iOS platform features in Xamarin.Forms

Developing Xamarin.Forms applications for iOS requires Visual Studio. The supported platforms page contains more information about the pre-requisites.

Platform-specifics

Platform-specifics allow you to consume functionality that's only available on a specific platform, without implementing custom renderers or effects.

The following platform-specific functionality is provided for Xamarin.Forms views, pages, and layouts on iOS:

• Blur support for any VisualElement. For more information, see VisualElement Blur on iOS.
• Disabling legacy color mode on a supported VisualElement. For more information, see VisualElement Legacy Color Mode on iOS.
• Enabling a drop shadow on a VisualElement. For more information, see VisualElement Drop Shadows on iOS.
• Enabling a VisualElement object to become the first responder to touch events. For more information, see VisualElement First Responder.

The following platform-specific functionality is provided for Xamarin.Forms views on iOS:

• Setting the Cell background color. For more information, see Cell Background Color on iOS.
• Controlling when item selection occurs in a DatePicker. For more information, see DatePicker Item Selection on iOS.
• Ensuring that inputted text fits into an Entry by adjusting the font size. For more information, see Entry Font Size on iOS.
• Setting the cursor color in a Entry. For more information, see Entry Cursor Color on iOS.
• Controlling whether ListView header cells float during scrolling. For more information, see ListView Group Header Style on iOS.
• Controlling whether row animations are disabled when the ListView items collection is being updated. For more information, see ListView Row Animations on iOS.
• Setting the separator style on a ListView. For more information, see ListView Separator Style on iOS.
• Controlling when item selection occurs in a Picker. For more information, see Picker Item Selection on iOS.
• Controlling whether a SearchBar has a background. For more information, see SearchBar style on iOS.
• Enabling the Slider.Value property to be set by tapping on a position on the Slider bar, rather than by having to drag the Slider thumb. For more information, see Slider Thumb Tap on iOS.
• Controlling the transition that's used when opening a SwipeView. For more information, see SwipeView Swipe Transition Mode.
• Controlling when item selection occurs in a TimePicker. For more information, see TimePicker Item Selection on iOS.

The following platform-specific functionality is provided for Xamarin.Forms pages on iOS:

• Controlling whether the detail page of a FlyoutPage has shadow applied to it, when revealing the flyout page. For more information, see FlyoutPage Shadow.
• Hiding the navigation bar separator on a NavigationPage. For more information, see NavigationPage Bar Separator on iOS.
• Controlling whether the navigation bar is translucent. For more information, see Navigation Bar Translucency on iOS.
• Controlling whether the status bar text color on a NavigationPage is adjusted to match the luminosity of the navigation bar. For more information, see NavigationPage Bar Text Color Mode on iOS.
• Controlling whether the page title is displayed as a large title in the page navigation bar. For more information, see Large Page Titles on iOS.
• Setting the visibility of the home indicator on a Page. For more information, see Home Indicator Visibility on iOS.
• Setting the status bar visibility on a Page. For more information, see Page Status Bar Visibility on iOS.
• Ensuring that page content is positioned on an area of the screen that is safe for all iOS devices. For more information, see Safe Area Layout Guide on iOS.
• Setting the presentation style of modal pages. For more information, see Modal Page Presentation Style.
• Setting the translucency mode of the tab bar on a TabbedPage. For more information, see TabbedPage Translucent TabBar on iOS.

The following platform-specific functionality is provided for Xamarin.Forms layouts on iOS:

• Controlling whether a ScrollView handles a touch gesture or passes it to its content. For more information, see ScrollView Content Touches on iOS.

The following platform-specific functionality is provided for the Xamarin.Forms Application class on iOS:

• Disabling accessibility scaling for named font sizes. For more information, see Accessibility Scaling for Named Font Sizes on iOS.
• Enabling control layout and rendering updates to be performed on the main thread. For more information, see Main Thread Control Updates on iOS.
• Enabling a PanGestureRecognizer in a scrolling view to capture and share the pan gesture with the scrolling view. For more information, see Simultaneous Pan Gesture Recognition on iOS.

iOS-specific formatting

Xamarin.Forms enables cross-platform user interface styles and colors to be set - but there are other options for setting the theme of your iOS using platform APIs in the iOS project.

Read more about formatting the user interface using iOS-specific APIs, such as Info.plist configuration and the UIAppearance API.

Other iOS features

Using custom renderers, the DependencyService, and the MessagingCenter, it's possible to incorporate a wide variety of native functionality into Xamarin.Forms applications for iOS.