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.
β’ Coding agent conversations now live as first-class editor panes, enabling parallel agentic tasks with inline plan/review/implement workflows without leaving Xcode
β’ Device Hub unifies simulators and physical devices in resizable windows with an Inspector for accessibility and appearance testing, dramatically speeding up multi-device QA
β’ Untitled scratch projects and standalone Swift file previews let you prototype ideas instantly β no project setup required β and share lightweight runnable snippets with teammates
Demonstrates the new Xcode 27 capability of opening a bare .swift file and getting live SwiftUI canvas previews without a full project, using the #Preview macro in a standalone context.
import SwiftUI
// This file can be opened standalone in Xcode 27 β no project needed.
// Xcode 27 will display canvas previews for any #Preview macro it finds.
struct AirplaneStatsCard: View {
let name: String
let range: String
let topSpeed: String
let material: String
var body: some View {
VStack(alignment: .leading, spacing: 12) {
HStack {
Image(systemName: "paperplane.fill")
.font(.title)
.foregroundStyle(.blue)
Text(name)
.font(.headline)
}
Divider()
LabeledContent("Range", value: range)
LabeledContent("Top Speed", value: topSpeed)
LabeledContent("Material", value: material)
}
.padding()
.background(.regularMaterial, in: RoundedRectangle(cornerRadius: 16))
.padding()
}
}
// In Xcode 27, #Preview works in standalone .swift files opened directly β
// no enclosing app target or project file required.
#Preview("Dart") {
AirplaneStatsCard(
name: "Classic Dart",
range: "12 m",
topSpeed: "8 m/s",
material: "A4 Copy Paper"
)
.frame(width: 320)
}
#Preview("Glider") {
AirplaneStatsCard(
name: "Wide Glider",
range: "20 m",
topSpeed: "5 m/s",
material: "Cardstock"
)
.frame(width: 320)
}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 β previously internal-only β 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 βCoding agent features require an Apple Intelligence-capable Mac; untitled projects are discarded if you close without saving β there is no autosave prompt by default; per-workspace themes are saved in workspace settings and may not transfer if you share the .xcworkspace without the theme bundle
Device Hub physical device mirroring requires a USB or wirelessly paired device; iPhone Mirroring resize mode requires macOS 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.