Introduction

In SwiftUI, the PhotosPicker¹ view can be used to select images and videos from the ‘Photos’ application.

Before we dive into the implementation, go through a sample snippet:

Alternative, get code here

I will explain the parts of this snippet and you can use this to get your job done.

What is PhotosPicker?

PhotosPicker is a view which can be imported from PhotosUI package.

This can be used with SwiftUI.

How does PhotosPicker work?

PhotosPicker returns a PhotosPickerItem², which can be loaded into a SwiftUI Image object.

There are several ways to programmatically pick images using PhotosPicker. In this example, we shall focus on a straightforward implementation.

We shall give this view:

1. A label
2. A variable to hold the PhotosPickerItem object
3. A filter to help us choose the file type using supported PHPickerFilter

This is how we will place the picker into your app screen using SwiftUI,

PhotosPicker("Random Label", selection: $photos_picker_item, matching: .images)

Let’s try to understand how each of these work,

1. ‘label’ is a random text string for us to identify the photos picker instance.

2. ‘selection’ parameter will hold a binding to another variable

   💡 A binding means that we are modifying an existing variable.

   We can create a original variable called photos_picker_item to hold the values of Images picked.

   import PhotosUI
   import SwiftUI
   
   // ...
   
   @State var photos_picker_item: PhotosPickerItem?
   @State var image: Image?
   
   // ...
   
   PhotosPicker("Select Image from Photos App", selection: $photos_picker_item, matching: .images)
   .onChange(of: photos_picker_item) { photos_picker_item in
       Task {
           if let data = try? await photos_picker_item?.loadTransferable(type: Data.self) {
               if let uiImage = UIImage(data: data) {
                   image = Image(uiImage: uiImage)
               }
           }
       }
   }
   
   //...
   

   Whatever image is selected using PhotosPicker, will available in photos_picker_item

3. ‘matching’ is essentially a filter to control what type of files we want the user to select from the photos app.

   This value will be of type PHPickerFilter³ and can specify images, videos, livePhotos, screenshots, timelapseVideos and many more.

Now that we’ve a way to pick files from the Photos app, we need to focus on actually rendering and using the selected file in our app.

We now have a PhotosPickerItem variable photos_picker_item containing the selected file.

Let’s try to convert this into a SwiftUI Image.

import PhotosUI
import SwiftUI

// ...

@State var photos_picker_item: PhotosPickerItem?
@State var image: Image?

//...

PhotosPicker("Select Image from Photos App", selection: $photos_picker_item, matching: .images)
.onChange(of: photos_picker_item) { photos_picker_item in
    Task {
        if let data = try? await photos_picker_item?.loadTransferable(type: Data.self) {
            if let uiImage = UIImage(data: data) {
                image = Image(uiImage: uiImage)
            }
        }
    }
}

//...

How to use PhotosPicker?

We can use the onChange modifier, which fires an action when photos_picker_item is loaded.

The image can be built using the loadTransferable method. This is an asynchronous method.

💡 We wrap this inside a Task⁴ — where it concurrently loads the data into an Image in SwiftUI

Now, let’s finally render the Image in SwiftUI,

Code Snippet

import PhotosUI
import SwiftUI

struct ContentView: View {
    
    @State var photos_picker_item: PhotosPickerItem?
    @State var image: Image?

    var body: some View {
        VStack {
            PhotosPicker("Select Image from Photos App", selection: $photos_picker_item, matching: .images)
            .onChange(of: photos_picker_item) { photos_picker_item in
                Task {
                    if let data = try? await photos_picker_item?.loadTransferable(type: Data.self) {
                        if let uiImage = UIImage(data: data) {
                            image = Image(uiImage: uiImage)
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
            image?.resizable().aspectRatio(contentMode: .fit)
        }
    }
}

Demonstration

Here’s how it runs on the XCode⁵ iOS simulator:

👋 – @TnvMadhav

References