Explore the various UI frameworks available for building app interfaces. Discuss the use cases for different frameworks, share best practices, and get help with specific framework-related questions.

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Can SwiftUI TextFields in a List on macOS be marked as always editable?
In SwiftUI's List, on macOS, if I embed a TextField then the text field is presented as non-editable. If the user clicks on the text and waits a short period of time, the text field will become editable. I'm aware this is generally the correct behaviour for macOS. However, is there a way in SwiftUI to supress this behaviour such that the TextField is always presented as being editable? I want a scrollable, List of editable text fields, much like how a Form is presented. The reason I'm not using a Form is because I want List's support for reordering by drag-and-drop (.onMove). Use Case A view that allows a user to compose a questionnaire. They are able to add and remove questions (rows) and each question is editable. They require drag-and-drop support so that they can reorder the questions.
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141
May ’25
Live Activity resets to initial state after 8+ hours in background
Hi Apple team and community, We’re encountering a strange issue with Live Activity that seems related to memory management or background lifecycle. ❓ Issue: Our app updates a Live Activity regularly (every 3 minutes) using .update(...). However, after the app remains in the background for around 8 hours, the Live Activity reverts to the initial state that was passed into .request(...). Even though the app continues sending updates in the background, the UI on the Lock Screen and Dynamic Island resets to the original state.
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Apr ’25
CarPlay selection highlightning
It looks like I'm one of the rare developers dealing with CarPlay... I develop a CarPlay extension for my apps. A few things: especially when using the CarPlay I/O window in iOS Simulator, I get random selection highlightning for list items: I have three list templates in a tab template; once I reselect a list using the tab which has been selected before, the initial list item highlights / returns to normal every refresh of the list content; while this doesn't happen for my real world Sony CarPlay device, I'd rather not see such disturbing highlighting for my users. I do not update the template structs or items here, it is just content like text of detailText I update. Question: how to remove highlightning programmatically - especially for devices with touch screen? I have one user who reports auto-selection of UI elements while driving; I assume this is some problem with his touch screen, but it may be a general issue too. Question: anyone with similar observations connecting my iPhone to the stand-alone Car Play simulator doesn't work; I had it working before, so it might be related to a recent iOS beta... Any hints / observations are welcome. The CarPlay community really seems to be small and I'd like to hear other's experience on the named items.
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May ’25
memory leak upon mouse down in a NSTextField
Dear all, Sorry if the topic has already been commented but I could not be able to find it in over 10,000 picks using the forum search field... My problem is that with any NSTextField in my app, a click will result in a memory leak. There is no code attached, just bindings to NSNumber properties. How can I fix this ? Thanks for your help. Best regards Chris
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: AppKit
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May ’25
Use Custom UIApplication Subclass with SwiftUI
I have a SwiftUI app which needs the Ivanti AppConnect SDK. The docs only show how to integrate it into a Swift/UIKit app. But I need it to work with SwiftUI. I probably could make a UIKit base app and then load my existing SwiftUI views and code through a SwiftUI component host or something. But I'd like to avoid that if possible. Here is where I'm stuck: The AppConnect framework loads through a custom UIApplication subclass in the main.swift file: import Foundation import AppConnect UIApplicationMain( CommandLine.argc, CommandLine.unsafeArgv, ACUIApplicationClassName, NSStringFromClass(AppDelegate.self) ) The startup works as expected, and the expected function is called in the AppDelegate class: func application( _ application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplication.LaunchOptionsKey : Any]? = nil) -> Bool {...} However, the SwiftUI view is not loaded and the scree stays blank. I implemented a SceneDelegate.swift class which doesn't seem to be called. Also, the following function in the AppDelegate doesn't get called either: func application( _ application: UIApplication, configurationForConnecting connectingSceneSession: UISceneSession, options: UIScene.ConnectionOptions) -> UISceneConfiguration {...} So how do I bootstrap SwiftUI with a custom UIApplication class? can that be done with the @main macro somehow? I'm still pretty new to Swift and iOS development. Any help is appreciated
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: SwiftUI Tags:
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May ’25
What is the proper way to format a generic subview view when hoping to have it work with both an @State and an @Bindable?
