Tab Bars and Bottom Navigation: Design Rules That Hold Up

What the platforms say

Material Design 3 says navigation bars provide access to three to five destinations, each with an icon and label, and one destination is always active. Apple's guidelines say to use a tab bar for navigation, not to provide actions, to keep it visible as people move between sections (except when a modal covers it), and to avoid overflow tabs.

Choosing the tabs

Tabs represent the app's structure:

• Pick the sections people use most often, not every section you have.
• Use nouns for destinations ("Library"), not verbs for actions ("Upload").
• Put actions in the screen itself, in a toolbar or a floating action button.
• If you need more than five, reconsider your structure before adding a "More" tab.

Labels and badges

Icon-only tabs save space but force people to guess. Labels make navigation clearer, especially for less common icons. Badges should signal something people need to act on; a badge that is always present stops being noticed.

Preserve state per tab

Apple notes that tab bars let people switch sections while preserving the current navigation state within each section. Returning to a tab should show where they left off, not reset to the top.

Motion

A small transition on the active indicator, such as a pill that slides or an icon that fills, helps people track where they are. Keep it fast, under about 250 milliseconds, avoid bouncing every icon on every tap, and simplify it when reduced motion is on.