UI Testing

Reliable UI testing with condition-based waiting patterns and new Recording UI Automation features from Xcode 26.

When to use: Writing UI tests, recording interactions, tests have race conditions or timing dependencies, flaky tests

Key Features

Recording UI Automation – Record interactions as Swift code, replay across configurations, review video recordings
- Three phases: Record → Replay → Review
- Replay configurations (devices, languages, regions, orientations, accessibility)
- Video review with scrubbing, overlays, filters
Condition-based waiting – Eliminates flaky tests from sleep() timeouts
- waitForExistence patterns
- NSPredicate expectations
- Custom condition polling
Accessibility-first testing patterns
SwiftUI and UIKit testing strategies
Test plans and configurations
Real-world impact: 15 min → 5 min test suite, 20% flaky → 2%

Requirements: Xcode 26+ for Recording UI Automation, original patterns work with earlier versions

Philosophy: Wait for conditions, not arbitrary timeouts. Flaky tests come from guessing how long operations take.

These are real questions developers ask that this skill answers:

"My UI tests pass locally but fail in CI with no obvious reason." → Shows condition-based waiting patterns that work across devices/speeds, eliminating CI timing differences
"My tests use sleep(2) and sleep(5) but they're still flaky." → Demonstrates waitForExistence, XCTestExpectation, and polling patterns for data loads and network requests
"I just recorded a test using Xcode 26's Recording UI Automation. How do I debug failures?" → Covers video debugging workflows to analyze recordings and find exactly where tests fail
"My test fails on iPad but passes on iPhone." → Explains multi-factor testing strategies and device-independent predicates for cross-device testing
"I want tests that aren't flaky. What patterns should I use?" → Provides condition-based waiting templates, accessibility-first patterns, and reliable test architecture