Let's say you have a protocol that can work with both classes and structs but you want to have a uniform UI to make edits. What is the recommended way to have one view that will take both? App import SwiftUI @main struct ObservationTesterApp: App { var body: some Scene { WindowGroup { ContentView(existence: Existence()) } } } Types import Foundation protocol Dateable { var timestamp:Date { get set } } struct Arrival:Dateable { var timestamp:Date } @Observable class Existence:Dateable { var timestamp:Date init(timestamp: Date) { self.timestamp = timestamp } } extension Existence { convenience init() { self.init(timestamp: Date()) } } ContentView, etc // // ContentView.swift // ObservationTester // // import SwiftUI struct EditDateableView<TimedThing:Dateable>:View { @Binding var timed:TimedThing //note that this currently JUST a date picker //but it's possible the protocol would have more var body:some View { DatePicker("Time To Change", selection: $timed.timestamp) } } #Preview { @Previewable @State var tt = Arrival(timestamp: Date()) EditDateableView<Arrival>(timed: $tt) } struct ContentView: View { @State var arrival = Arrival(timestamp: Date()) @Bindable var existence:Existence var body: some View { //this work around also not allowed. "self is immutable" // let existBinding = Binding<Existence>(get: { existence }, set: { existence = $0 }) VStack { EditDateableView(timed: $arrival) //a Binding cant take a Bindable //EditDateableView<Existence>(timed: $existence) } .padding() } } #Preview { ContentView(existence: Existence()) }
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May ’25
When presenting CPNavigationAlert the navigation bar will appear
In my CarPlay app, I am hiding the navigation bar by using the following: self.mapTemplate?.automaticallyHidesNavigationBar = true self.mapTemplate?.hidesButtonsWithNavigationBar = false I don't want the navigation bar to show unless a user interacts with the map by tapping it. Strangely, when I present a CPNavigationAlert the navigation bar will often appear and then disappear after the alert is dismissed. Is there a setting or reason that the navigation bar would be appearing when presenting this alert? I would like to keep the nav bar hidden during this time.
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: UIKit Tags:
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109
May ’25
Removing sidebar divider in NavigationSplitView
Hi, I’m practicing with NavigationSplitView for macOS and customizing the sidebar. I’ve managed to adjust most parts, but I couldn’t remove the sidebar’s divider. It seems like it’s not possible in modern SwiftUI. My AppKit knowledge is also not very strong. How can I remove the sidebar divider? I want to use a plain background. I also solved it by creating my own sidebar, but I wanted to try it using NavigationSplitView.
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: SwiftUI Tags:
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Mar ’25
Remove persistent bottom gray bar at the bottom when using hardware keyboard
DESCRIPTION OF PROBLEM When using SwiftUI’s TextField or TextEditor on iPadOS, a persistent gray or default system material bar appears at the bottom of the screen. This gray bar is not present in Apple’s native apps (such as Notes, Mail, Messages) or in third-party apps like ChatGPT and Beeper STEPS TO REPRODUCE Create a TextField or TextEditor. Run the code, click on it, without software keyboard enabled.
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May ’25
WidgetKit: add new widget to bundle
Hi, I have an existing Mac app on the App Store with a couple of widgets as part of the app. I want to now add a new widget to the WidgetBundle. When I build the updated app with Xcode, and then run the updated app, the widgets list doesn't seem to get updated in Notification Center or in the WidgetKit Simulator. I do have the App Store version installed in the /Applications folder as well, so there might be some conflict. What's the trick to getting the widgets list to run the debug version?
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105
Mar ’25
iOS 18 SDK causing random UI changes and crashes with my app
I am a developer on an enterprise application. Our team just updated our pipeline to build our app on the iOS 18 SDK instead of the 17.4 SDK and this has caused a lot of our ui elements to change and several crashes within the app resulting in just the simple error message "Swift runtime failure: unhandled C++ / Objective-C exception". Why is just updating the SDK causing all these issues? Is there anyway to keep the previous version or will we have to go component by component to fix the constraints and crashes? These issues seem to be happening to our users on iOS 18 and beyond.
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: UIKit Tags:
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141
Apr ’25
NearbyInteraction with Live Activity and background behavior on iOS 18.4 / watchOS – Questions on UWB and Audio
Hi everyone, we’d appreciate your input on the following use case – thanks in advance! In our iPhone and Apple Watch app, we’re using the NearbyInteraction API to measure the distance between both devices via UWB. Setup: On the iPhone, we start a LiveActivity together with the NISession, to keep the ranging active in the background. ✅ Good news: On iOS 18.4, this works as expected – the NISession stays active in the background as long as the Live Activity is running. Current issues: As soon as the Watch app moves to the background, ranging seems to pause and is eventually terminated. → Question 1: Is there a way to keep the NISession active on the Watch when the app goes into the background? Audio playback from background not working: We'd like to trigger audio playback when certain distance changes are detected. So far, we can only trigger haptic feedback in the background – audio does not play. → Question 2: Is it possible to play audio (e.g. using AVAudioPlayer) while a NISession and a LiveActivity are running in the background? We’d be grateful for any advice or best practices for this combination. Thanks and best regards!
