UIKit

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "UIKit" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (April 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This article's factual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information. The reason given is: Substantial updates are needed to account for additional frameworks added in newer iOS versions. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (September 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

UIKit is an application development environment and graphical user interface toolkit from Apple Inc. used to build apps for the iOS, iPadOS, and tvOS operating systems.^[1]

UIKit provides an abstraction layer of iOS, the operating system for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. UIKit is insipired by the AppKit found in the macOS Cocoa API toolset and, like it, is primarily written in the Objective-C language. UIKit allows the use of hardware and features that are not found in macOS computers and are thus unique to the iOS range of devices. Just like AppKit, UIKit follows a Model–View–Controller (MVC) software architecture.

UIKit contains a different set of graphical control elements from AppKit. Tools for developing applications based on UIKit are included in the iOS SDK.