iOS 27 adds PKStrokeRecognizer to PencilKit, enabling on-device handwriting recognition across 29 languages, plus BĂ©zier path conversion, stable stroke identity, selection access, and programmatic stroke slicing APIs.
• PKStrokeRecognizer runs fully on-device with no network required, letting any app search, index, or validate handwritten content without a privacy compromise
• Path conversion between PKStrokePath and Bézier paths means you can retrofit handwriting recognition onto existing custom canvas implementations — not just PKCanvasView
• Stable stroke UUIDs and programmatic erasing/substroke extraction unlock custom undo stacks, stroke-order animations, and interactive highlight features that were previously impossible
Liquid Glass is Apple's new material and visual design language introduced in iOS 27, bringing translucent, refractive glass-like surfaces to system and custom UI elements. It replaces the frosted vibrancy aesthetic with a more dynamic, depth-aware material that responds to content beneath it.
iOS 27 introduces new SwiftUI drag and drop APIs including reorderable, reorderContainer, dragContainer, and configuration modifiers that enable reordering within and across collections, multi-item drag, and fine-grained control over how data is transferred during drag and drop operations.
PaperKit is Apple's full-featured canvas framework — previously internal-only — now publicly available in iOS/macOS/visionOS 27. It powers the drawing and markup experience in Notes, Preview, and Freeform, giving developers access to a complete pencil, shapes, images, and text canvas with a rich data model.
In-depth guide
SwiftUI & Liquid Glass in iOS 27 →iOS 27 enforces stricter adaptivity requirements for UIKit apps, making iPhone apps fully resizable in iPhone Mirroring and on iPad, while introducing new navigation bar minimization controls, sidebar opt-in for iPhone tab bars, and prominent tab customization.