SwiftSpinner
A beautiful iOS activity indicator and modal alert with blur effects, translucency, and flat/bold design.
What is SwiftSpinner?
SwiftSpinner is an iOS library that provides a beautiful activity indicator and modal alert system. It displays animated spinners with text messages over blurred screen overlays, solving the need for polished loading states in Swift apps. Originally developed for the Doodle Doodle app, it uses iOS 8+ visual effects like translucency and flat design.
iOS developers building Swift applications who need visually appealing loading indicators or modal alerts. It's particularly useful for those prioritizing modern UI design and smooth user experience during asynchronous operations.
Developers choose SwiftSpinner for its aesthetic design, easy integration, and flexibility—offering blur effects, customizable text, tap handlers, and progress display. It provides a ready-to-use, polished alternative to basic system indicators.
Overview
A beautiful activity indicator and modal alert written in Swift (originally developed for my app DoodleDoodle) Using blur effects, translucency, flat and bold design - all iOS 8 latest and greatest
Use Cases
Best For
- Displaying loading states during network requests in iOS apps
- Showing progress indicators for file downloads or data processing
- Creating modal alerts with custom animations and blur backgrounds
- Implementing tap-to-dismiss loading spinners with user interaction
- Adding delayed activity indicators for operations with uncertain duration
- Enhancing app polish with iOS-native blur and translucency effects
Not Ideal For
- Projects built with SwiftUI that prefer native declarative UI components over UIKit overlays
- Apps requiring highly customized spinner animations or non-standard visual designs beyond text and blur effects
- Teams needing extensive community support or frequent updates, as it's maintained by a single author
Pros & Cons
Pros
Uses dynamic blur and translucency from iOS 8+ to create modern, polished overlays that enhance app aesthetics, as shown in the demo GIF.
Integration is straightforward with just `SwiftSpinner.show("message")` and `SwiftSpinner.hide()`, requiring minimal code for basic usage.
Supports animated and static modes, progress indicators via `show(progress:)`, delayed display, and tap handlers for interactive dismissals.
Allows font changes with `setTitleFont`, direct access to title and subtitle labels, and option to disable blur background for content visibility.
Cons
Requires adding `EXTENSION` to `Other Swift Flags` in build settings when used in extensions, adding unnecessary complexity for those scenarios.
Built exclusively for UIKit, so it doesn't integrate natively with SwiftUI, limiting its appeal for modern iOS projects using declarative frameworks.
While text and fonts are customizable, the spinner animation and visual style are fixed, offering less flexibility for unique or branded designs.
Frequently Asked Questions
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