Search vs. Primary Action in the iOS 26 Tab Bar
Up until iOS 26, tab bars were fixed on the bottom of the screen and spanned the full horizontal space. Now, tab bars are capsule-shaped and inset from the screen edges.
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Search tabs are separated visually from the rest of the tab bar and have a circular shape. When switching to the search tab, there’s a morph animation from the circle to the search field, which is now on the bottom of the screen. The new placement is convenient for reachability, a major selling point of the new design system.
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Since the search tab looks like a button, developers and designers are treating it like one. Specifically, they’re using it (or emulating it) for their app’s primary action: the single most important action in an app, like composing a message or adding a new entry.
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Apps have solved this in two ways for over a decade: embedding buttons in the tab bar (like Instagram’s 2011 camera button) or floating them above it (formalized by Google in Material Design 2014). Apple has never officially supported either. The Apple Human Interface Guidelines says tabs are for navigation, not actions. Yet these patterns are near-universal in successful iOS apps.
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