A lightweight SwiftUI package for presenting app release highlights.
WhatsNewKit helps SwiftUI apps present polished "What's New" sheets after an update. Declare the releases your app knows about, attach a view modifier, and the package decides which versions should be shown.
Automatic presentation is controlled by your app through canPresent. When that value is true, users see every release newer than the last presented version and up to the current app version. When it is false, nothing is shown or marked as seen, so the pending release remains eligible for a later evaluation.
- Automatic presentation on app launch.
- Manual presentation from buttons, menus, settings screens, or debug tools.
- Multi-release paging, so users can catch up across skipped versions.
- Image and video media support per release.
- Topic rows with optional SF Symbols or bundled image assets.
- Internal
UserDefaultsstorage scoped to the host app bundle. - Semantic version ordering for values such as
1.1.0,2.0.0, and2.5.1.
Add WhatsNewKit to your package dependencies:
dependencies: [
.package(
url: "https://github.com/didisouzacosta/WhatsNewKit.git",
branch: "main"
)
]Then add the product to the target that presents the sheet:
.target(
name: "YourApp",
dependencies: [
.product(name: "WhatsNewKit", package: "WhatsNewKit")
]
)You can also add the package in Xcode through File > Add Package Dependencies.
Attach .whatsNewSheet(releases:canPresent:) to the screen that should host the sheet. By default, WhatsNewKit reads CFBundleShortVersionString from the app bundle. Drive canPresent from your own app readiness, such as onboarding completion, authentication state, or the moment your main UI is ready to present a sheet.
import SwiftUI
import WhatsNewKit
struct HomeView: View {
@State private var canPresentWhatsNew = false
private let releases = [
WhatsNewRelease(
version: "3.0.0",
title: "New search experience",
media: .image(URL(string: "https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1551288049-bebda4e38f71?auto=format&fit=crop&w=1200&q=80")!),
topics: [
WhatsNewTopic(
title: "Faster results",
description: "Search now prioritizes your most-used items.",
icon: .systemImage("magnifyingglass.circle.fill")
)
]
)
]
var body: some View {
ContentView()
.whatsNewSheet(
releases: releases,
canPresent: canPresentWhatsNew
)
.task {
canPresentWhatsNew = true
}
}
}If the last presented version was 2.0.0 and the current app version is 3.0.0, the sheet presents releases after 2.0.0 through 3.0.0, ordered by version. If canPresent is false, the sheet is not presented and 2.0.0 remains the last presented version.
Automatic presentation uses three inputs:
canPresent, provided by the app that integratesWhatsNewKit.currentVersion, read fromCFBundleShortVersionStringby default or passed explicitly.lastPresentedVersion, stored internally after the user finishes a What's New presentation.
The automatic sheet is shown only when all of these conditions are true:
canPresentistrue.- At least one declared release has a version less than or equal to
currentVersion. - At least one eligible release is newer than
lastPresentedVersion, or no version has been presented yet.
These cases do not show the sheet:
canPresentisfalse, even when there is a new eligible version.- A release version is greater than
currentVersion. - The eligible release version was already presented for that user.
When canPresent is false, WhatsNewKit does not mark anything as presented. If canPresent later changes to true, the framework evaluates the same pending releases again and presents any eligible version that has not already been shown.
If your app needs to skip the current version without presenting the sheet, call WhatsNewPresentationState.markCurrentVersionAsSeen(). This records the current app version as already considered without opening a sheet or emitting analytics events.
import WhatsNewKit
func onboardingDidFinish() {
WhatsNewPresentationState.markCurrentVersionAsSeen()
}Only call this when your app intentionally wants to suppress the current version. If you only need to delay presentation, keep canPresent as false until your app is ready.
Use the binding-based modifier when the user should open the sheet from your own UI.
import SwiftUI
import WhatsNewKit
struct SettingsView: View {
@State private var showWhatsNew = false
let releases: [WhatsNewRelease]
var body: some View {
List {
Button("What's New") {
showWhatsNew = true
}
}
.whatsNewSheet(
isTriggered: $showWhatsNew,
releases: releases
)
}
}Manual presentation is forced. It ignores first-launch state, the stored last-presented version, and the current app version, then shows every declared release ordered by version. This makes it suitable for settings screens, debug tools, previews, and development workflows.
Each release has a version, a title, optional media, and one or more topics.
Media is declared with a single enum:
// Local asset image
media: .image("ReleaseHero")
// Local asset image with explicit bundle
media: .image(.asset("ReleaseHero", bundle: .main))
// Local UIImage on UIKit platforms
media: .image(.uiImage(heroImage))
// Remote image URL
media: .image(URL(string: "https://example.com/release.png")!)
// Remote video URL
media: .video(URL(string: "https://example.com/release.mp4")!)let release = WhatsNewRelease(
version: "2.5.1",
title: "Fixes and media in the sheet",
media: .video(URL(string: "https://interactive-examples.mdn.mozilla.net/media/cc0-videos/flower.mp4")!),
topics: [
WhatsNewTopic(
title: "Video support",
description: "Each version can present an image or video URL.",
icon: .systemImage("play.rectangle.fill")
),
WhatsNewTopic(
title: "Custom icons",
description: "Use SF Symbols or images from the app bundle.",
icon: .image("ReleaseIcon")
)
]
)WhatsNewKit stores presentation state internally with UserDefaults. Apps do not need to provide their own storage implementation.
For previews, tests, or custom rollout logic, pass an explicit currentVersion:
.whatsNewSheet(
releases: releases,
canPresent: userCanSeeWhatsNew,
currentVersion: "3.0.0"
)The same parameter is available on the manual trigger modifier.
Pass onEvent to track sheet presentation and step progress. Video media starts automatically when its page becomes active and pauses when the page disappears.
.whatsNewSheet(
releases: releases,
onEvent: { event in
switch event {
case let .opened(presentation):
analytics.track("whats_new_opened", ["versions": presentation.id])
case let .closed(presentation):
analytics.track("whats_new_closed", ["versions": presentation.id])
case let .stepProgress(release, index, count):
analytics.track("whats_new_step", [
"version": release.version,
"step": index + 1,
"total": count
])
}
}
)Open Demo/WhatsNewKitDemo.xcodeproj to run a sample app that imports this package locally. The demo includes:
- automatic presentation on app launch;
- manual presentation from a list button;
- multiple release pages;
- image and video media examples;
- autoplaying video media;
- analytics event callbacks;
- topic rows with SF Symbols.
This package is inspired by SvenTiigi/WhatsNewKit, a mature Swift package for showcasing new app features. This implementation keeps the public surface small and focuses on a SwiftUI-first release notes flow for this project.
WhatsNewKit is available under the MIT license. See LICENSE for details.
WhatsNewKit
SwiftUI release notes, version-aware presentation, and a small API surface.
Installation · Usage · Release Model · Demo App · License · Original Inspiration