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: General
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May ’25
drag a modelEntity inside an Immersive space and track position
Goal : Drag a sphere across the room and track it's position Problem: The gesture seems to have no effect on the sphere ModelEntity. I don't know how to properly attach the gesture to the ModelEntity. Any help is great. Thank you import SwiftUI import RealityKit import RealityKitContent import Foundation @main struct testApp: App { @State var immersionStyle:ImmersionStyle = .mixed var body: some Scene { ImmersiveSpace { ContentView() } .immersionStyle(selection: $immersionStyle, in: .mixed, .full, .progressive) } } struct ContentView: View { @State private var lastPosition: SIMD3<Float>? = nil @State var subscription: EventSubscription? @State private var isDragging: Bool = false var sphere: ModelEntity { let mesh = MeshResource.generateSphere(radius: 0.05) let material = SimpleMaterial(color: .blue, isMetallic: false) let entity = ModelEntity(mesh: mesh, materials: [material]) entity.generateCollisionShapes(recursive: true) return entity } var drag: some Gesture { DragGesture() .targetedToEntity(sphere) .onChanged { _ in self.isDragging = true } .onEnded { _ in self.isDragging = false } } var body: some View { Text("Hello, World!") RealityView { content in //1. Anchor Entity let anchor = AnchorEntity(world: SIMD3<Float>(0, 0, -1)) let ball = sphere //1.2 add component to ball ball.components.set(InputTargetComponent()) //2. add anchor to sphere anchor.addChild(ball) content.add(anchor) subscription = content.subscribe(to: SceneEvents.Update.self) { event in let currentPosition = ball.position(relativeTo: nil) if let last = lastPosition, last != currentPosition { print("Sphere moved from \(last) to \(currentPosition)") } lastPosition = currentPosition } } .gesture(drag) } }
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Apr ’25
[SwiftUI] Gesture Conflict: simultaneousGesture Causes Incorrect Gesture Recognition in iOS 18
Subject: SwiftUI Gesture Conflict in iOS 18: Simultaneous Recognition of Drag and Tap Gestures Description: In SwiftUI on iOS 18 and above, we've identified an issue with gesture handling that affects user experience. When implementing .simultaneousGesture(DragGesture()), the system incorrectly recognizes and processes both drag and tap gestures concurrently, resulting in unintended behavior. Technical Details: Environment: SwiftUI, iOS 18+ Issue: Simultaneous recognition of horizontal drag gestures and vertical scroll/tap gestures Current Behavior: Both vertical and horizontal scrolling occur simultaneously when using .simultaneousGesture(DragGesture()) Expected Behavior: Gestures should be properly disambiguated to prevent concurrent scrolling in multiple directions Impact: This behavior significantly impacts user experience, particularly in custom carousel implementations and other UI components that rely on precise gesture handling. The simultaneous recognition of both gestures creates a confusing and unpredictable interaction pattern. Steps to Reproduce: Create a SwiftUI view with horizontal scrolling (e.g., custom carousel) Implement .simultaneousGesture(DragGesture()) Add tap gesture recognition to child views Run on iOS 18 Attempt to scroll horizontally Observed Result: Both horizontal dragging and vertical scrolling/tapping are recognized and processed simultaneously, creating an inconsistent user experience. Expected Result: The system should properly disambiguate between horizontal drag gestures and vertical scroll/tap gestures, allowing only one type of gesture to be recognized at a time based on the user's intent. Please let me know if you need any additional information or reproduction steps.
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121
Apr ’25
Custom keypad touchUpInside events not working in iOS18
I have a custom keypad to accept numeric input for iPads that I have been using for many years now. This is longstanding working code. With iOS 18 the touchUpInside (and other) events in the underlying Objective-C modules are not called in the file owner module when activated from the interface. The buttons seem to be properly activated based on the visual cues (they change colors when pressed). This is occurring in both simulators and on hardware. Setting the target OS version does not help. What could the cause and/or solution of this be?
