iOS 27 adds soft shadow rendering to RealityKit spotlights and point lights via a configurable lightSize and quality, plus a SurroundingsLightComponent that lets virtual lights illuminate real-world surfaces using the scene understanding mesh.
• Soft shadows dramatically increase realism by producing physically accurate penumbras based on light area size — controllable with a single property change
• Physical space lighting (SurroundingsLightComponent) enables virtual lights like spotlights to paint projective textures and illumination onto real-world walls, floors, and objects
• Projective textures on spotlights allow cinematic effects like light shining through a stained-glass window or animated caustics, all with minimal code
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 brings a sweeping set of SwiftUI enhancements including Liquid Glass design adoption, new toolbar visibility and overflow APIs, document architecture improvements with Observable, and resizable iPhone app support — all designed to modernize app UIs with minimal code changes.
Xcode 27 introduces a fully customizable toolbar and theme system, untitled scratch projects, coding agent integration directly in the editor, and the new Device Hub for evaluating apps across simulators and physical devices side-by-side.
In-depth guide
RealityKit & USDKit in iOS 27 →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.