uitabbarcontroller – How to add custom UIView to floating UITabBarItem in iOS 26 Liquid Glass UITabBar

I want to add a custom UIView which can display GIF’s & Images (AnimatedImageView UIView from KingFisher Library) on top of the floating UITabBarItem.

iOS 26 introduced a new behaviour where on scrolling the UITabBar minimises or collapses and the floating UITabBarItem reduces in size as well.

I am able to add the custom UIView on the floating UITabBarItem when the UITabBar is in its regular state but that it disappears when the UITabBar minimises. And the custom view is again back when the UITabBar returns to its regular state.

I am using the below code to access the UIView property of floating UITabBarItem:

extension UIBarItem {
    var view: UIView? {
        return self.value(forKey: "view") as? UIView
    }
}

I added a background colour to the floating UIBarItem using the below code

self.tabBar.items?[4].view?.backgroundColor = .systemRed

Works as expected but disappears when the UITabBar minimises, which you can see via the below video

There is call for trait change when the new UITabBarAccessory minimise, and I am trying to change the background colour to yellow but it never appears, you can see that yellow colour appears when the UITabBar again changes to it’s regular state

I can verify via the View Debugger that the internal UIView _UITabButton changes it’s memory address but via code I am unable to access the changed UIView even if I go digging via the private sub views of UITabBar.

So can anyone give me pointers on how can I achieve this ? As there are other apps on the App Store which do it.