Microsoft has released .NET 11 Preview 7 with a substantial set of .NET MAUI updates, including cross-platform passkey authentication, a new incremental XAML Hot Reload implementation, Shell route templates, and additional AOT-safe bindings. The release also continues MAUI’s migration from legacy renderers to handlers and improves development workflows on Android and Apple platforms.

One of the most visible additions is a new Passkeys API in MAUI Essentials. It drives the native passkey experience on Android 14 or later, iOS and Mac Catalyst 16 or later, and supported Windows 10 versions. Applications can use Passkeys.CreateAsync to register credentials and Passkeys.AssertAsync for authentication, while Passkeys.IsSupported checks whether the underlying platform supports the API.

The API handles the platform-side WebAuthn ceremony but deliberately leaves server responsibilities to the application. Relying-party servers still need to generate challenges, supply the standard WebAuthn options, and validate returned assertions or attestations. Applications also need the appropriate trust configuration, including Associated Domains and an Apple App Site Association file on Apple platforms or Digital Asset Links on Android.

Preview 7 also introduces XAML Incremental Hot Reload as a preview feature and enables it by default for Debug builds. Instead of rebuilding XAML wholesale, the implementation combines a source generator with MetadataUpdateHandler to modify already-created pages. It can handle property changes, adding or removing children, structural reordering, attached properties, markup extensions, bindings, and ResourceDictionary changes, and the same mechanism works with dotnet watch. Developers can disable it and return to the existing Hot Reload path through EnableMauiIncrementalHotReload.

Shell navigation gains route templates modeled on concepts familiar from ASP.NET Core and Blazor routing. Routes can now contain required, optional, default, constrained, catch-all, and mixed segments, such as product/{sku}. Parameter values flow through the existing QueryProperty and IQueryAttributable mechanisms. However, template routes currently support only absolute navigation, not relative navigation.

The XAML source generator has also expanded its AOT work. {RelativeSource AncestorType=...} bindings can now compile to trim-safe TypedBinding instances when MAUI can resolve the ancestor type at compile time, avoiding reflection-based string paths that can cause members to disappear during trimming. Some binding forms, including Self and TemplatedParent, still use the runtime path.

In addition, Preview 7 exposes new extension points intended for third-party platform backends. OnPlatform now recognizes GTK, macOS, and WPF, while alert, gesture, Resizetizer, SingleProject, and BlazorWebView infrastructure exposes contracts that external backends can implement through NuGet packages instead of maintaining patches against MAUI itself.

The renderer-to-handler migration continues on Apple platforms. NavigationPage and TabbedPage now use handlers by default on iOS and Mac Catalyst, replacing their older renderer implementations. The compatibility renderers remain available as manual fallbacks, so applications with custom renderers or substantial page-level customizations should test the change before adopting Preview 7 broadly.

Platform-specific updates include Window.StatusBarTheme, an option to save captured media directly to the system gallery, and single-instance activation support on Windows. Android development also gets the new FastDeploy2 strategy by default, while dotnet watch can now Hot Reload applications running on physical iOS and tvOS devices over USB or Wi-Fi.

.NET 11 Preview 7 was released on August 11, 2026. Developers can install it through the .NET 11 Preview SDK and find the complete MAUI feature list, platform notes, migration details, and linked implementation issues in Microsoft’s announcement and the MAUI Preview 7 release notes.