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Automation Engine - Migration Guide

Migrating to the New Appetize Automation Engine (iOS 26 and Beyond)

We’re excited to introduce our new automation engine, launching first with iOS 26. This update brings improved stability, stronger integration with Appetize, and full support for modern frameworks like SwiftUI, Flutter, Compose Multi-Platform, React Native and more.

It’s largely backward-compatible with existing automation flows, so in most cases your existing JS SDK commands will continue to work without changes.

The new engine will reach all iOS versions within about one month, after which the old engine will be retired.

Android will follow later, with minimal migration expected.

✨ What’s New

Better Integration Across Appetize

This engine is more tightly integrated with Appetize services, giving us a consistent foundation for all automation features. It also makes it easier for us to add new commands, selectors, and advanced testing capabilities in the future.

Declarative UI Framework Support

Apps built with frameworks such as SwiftUI, Jetpack Compose, Flutter and more are now fully supported. In older versions, these apps often appeared as a single, non-interactive surface. The new engine correctly exposes their underlying UI structure, allowing tests to target and interact with individual elements.

More Stability and Resilience

The new engine is more forgiving of small UI changes and handles variations in layout or timing more smoothly.

Regex Support

You can now use regular expressions in text selectors for flexible matching. This is helpful when text values change dynamically, such as in localized or data-driven UI.

🎯 Main Areas to Focus On

Most existing automations will continue to work, but there are a few key areas to review when testing on iOS 26.

1. Remove UIKit-Specific Selector

The new engine continues to support accessibility-based selectors - the same pattern many teams already use - but now makes this the recommended and primary approach.

Prefer using accessibility elements such as labels, identifiers, or visible text. They’re stable across app frameworks and align with how modern apps expose their UI.

In previous versions, the engine also exposed some UIKit-specific attributes (class, baseClass, isHidden). These are no longer available. If your tests relied on them, you should update to use accessibility identifiers or text instead.

See our Selectors Reference for guidance and examples.

2. Text Resolution Changes

If an element has both a text value and an accessibilityLabel, the label will now override the text. If text is empty, the engine falls back to accessibilityText.

TextField("placeholder", text: $value)
  .accessibilityLabel("My new placeholder text")
// Result: text == "My new placeholder text"

To capture the raw value instead of the accessibility label, use accessibilityValue or accessibilityTitle.

3. Visibility Semantics

Elements that are off-screen but rendered (e.g., in a UIStackView outside the viewport) are no longer reported as interactable. Scroll to bring them into view before interacting.

Scroll first, then tap
await session.swipe({ gesture: 'up', duration: 600 });
await session.tap({
  element: { attributes: { text: 'Past Articles' } }
});

4. WebView Selectors

  • id attributes are not currently exposed for WebViews.

  • Use ARIA attributes (like aria-label) or visible text content instead.

Example WebView content
<button role="button" aria-label="Continue checkout">Checkout</button>
Test targeting by visible text
await session.tap({
  element: { attributes: { text: 'Continue checkout' } }
});

5. Timeouts

Timeouts are now best-effort rather than exact. If a check is already in progress, a 1 s timeout may complete slightly later.

await session.waitForAnimations({ timeout: 1000 }); // may finish ~1.5 s

6. getUI Response Change

The getUI response is now simplified to focus on what’s visible to the user.

Previously, it returned both the running app and the Springboard (system) hierarchies. Now, you’ll still see the same top-level structure for compatibility, but only the first app node contains content. Springboard will be present but empty.

App and system content were separated into two distinct sections.

[
  {
    "type": "app",
    "appId": {running app},
    "children": [ ... ] // Your app content
  },
  {
    "type": "app",
    "appId": "com.apple.springboard",
    "children": [ ... ] // Springboard (system UI) content
  }
]

This structure makes the UI tree easier to reason about and aligns with what appears on screen.

⚠️ Known Issues

Landscape Automations

Automations running in landscape orientation currently do not work with the new engine. We are actively working on a fix and expect to resolve this before the full iOS rollout.

In-App Browser Elements (iOS 26)

On iOS 26, elements opened inside an in-app browser (for example, a web view launched from within your app for login or external content) are currently not accessible to automation.

🗓️ Rollout Timeline

Phase
Platform
Status

✅ Now

iOS 26

New engine live

🔜 ~1 month

All iOS versions

Full iOS rollout, old engine retired

📅 Later

Android

Planned rollout

💬 Feedback

This rollout marks a major step toward stable, integrated, and cross-platform automation within Appetize. If you encounter any unexpected behaviors or migration challenges, please reach out to us. Your feedback helps us continue improving and expanding what’s possible with Appetize automations.

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