There has been a lot of discussion among developers about the differences between SwiftUI and UIKit. Have you been thinking of building a chat app for iOS but aren’t sure which framework to use? It is no secret that SwiftUI has challenged chat UIKit in popularity. Despite the seemingly powerful framework offered by Apple as part of their XCode package, many developers have begun to favor SwiftUI in recent times. This article will explain why this might be the case and why it could be more favorable for your own projects. In this article, we will look at the key differences between UIKit and SwiftUI in various areas.
UIKit
Chat UIKit is a fragment of CocoaTouch, which was released as part of the iOS SDK in 2008 and was included with the first public release of iOS, which was known as iPhoneOS. UIKit is the standard UI framework that Apple has provided to developers ever since its inception. It forms the basis of any iOS Application. It is highly powerful, and it provides a range of features, including animation and graphics.
It is based on the declarative programming architecture and the syntax is pretty similar to that of a programming language named Objective-C. This helps developers quickly get acquainted with it. UIKit has been around for quite some time now and it serves as a dependable solution for most of the complex requirements that involve handling multi-touch applications and dynamic interactions with a device screen.
Features:
- It includes a window and view architecture that aids developers in implementing the interface.
- UI Kit includes an event-handling infrastructure that allows developers to deliver multi-touch and other types of input to your chat apps. It also includes the main run loop for dealing with user interaction.
- Ready-to-use user interface elements that save you time when creating new designs from scratch.
- Some other innovative features include animation support, drawing, text management, search, app extension support, and much more.
There are several ways to create UIKit apps:
- Using Interface Builder to create a UI writing no code. Interface Builder is built into Xcode and allows you to edit .storyboard and .xib files, which both describe layouts in XML.
- A code-focused approach in which Swift views and layout constraints are defined (or Objective-C).
- A hybrid of the two approaches stated above
SwiftUI
SwiftUI was introduced by Apple in 2019 alongside iOS 13. On the other hand, there is SwiftUI which has recently been introduced by Apple. It also forms the basis of any iOS Application to build a chat app. It is based on the reactive programming structure, which forms the basis of its features as rendering and animation. However, unlike UIKit, SwiftUI or Swift chat SDK uses Xcode Playground instead of Interface Builder. It is a user interface toolkit that allows you to develop an application in a declarative manner.
Features:
- It offers a comprehensive set of features such as list views, improved search experiences, and many more.
- Support for Always-On Retina Display that allows watchOS apps to remain visible even when the watch face is turned off.
- New Rotor API to speed up interactions by displaying the most important items on the screen in a simple list.
- Automatic translation into an iOS-compatible visual interface element.
- Design, build, and test the application interface using the live preview feature in Xcode before launching the program.
SwiftUI vs UIKit: Which is the best choice for building a Chat App?
As you may know, SwiftUI and UIKit (with messaging UIkit) are both excellent frameworks to develop chat apps for iOS apps. However, when building a new iOS chat platform project, you must make a decision. We will tell you everything you need to know in this section so you can confidently make the best decision for your situation.
Compatibility with multiple platforms:
The best part about SwiftUI is that it can integrate with all Apple devices, such as the Apple Watch, iPhone, and MacBook. When transferring SwiftUI code written for an Apple device, you ensure that everything works properly in the new setting.
Widgets:
SwiftUI is the clear winner when it comes to working with widgets. Because UIKit will be ineffective when developing a widget. Furthermore, most developers prefer SwiftUI coding for widgets and to create iOS chat platforms.
Interface Builder:
UI Kit gives you the option of writing your entire UI in code (iOS chat SDK) or using Interface Builder. SwiftUI, on the other hand, lacks Interface Builder and instead relies on the live preview.
User Interface: Developers use UIKit to control what appears on the screen and when it updates. In contrast, whatever is visible to the user on-screen with SwiftUI is a side effect of updating the view structure and allowing the system to calculate what needs to be done.
Support and documentation: Although there is more UIKit content available, developers are still favoring SwiftUI. Due to supported version requirements below iOS 13, many codebases will not adopt SwiftUI, resulting in limited app development. As a result, it is critical to use SwiftUI from the start.
Compatibility with various iOS versions: When working with SwiftUI, the minimum supported version should be iOS 13. UIKit or Chat UI kit, on the other hand, allows you to support iOS 9.0. This increases the adaptability of UIKit.
App development time: SwiftUI is widely regarded as the quickest way to create in-app functionalities by most developers. When compared to UIKit, its live preview feature allows you to achieve nearly the same results in much less time. As a result, the majority of iOS developers are looking forward to incorporating Swift chat SDK for app development.
Animation capabilities: It is advantageous to consider SwiftUI as your go-to framework in this regard. It offers a plethora of free animations to developers. UIKit, on the other hand, requires you to define animations within your code.
Conclusion
Finally, it appears that UIKit will take the win for the time being, as it is far more mature than SwiftUI. SwiftUI, on the other hand, is constantly innovating and improving year after year. In addition, Apple has identified SwiftUI as the future of development on all Apple platforms. Let us know your comments and if you have questions, please reach out to us.
