UIKit

The framework that has powered iPhone and iPad apps since day one.

Read the documentation WWDC sessions

Introduced

2008

iPhone SDK

Kind

Framework

Runs on

Get it from

iOS

2.0+

iPadOS

2.0+

Mac Catalyst

13.0+

macOS

tvOS

9.0+

visionOS

1.0+

watchOS

2.0+

Works in Swift Playground ›

Overview

UIKit gives you view controllers, views, gestures and the event loop that drive every iOS and iPadOS app. It's imperative: you create objects and change them as things happen.

It's still fully supported, and it works side by side with SwiftUI, so you can use whichever fits each screen.

UIViewController

The unit of every screen: lifecycle, presentation and containment.

Auto Layout

Constraints that adapt your layout to any size, orientation and text size.

Collection views

Compositional layouts and diffable data sources for any list or grid.

UIHostingController

Drop a SwiftUI view into a UIKit app, one screen at a time.

WelcomeViewController.swift

import UIKit

class WelcomeViewController: UIViewController {
    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        let label = UILabel()
        label.text = "Hello, UIKit"
        label.font = .preferredFont(forTextStyle: .largeTitle)
        label.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
        view.addSubview(label)

        NSLayoutConstraint.activate([
            label.centerXAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.centerXAnchor),
            label.centerYAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.centerYAnchor)
        ])
    }
}

History

How it grew up.

2008

Introduced

The iPhone SDK opens iPhone to third-party apps.

2012

Auto Layout

Constraint-based layout comes to iOS 6.

2014

Size classes

Adaptive layout for every screen size in iOS 8.

2019

Multiple windows

Scenes let iPad apps open more than one window.

2019

Mac Catalyst

iPad apps built with UIKit can run natively on the Mac.

2025

Liquid Glass

UIKit apps adopt the new system design in iOS 26.

Watch and learn

Modernize your UIKit app

What's new in UIKit

Build a UIKit app with the new design

Make your UIKit app more flexible

What's new in UIKit

Enhance your UI animations and transitions

Elevate your tab and sidebar experience in iPadOS

What's new in UIKit

Unleash the UIKit trait system

Meet UIKit for spatial computing

Build better document-based apps

What's new with text and text interactions

Keep up with the keyboard

What's new in UIKit

Meet desktop-class iPad

Build a desktop-class iPad app

Adopt desktop-class editing interactions

Use SwiftUI with UIKit

Bring your iOS app to the Mac

What's new in UIKit

Customize and resize sheets in UIKit

Meet the UIKit button system

Make blazing fast lists and collection views

Take your iPad apps to the next level

Focus on iPad keyboard navigation

Your guide to keyboard layout

What's new in Mac Catalyst

Qualities of a great Mac Catalyst app

Modern cell configuration

Lists in UICollectionView

Advances in UICollectionView

Advances in diffable data sources

Build with iOS pickers, menus and actions

Build for the iPadOS pointer

Handle trackpad and mouse input

Support hardware keyboards in your app

Meet Scribble for iPad

What's new in Mac Catalyst

Optimize the interface of your Mac Catalyst app

Modernizing Your UI for iOS 13

Implementing Dark Mode on iOS

Advances in UI Data Sources

Advances in Collection View Layout

Introducing Multiple Windows on iPad

Architecting Your App for Multiple Windows

Targeting Content with Multiple Windows

Window Management in Your Multitasking App

Getting the Most out of Multitasking

Font Management and Text Scaling

Introducing iPad Apps for Mac

Taking iPad Apps for Mac to the Next Level

A Tour of UICollectionView

Protocol and Value Oriented Programming in UIKit Apps