XCUIAutomation (XCUITest)

XCUIAutomation is the Apple framework used to control an app’s user interface and inspect its state in UI tests, commonly known as XCUITest. Tests are written with XCTest in Xcode and manipulate the app’s views and controls as a person would, to verify that view controllers, views and controls respond correctly to changes.

The framework provides element queries (XCUIElementQuery), UI elements and snapshots of their attributes, application lifecycle control (XCUIApplication), screenshots, device simulation of physical buttons, orientation and Siri (XCUIDevice), remote control simulation for tvOS and VoiceOver services. UI interactions can be recorded in Xcode and replayed to create tests. It is available from Xcode 16.3; UI testing is not available for apps built with the visionOS SDK.

XCUIAutomation is part of Apple’s free development tools.