Issue #84: SwiftUI's hidden orphan switch, toolbars get priorities, and Media Intelligence in iOS 27
A newsletter roundup covering iOS and Swift developer news: a hidden private SwiftUI Text modifier that controls orphan word wrapping (available since iOS 16), new iOS 27 toolbar APIs for setting item visibility priority and navigation bar minimization behavior, the new on-device Media Intelligence framework in iOS 27 for face grouping and video highlight detection, a refreshed guide on Sendable and @Sendable closures, a tip on using Top Functions mode in Instruments to find slow code, upcoming App Store marketing artwork slots launching this fall, and a brief mention of the Swift team's July digest covering task stealers, self-hosted SwiftPM registries, and a withDeadline proposal.
Table of contents
SwiftUI Text: Orphan Control (iOS 16+)SwiftUI Toolbars: Set Your Priorities (iOS 27+)Media Intelligence (iOS 27+)Sendable & @Sendable ClosuresFind Your Slowest CodeNew App Store Creative Assets✌️Questions this post answers
How do I set toolbar item priority in SwiftUI on iOS 27 so buttons collapse into the overflow menu?
Use the visibilityPriority modifier on a ToolbarItem, setting it to .high to keep an item visible longer when space is tight. SwiftUI moves lower priority items into the overflow menu first. You can also control how the navigation bar minimizes while scrolling with toolbarMinimizationBehavior(.onScrollDown, for: .navigationBar), both new in iOS 27. Teams adapting toolbars for iOS 27 can track SwiftUI API changes like this on daily.dev.
How can I control SwiftUI Text orphan avoidance so it stops pulling the last word down to its own line?
SwiftUI has avoided orphaned words in Text since iOS 16 by default, pushing the last line's word group down when a single word would otherwise stand alone. The behavior is controlled by a private modifier, avoidsOrphans(false), accessible only by bridging into SwiftUI's ABI with a custom module interface file, since it isn't public API and falls under App Store review guideline 2.5.1. Developers weighing private API risk against UI polish can follow SwiftUI internals coverage on daily.dev.
What does the Media Intelligence framework do in iOS 27?
Media Intelligence is a new on-device framework in iOS 27 that analyzes photos and videos: FaceGroupAnalyzer clusters faces belonging to the same person across a photo library, while VideoAnalyzer finds key frames and highlight moments in video using KeyFrameAnalysisRequest and HighlightAnalysisRequest. It requires a physical device to test, since the Simulator does not support it. Developers building photo and video features can follow iOS 27 SDK frameworks like this on daily.dev.