iOS 27 (and macOS 15) brings the systemExtraLargePortrait widget family — previously visionOS-only — to iPhone, iPad, and Mac, giving widgets a tall canvas to display rich app content. Developers can now support this new family size alongside existing families with minimal code changes.
• systemExtraLargePortrait widget family added to iOS, iPadOS, and macOS 27 (was visionOS-only before).
• No changes to the WidgetKit timeline or provider APIs themselves — adoption is purely additive via supportedFamilies.
• Existing widgets can reuse the same timeline provider and entry types; only a new SwiftUI view for the larger canvas is needed.
• The systemExtraLargePortrait family unlocks a significantly larger display area on iPhone/iPad/Mac, letting users see more content at a glance without opening the app.
• Reusing existing timeline providers means adopting this new family requires only a new SwiftUI view and a one-line addition to supportedFamilies — very low effort for high visibility.
• Supporting more widget families increases discoverability in the Widget Gallery and gives users more customization choices.
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.