Mastering SwiftUI: Tipkit

How to Build Smart, Contextual In-App Tips

With iOS 17, Apple introduced TipKit — a system framework that helps you deliver helpful, contextual tips inside your app.

Think of TipKit as Apple’s official solution for:

✅ Helping users discover hidden features

✅ Improving onboarding and guidance

✅ Surfacing helpful hints at the right moment without being annoying

In this blog, we’ll cover:

✅ What TipKit is

✅ How it works

✅ Correct examples in SwiftUI

✅ Best practices

✅ Common mistakes and how to avoid them

🌟 What is TipKit?

TipKit is a declarative framework available on iOS 17+, macOS 14+, and watchOS 10+. It lets you show non-intrusive popover tips attached to UI elements, guiding users through features or actions.

Key benefits:

✅ System-consistent design

✅ Built-in tracking of when tips have been shown

✅ Easy integration with SwiftUI or UIKit

✅ User data stays private — tracked on-device

🛠 How Does TipKit Work?

There are two main components:

1️⃣ Tips → Define what you want to show (title, message, image)

2️⃣ Tip Views → Attach the tip to a button or view using .popoverTip()

🚀 Step 1: Enable TipKit

First, import TipKit and configure it in your app:

import TipKit

@main
struct TipKitDemoApp: App {
    init() {
        try? Tips.configure()
    }

    var body: some Scene {
        WindowGroup {
            ContentView()
        }
    }
}

Pro tip: Always call Tips.configure() early, like in your App struct.

Step 2: Define a Tip

Create a struct conforming to the Tip protocol:

struct FavoriteButtonTip: Tip {
    var title: Text {
        Text("Mark as Favorite")
    }

    var message: Text? {
        Text("Tap the heart icon to save this item to your favorites.")
    }

    var image: Image? {
        Image(systemName: "heart.fill")
    }

    // Optional priority to control tip ordering when multiple tips compete
    var priority: Int {
        1
    }

    var actions: [Action] {
        [
            Action(title: "Learn More") {
                print("Learn more clicked")
            }
        ]
    }
}

Step 3: Attach the Tip to Your UI

In SwiftUI, you attach the tip like this:

struct ContentView: View {
    @State private var isFavorite = false
    let favoriteTip = FavoriteButtonTip()

    var body: some View {
        VStack {
            Button(action: {
                isFavorite.toggle()
            }) {
                Image(systemName: isFavorite ? "heart.fill" : "heart")
                    .font(.largeTitle)
                    .foregroundColor(isFavorite ? .red : .gray)
            }
            .popoverTip(favoriteTip)
        }
        .padding()
    }
}

What happens here?

TipKit automatically decides when to show the tip, based on internal conditions (like whether it’s been shown before).

Important: Custom Conditions

Here’s where many people get confused:

TipKit does not have a public Event or counter system like some frameworks.

If you want to control tips based on custom app logic (like “show this tip only if the button was pressed fewer than 3 times”), you cannot put that logic inside TipKit’s rules.

Instead, you control the tip display manually using SwiftUI bindings.

Summary

✅ TipKit delivers smart, contextual tips

✅ Works beautifully with SwiftUI (and UIKit)

✅ Supports system rules but needs manual control for custom app state

✅ Improves feature discovery without annoying popups