FocusState not working on ipad

Question

Created Aug ’24

Replies 3

Boosts 0

Participants 3

I created this simple view to test focus in preview mode and I have no idea why it works absolutely fine on iphone, but not at all on ipad?

import SwiftUI

struct SimpleFocusTestView: View {
 @FocusState private var isFocused: Bool

var body: some View {
    Text("Test Focus")
        .focusable()
        .focused($isFocused)
        .onTapGesture {
            isFocused.toggle()
            print("Tapped to toggle focus: \(isFocused)")
        }
        .onAppear { isFocused = true }
        .onChange(of: isFocused) { oldValue, newValue in
            print("Focus changed: \(newValue)")
        }
        .background {
          if isFocused {
            Capsule()
              .fill(.indigo)
              .opacity(0.3)
          }
        }
    }
}

#Preview {
    SimpleFocusTestView()
}

The printouts I get are:

if I click on ipad I get this:

Tapped to toggle focus: false Tapped to toggle focus: false Tapped to toggle focus: false

why is it impossible to change the value of isFocused on ipad? it all works fine on iphone:

Tapped to toggle focus: true Focus changed: false Tapped to toggle focus: false Focus changed: true

Boost

Answer 1

DTS Engineer OP

Apple

Aug ’24

@hasen6 Do you mind testing this with a TextField instead of a Text to see if the focusState gets updated.

0

Answer 2

hasen6 OP

Aug ’24

@DTS Engineer Hi, thanks for responding, I've been having trouble finding any kind of response to this whether on stackoverflow or from ChatGPT.

If I switch to TextField on iPhone it is focused onAppear, on iPad it is not, but if I click to focus it does manage to focus. So slightly better than just using a Text view, but the iPad behaviour is still different regarding focus. Not sure why this is?

The above code is the complete view, so can I ask, what happens for you with this code? Is this a problem unique to me if so I don't know why or does the same thing happen for you on iPad?

0

Answer 3

kpalser OP

Sep ’24

I arrived at the following conclusions after experimenting with a real iPad device and sims:

iPad devices use a different focus management system when a hardware keyboard is connected. The system often prioritises physical key inputs over programatically driven focus changes.
The FocusState can only be changed programmatically when the view is visible AND the physical keyboard is disconnected - to test this on a sim untick "Connect Hardware Keyboard".

Depending on your use case you might want to consider switching to a less pure SwiftUI approach. I am going to try using GCKeyboard with my use case being a virtual keyboard representing a classic 1980s home computer.

See my reply to a Stack Overflow post here for more details: https://stackoverflow.com/a/79009141/3719695

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