In iOS 18 on iPad, the elevated tab bar order is persisted by the system. After reordering the tabs, how can I retrieve the current order of the tabs? and how to override the order programatically.
iOS 18 - How to retrieve the current order of the tabs in iPad
The customization behavior of the iPad tab bar is similar to the toolbar customization API from iPadOS 16, where the ordering is owned by the user, and persisted by the system. The app does not have the ability to influence or change the order programmatically from under the user.
When a new tab is added by the app, and has a placement to show in the bar by default (like .movable or .default), then it will be added automatically to the end of the tab order until the user customizes it next. Similarly, .pinned or .fixed tabs will always show without being part of the customized order.