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78
Mar ’25
SwiftUI views lock up after background and sleep for “Designed for iPad” apps
There's an easily reproducible SwiftUI bug on macOS where an app's UI state no longer updates/re-renders for "Designed for iPad" apps (i.e. ProcessInfo.processInfo.isiOSAppOnMac == true). The bug occurs in Xcode and also if the app is running independent of Xcode. The bug occurs when: the user Hides the app (i.e. it goes into the background) the user puts the Mac to sleep (e.g. Apple menu > Sleep) a total of ~60 seconds transpires (i.e. macOS puts the app into the "suspended state") when the app is brought back into the foreground the UI no longer updates properly The only way I have found to fix this is to manually open a new actual full app window via File > New, in which case the app works fine again in the new window. The following extremely simple code in a default Xcode project illustrates the issue: import SwiftUI @main struct staleApp: App { @State private var isBright = true var body: some Scene { WindowGroup() { ZStack { (isBright ? Color.white : Color.black).ignoresSafeArea() Button("TOGGLE") { isBright.toggle(); print("TAPPED") } } .onAppear { print("\(isBright ? "light" : "dark") view appeared") } } } } For the code above, after Hiding the app and putting the computer to sleep for 60 seconds or more, the button no longer swaps views, although the print statements still appear in the console upon tapping the button. Also, while in this buggy state, i can get the view to update to the current state (i.e. the view triggered by the last tap) by manually dragging the corner of the app window to resize the window. But after resizing, the view again does not update upon button tapping until I resize the window again. so it appears the diff engine is mucked or that the Scene or WindowGroup are no longer correctly running on the main thread I have tried rebuilding the entire view hierarchy by updating .id() on views but this approach does NOT work. I have tried many other options/hacks but have not been able to reset the 'view engine' other than opening a new window manually or by using: @Environment(.openWindow) private var openWindow openWindow could be a viable solution except there's no way to programmatically close the old window for isiOSAppOnMac (@Environment(.dismissWindow) private var dismissWindow doesn't work for iOS)
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167
Apr ’25
Animation Issue: SwiftUI View Not Animating Height Changes in UIHostingController
Hello, I’m developing an app where I display a SwiftUI view inside a UIHostingController embedded within a UIKit ViewController. I’m trying to animate the height of the UIHostingController’s view based on a switch’s value, but the SwiftUI view doesn’t animate at all. Below is a simplified version of my code: class ViewController: UIViewController { private lazy var parentView: UIView = { let view = UIView() view.backgroundColor = .red view.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false return view }() private lazy var hostingView: UIView = { let testView = TestView() let hostingController = UIHostingController(rootView: testView) let view = hostingController.view! view.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false return view }() private lazy var button: UISwitch = { let button = UISwitch() button.addTarget(self, action: #selector(onClickSwitch(sender:)), for: .valueChanged) button.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false return button }() private var hostingViewHeightConstraint: NSLayoutConstraint? override func viewDidLoad() { super.viewDidLoad() view.addSubview(parentView) parentView.addSubview(hostingView) parentView.addSubview(button) NSLayoutConstraint.activate([ parentView.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.topAnchor), parentView.bottomAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.bottomAnchor), parentView.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.leadingAnchor), parentView.trailingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.trailingAnchor) ]) NSLayoutConstraint.activate([ hostingView.bottomAnchor.constraint(equalTo: parentView.bottomAnchor), hostingView.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: parentView.leadingAnchor), hostingView.trailingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: parentView.trailingAnchor) ]) hostingViewHeightConstraint = hostingView.heightAnchor.constraint(equalTo: parentView.heightAnchor, multiplier: 0.5) hostingViewHeightConstraint?.isActive = true NSLayoutConstraint.activate([ button.centerXAnchor.constraint(equalTo: parentView.centerXAnchor), NSLayoutConstraint(item: button, attribute: .centerY, relatedBy: .equal, toItem: parentView, attribute: .centerY, multiplier: 0.25, constant: 0) ]) } @objc func onClickSwitch(sender: UISwitch) { hostingViewHeightConstraint?.isActive = false let multiplier: CGFloat = sender.isOn ? 0.25 : 0.5 hostingViewHeightConstraint = hostingView.heightAnchor.constraint(equalTo: parentView.heightAnchor, multiplier: multiplier) hostingViewHeightConstraint?.isActive = true UIView.animate(withDuration: 0.3) { self.view.layoutIfNeeded() } } } I’m looking for the behavior demonstrated in the video below: Does anyone have suggestions on how to achieve this?
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Mar ’25