Apple has started preparing developers for its first Mac with a touchscreen. Three new videos on its developer portal are aimed at those who want to adapt their apps to the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display, the first Macs from Cupertino to respond to touch. The package is designed for those who need to rethink an interface built around mouse and trackpad.
The three videos cover different topics. Design for touch on Mac, about 17 minutes long, deals with designing interfaces for the finger. Bring Touch to your Mac app, around 13 minutes, explains how to add touch support to an existing app. Bring Live Activities to Mac, just under eight minutes, shows how to bring Live Activities to the computer. These are technical materials for those who write code and design screens, not for everyday Mac users.
The portal also includes two online «Meet with Apple» group labs, where developers can join Apple engineers and designers to ask questions, get advice and follow the discussion on creating and optimizing apps for touch on Mac. Registration is open and the sessions are scheduled for November.
Not everything is ready yet. Xcode 27.3 beta, along with documentation and design resources, is still listed as «Coming soon». The tools needed to actually build these apps are therefore still to come.
The timing fits a run of announcements Apple concentrated in the same week. The new touchscreen MacBook Pro came shortly after the OLED iPad mini, and marketing chief Greg Joswiak had promised an «exciting» week. Earlier, in early October, macOS betas had already shown new touch recognizers in Safari, Photos, Notes and Quick Look, a sign the software was being prepared before the laptop was announced.
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