of native UI components, proper haptic feedback, smooth transitions with reanimated, and making games feel alive with animations and visual effects.
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NativePHP for iOS
NativePHP for iOS allows PHP applications to run natively on iPhones using Laravel and Livewire without transpiling the code. This development brings new functionalities like taking photos, push notifications, and in-app purchases directly from Laravel. Simon Hamp has successfully gotten his prototype approved by Apple, and there's an early access program available for developers to get the latest features.
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A Java geek·1y
The Home Assistant companion app
The Home Assistant companion app for iOS offers advantages over the regular webapp, particularly through its use of widgets. These widgets can either open specific parts of the app or execute Home Assistant commands through configured actions and automations. The app is free and available on the Apple Store under the Apache v2 License. Users can easily integrate and configure the app to control various smart home devices.
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Syncfusion·19w
Introducing Liquid Glass UI in .NET MAUI: Elevate Your App Design
Syncfusion introduces Liquid Glass UI for .NET MAUI, bringing glassmorphism effects to cross-platform applications. The feature leverages Apple's UIVisualEffectView to create blurred backgrounds, adaptive color tinting, and light refraction effects on iOS and macOS. Implementation involves wrapping controls with SfGlassEffectView, enabling the effect property, and customizing blur styles, corner radius, and shadows. The effect works across Syncfusion's .NET MAUI controls including DataGrid, Charts, and Image Editor, providing native performance while maintaining accessibility.
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InfoQ·32w
AWS Introduces M4 and M4 Pro Mac Instances for Faster Apple App Development
AWS launched M4 and M4 Pro Mac instances powered by Apple's latest M4 silicon, offering up to 20% better build performance compared to M2 instances. The M4 variant features a 10-core CPU with 24 GB unified memory, while the M4 Pro includes a 14-core CPU with 48 GB memory. Both provide 2 TB local storage and are designed for building, testing, and signing iOS and macOS applications with Xcode. The instances are available as dedicated hosts with per-second billing but require a 24-hour minimum allocation period. Currently available only in US regions (Northern Virginia and Ohio), they support macOS Sequoia 15.6 and newer, though they come at a higher price point than previous generations.
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The Verge·47w
Download these now free retro mobile games before Sega removes them
Sega is discontinuing support for nine retro mobile games that were part of their Forever program, including Crazy Taxi Classic, Streets of Rage, Sonic CD Classic, and others. The company has made all these games completely free and removed in-app purchases before they are eventually delisted from iOS and Android app stores. Users can still download and play these games offline even after they are removed from the stores, but should grab them now while they are still available.
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WebDev·52w
React Wheel Picker – iOS-like wheel picker for React
Explore the React Wheel Picker, a component designed to emulate the iOS wheel picker experience. It offers smooth inertia scrolling and supports infinite loops for seamless user interaction. A quick setup can be done using the shadcn CLI.
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Justin Searls·34w
Tot
Tot is a minimalist text collection and editing app for Apple devices that syncs across Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch via iCloud. It features a single-window design, Markdown support, customizable smart bullets, automatic backups, and Shortcuts integration. The app offers both free and premium features with a focus on simplicity and cross-device accessibility.
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Apple Developer·33w
Upcoming Currency Change in Bulgaria
Bulgaria will adopt the euro as its official currency on January 1, 2026, replacing the Bulgarian lev. This change affects App Store pricing, payments, and reporting for developers with apps sold in Bulgaria. App pricing will be automatically converted using the statutory rate of 1.95583 BGN = 1 EUR, subscription billing will continue uninterrupted, and developers must display both currencies during the transition period until August 2026. Financial reports will split between BG and EU categories based on transaction dates.
