SwiftUI with UICollectionView

Kari Grooms from Expedia Group tackles a problem every iOS team faces: how do you start using SwiftUI when your app is built on UICollectionView? Her solution is clever, but comes with some surprising gotchas.

With iOS 13 still in play and UICollectionView powering critical features like search results and discovery feeds, many teams can't wait for LazyVStack. Grooms walks through embedding SwiftUI views inside UICollectionViewCell, complete with proper UIHostingController setup, data passing patterns, and real-world layout challenges from the Vrbo iOS app.

Key Takeaways

• UIHostingController must be added as child controller to avoid memory leaks
• Never use @State in embedded SwiftUI views; cells get reused and state disappears
• SwiftUI buttons break UICollectionView's didSelectItemAt delegate method
• Use @EnvironmentObject to preserve state across cell reuse cycles
• fitToAspectRatio modifier prevents image skewing in fixed-size cells

The article reveals why a simple heart button nearly derailed the entire integration, and shows the exact moment when SwiftUI and UIKit's event handling collide.