11/18/25, 5:26 PM Loading | Apple Developer Documentation

Design Overview What’s New Get Started Guidelines Resources

Loading
Supported platforms
The best content-loading experience finishes before people
become aware of it.
Loading
Best practices
Showing progress
Platform considerations
Resources
Change log

If your app or game loads assets, levels, or other content, design the behavior so it doesn’t
disrupt or negatively impact the user experience.

Best practices
Show something as soon as possible. If you make people wait for loading to complete before
displaying anything, they can interpret the lack of content as a problem with your app or game.
Instead, consider showing placeholder text, graphics, or animations as content loads, replacing
these elements as content becomes available.

Let people do other things in your app or game while they wait for content to load. Loading
content in the background helps give people access to other actions. For example, a game could
load content in the background while players learn about the next level or view an in-game
menu. For developer guidance, see Improving the player experience for games with large
downloads.

If loading takes an unavoidably long time, give people something interesting to view while
they wait. For example, you might provide gameplay hints, display tips, or introduce people to
new features. Gauge the remaining loading time as accurately as possible to help you avoid
giving people too little time to enjoy your placeholder content or having so much time that you
need to repeat it.

Improve installation and launch time by downloading large assets in the background.
Consider using the Background Assets framework to schedule asset downloads — like game
level packs, 3D character models, and textures — to occur immediately after installation, during
updates, or at other nondisruptive times.

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Showing progress
Clearly communicate that content is loading and how long it might take to complete. Ideally,
content displays instantly, but for situations where loading takes more than a moment or two,
you can use system-provided components — called progress indicators — to show that loading
is ongoing. In general, you use a determinate progress indicator when you know how long
loading will take, and you use an indeterminate progress indicator when you don’t. For guidance,
see Progress indicators.

For games, consider creating a custom loading view. Standard progress indicators work well in
most apps, but can sometimes feel out of place in a game. Consider designing a more engaging
experience by using custom animations and elements that match the style of your game.

Platform considerations
No additional considerations for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, or visionOS.

watchOS
As much as possible, avoid showing a loading indicator in your watchOS experience. People
expect quick interactions with their Apple Watch, so aim to display content immediately. In
situations where content needs a second or two to load, it’s better to display a loading indicator
than a blank screen.

Resources
Related
Launching

Progress indicators

Developer documentation
Background Assets

Videos

Discover Apple-Hosted
Background Assets

Change log

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Date Changes

Revised guidance for storing downloads to reflect

Added guidelines for showing progress and storing

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