Alongside new design materials and resources for iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS Tahoe 26, Apple has also released the beta version of SF Symbols 7, a major update to its system iconography toolkit. The update includes hundreds of new icons, alongside new animation tools and transitions. Here’s everything new.
This year’s update brings a series of meaningful enhancements, including brand-new Draw animations, improved Magic Replace transitions, variable rendering support, and automatic gradients. All wrapped in Apple’s new design language across iOS 26 and its sibling platforms, including the new official shape for apps (shown below in gray, compared to the previous shape in black):
SF Symbols 7 is a library of over 6,900 symbols designed to integrate seamlessly with San Francisco, the system font for Apple platforms. Symbols come in nine weights and three scales, automatically align with text, and can be exported and edited using vector graphics tools to create custom symbols with shared design characteristics and accessibility features. SF Symbols 7 introduces Draw animations and variable rendering, enhanced Magic Replace, gradients, and hundreds of new symbols.
SF Symbols works seamlessly with Apple’s San Francisco font and has become an essential resource for designers and developers building consistent, native-looking apps for iOS, macOS, visionOS, and beyond. The beta includes:
Draw on and Draw Off
SF Symbols 7 adds two new animation presets, which animate symbols in and out of view. These animations take advantage of a symbol’s layered structure, allowing developers to choreograph motion across different parts of the icon with three playback styles: animating the whole symbol at once, offsetting layers for a more expressive effect, or revealing layers one by one.
Draw animations
To support the new animations, Apple has also introduced a tool that allows developers to place guide points and control stroke order and direction. Optional features like bidirectional motion, adaptive end caps, and draw attachments give further control, and this works across all weights and sizes from Ultralight to Black.
Variable Draw
Variable Draw builds on Variable Color and makes way for a more dynamic visual feedback, which Apple says is ideal to convey strength or progress. When symbols are annotated correctly, layers can animate in a fluid, data-driven way that gives designers more control over the message they’re conveying visually.
... continue reading