Autofocus TextField programmatically in SwiftUI

iOS 15

There is a new wrapper called @FocusState that controls the state of the keyboard and the focused keyboard ('aka' firstResponder).

Become First Responder ( Focused )

If you use a focused modifier on the text fields, you can make them become focused, for example, you can set the focusedField property in the code to make the binded textField become active:

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Resign first responder ( Dismiss keyboard )

or dismiss the keyboard by setting the variable to nil:

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Don't forget to watch the Direct and reflect focus in SwiftUI session from WWDC2021


iOS 13 and 14 (and 15)

Old but working:

Simple wrapper struct - Works like a native:

Note that Text binding support added as requested in the comments

struct LegacyTextField: UIViewRepresentable {
    @Binding public var isFirstResponder: Bool
    @Binding public var text: String

    public var configuration = { (view: UITextField) in }

    public init(text: Binding<String>, isFirstResponder: Binding<Bool>, configuration: @escaping (UITextField) -> () = { _ in }) {
        self.configuration = configuration
        self._text = text
        self._isFirstResponder = isFirstResponder
    }

    public func makeUIView(context: Context) -> UITextField {
        let view = UITextField()
        view.addTarget(context.coordinator, action: #selector(Coordinator.textViewDidChange), for: .editingChanged)
        view.delegate = context.coordinator
        return view
    }

    public func updateUIView(_ uiView: UITextField, context: Context) {
        uiView.text = text
        switch isFirstResponder {
        case true: uiView.becomeFirstResponder()
        case false: uiView.resignFirstResponder()
        }
    }

    public func makeCoordinator() -> Coordinator {
        Coordinator($text, isFirstResponder: $isFirstResponder)
    }

    public class Coordinator: NSObject, UITextFieldDelegate {
        var text: Binding<String>
        var isFirstResponder: Binding<Bool>

        init(_ text: Binding<String>, isFirstResponder: Binding<Bool>) {
            self.text = text
            self.isFirstResponder = isFirstResponder
        }

        @objc public func textViewDidChange(_ textField: UITextField) {
            self.text.wrappedValue = textField.text ?? ""
        }

        public func textFieldDidBeginEditing(_ textField: UITextField) {
            self.isFirstResponder.wrappedValue = true
        }

        public func textFieldDidEndEditing(_ textField: UITextField) {
            self.isFirstResponder.wrappedValue = false
        }
    }
}

Usage:

struct ContentView: View {
    @State var text = ""
    @State var isFirstResponder = false

    var body: some View {
        LegacyTextField(text: $text, isFirstResponder: $isFirstResponder)
    }
}

🎁 Bonus: Completely customizable

LegacyTextField(text: $text, isFirstResponder: $isFirstResponder) {
    $0.textColor = .red
    $0.tintColor = .blue
}

Since Responder Chain is not presented to be consumed via SwiftUI, so we have to consume it using UIViewRepresentable. I have made a workaround that can work similarly to the way we use to do using UIKit.

 struct CustomTextField: UIViewRepresentable {

   class Coordinator: NSObject, UITextFieldDelegate {

      @Binding var text: String
      @Binding var nextResponder : Bool?
      @Binding var isResponder : Bool?

      init(text: Binding<String>,nextResponder : Binding<Bool?> , isResponder : Binding<Bool?>) {
        _text = text
        _isResponder = isResponder
        _nextResponder = nextResponder
      }

      func textFieldDidChangeSelection(_ textField: UITextField) {
        text = textField.text ?? ""
      }
    
      func textFieldDidBeginEditing(_ textField: UITextField) {
         DispatchQueue.main.async {
             self.isResponder = true
         }
      }
    
      func textFieldDidEndEditing(_ textField: UITextField) {
         DispatchQueue.main.async {
             self.isResponder = false
             if self.nextResponder != nil {
                 self.nextResponder = true
             }
         }
      }
  }

  @Binding var text: String
  @Binding var nextResponder : Bool?
  @Binding var isResponder : Bool?

  var isSecured : Bool = false
  var keyboard : UIKeyboardType

  func makeUIView(context: UIViewRepresentableContext<CustomTextField>) -> UITextField {
      let textField = UITextField(frame: .zero)
      textField.isSecureTextEntry = isSecured
      textField.autocapitalizationType = .none
      textField.autocorrectionType = .no
      textField.keyboardType = keyboard
      textField.delegate = context.coordinator
      return textField
  }

  func makeCoordinator() -> CustomTextField.Coordinator {
      return Coordinator(text: $text, nextResponder: $nextResponder, isResponder: $isResponder)
  }

  func updateUIView(_ uiView: UITextField, context: UIViewRepresentableContext<CustomTextField>) {
       uiView.text = text
       if isResponder ?? false {
           uiView.becomeFirstResponder()
       }
  }

}

You can use this component like this...

struct ContentView : View {

@State private var username =  ""
@State private var password =  ""

// set true , if you want to focus it initially, and set false if you want to focus it by tapping on it.
@State private var isUsernameFirstResponder : Bool? = true
@State private var isPasswordFirstResponder : Bool? =  false


  var body : some View {
    VStack(alignment: .center) {
        
        CustomTextField(text: $username,
                        nextResponder: $isPasswordFirstResponder,
                        isResponder: $isUsernameFirstResponder,
                        isSecured: false,
                        keyboard: .default)
        
        // assigning the next responder to nil , as this will be last textfield on the view.
        CustomTextField(text: $password,
                        nextResponder: .constant(nil),
                        isResponder: $isPasswordFirstResponder,
                        isSecured: true,
                        keyboard: .default)
    }
    .padding(.horizontal, 50)
  }
}

Here isResponder is to assigning responder to the current textfield, and nextResponder is to make the first response , as the current textfield resigns it.