ScrollView and Lazy stacks

Contents

• Intent
• Core patterns
• Example: vertical custom feed
• ScrollPosition capabilities
• Paged primary and detail reveals
• Example: horizontal chips
• Example: adaptive grid
• Design choices to keep
• iOS 26 Scroll Edge Effects
• Pitfalls

Intent

Use ScrollView with LazyVStack, LazyHStack, or LazyVGrid when you need custom layout, mixed content, or horizontal/ grid-based scrolling.

Core patterns

• Prefer ScrollView + LazyVStack for chat-like or custom feed layouts.
• Use ScrollView(.horizontal) + LazyHStack for chips, tags, avatars, and media strips.
• Use LazyVGrid for icon/media grids; prefer adaptive columns when possible.
• Use ScrollPosition for programmatic scrolling: scroll-to-id, scroll-to-edge, and point-based offsets.
• Use safeAreaInset(edge:) for input bars that should stick above the keyboard.

Example: vertical custom feed

@MainActor
struct ConversationView: View {
  @State private var scrollPosition = ScrollPosition(edge: .bottom)

  var body: some View {
    ScrollView {
      LazyVStack {
        ForEach(messages) { message in
          MessageRow(message: message)
        }
      }
      .scrollTargetLayout()
      .padding(.horizontal, .layoutPadding)
    }
    .scrollPosition($scrollPosition)
    .safeAreaInset(edge: .bottom) {
      MessageInputBar()
    }
    .onChange(of: messages.last?.id) {
      withAnimation { scrollPosition.scrollTo(edge: .bottom) }
    }
  }
}

ScrollPosition capabilities

ScrollPosition (iOS 18+) replaces ScrollViewReader for programmatic scrolling. It is declarative, supports bidirectional position tracking, and does not require a closure wrapper.

Setup: Declare state and attach to the scroll view. Apply .scrollTargetLayout() to the inner layout container so SwiftUI can track individual view identities.

@State private var scrollPosition = ScrollPosition(idType: Message.ID.self)

ScrollView {
    LazyVStack {
        ForEach(messages) { message in
            MessageRow(message: message)
        }
    }
    .scrollTargetLayout()
}
.scrollPosition($scrollPosition)

Scroll to a specific item:

scrollPosition.scrollTo(id: message.id, anchor: .top)

Scroll to an edge:

scrollPosition.scrollTo(edge: .bottom)

Read the current position:

if let currentID = scrollPosition.viewID(type: Message.ID.self) {
    // The view with this ID is currently at the scroll anchor
}

Detect user-initiated scrolls:

.onChange(of: scrollPosition.isPositionedByUser) { _, byUser in
    if byUser {
        // User scrolled manually -- show "scroll to bottom" button
    }
}

Paged primary and detail reveals

For a primary surface that pages into secondary details, let the scroll view remain the interaction source of truth. Use ScrollPosition for semantic or programmatic positioning, then derive one normalized progress value from scroll offset for continuous presentation.

private enum RevealPage: Hashable {
    case primary
    case details
}

@MainActor
struct RevealPager: View {
    @State private var position = ScrollPosition(idType: RevealPage.self)
    @State private var progress: CGFloat = 0
    @State private var isZooming = false
    @State private var isCropping = false

    var body: some View {
        ScrollView(.vertical) {
            LazyVStack(spacing: 0) {
                PrimarySurface(progress: progress)
                    .containerRelativeFrame(.vertical)
                    .id(RevealPage.primary)

                DetailSurface(progress: progress)
                    .containerRelativeFrame(.vertical)
                    .id(RevealPage.details)
            }
            .scrollTargetLayout()
        }
        .scrollPosition($position)
        .scrollTargetBehavior(.paging)
        .onScrollGeometryChange(for: CGFloat.self) { geometry in
            let revealDistance = max(geometry.containerSize.height, 1)
            let offset = geometry.visibleRect.minY
            return min(max(offset / revealDistance, 0), 1)
        } action: { _, newProgress in
            progress = newProgress
        }
        .scrollDisabled(isZooming || isCropping)
    }
}

Use the same progress to derive opacity, offset, scale, blur, toolbar treatment, and reveal affordances. Keep these calculations in RevealPager's small presentation subtree; do not publish pixel-by-pixel offsets into a shared store or invalidate an entire screen.

Avoid parallel state such as isDetailsVisible, isToolbarVisible, and a separate drag gesture that all describe the same transition. Derive thresholds from progress when a Boolean presentation choice is needed. Retain separate state only for a genuinely discrete event or interaction.

onScrollGeometryChange runs as the geometry changes frequently. Transform ScrollGeometry into the smallest useful Equatable value. A scalar is appropriate for smooth progress; use a threshold Bool or quantized value when per-pixel precision is unnecessary.

Use onScrollVisibilityChange or onScrollTargetVisibilityChange for discrete threshold-crossing effects such as deduplicated haptics, analytics, media activation, or accessibility announcements. Do not use visibility callbacks as continuous animation progress. A visibility threshold does not guarantee that paging has settled; when an effect must wait for rest, gate the discrete visibility result with an idle onScrollPhaseChange.

Disable scrolling while a conflicting interaction owns the same gesture, such as zoom, crop, or precision editing. Remember that .scrollDisabled propagates through the environment to nested scrollable views.

Prevent feedback loops: presentation derived from progress must not change the page height, content inset, or other geometry used to calculate that progress. Prefer render-only effects such as opacity, offset, scale, and blur; isolate unavoidable layout changes from the measured scroll content.

Docs: ScrollPosition · onScrollGeometryChange · onScrollVisibilityChange · scrollDisabled

Example: horizontal chips

ScrollView(.horizontal, showsIndicators: false) {
  LazyHStack {
    ForEach(chips) { chip in
      ChipView(chip: chip)
    }
  }
}

Example: adaptive grid

let columns = [GridItem(.adaptive(minimum: 120))]

ScrollView {
  LazyVGrid(columns: columns) {
    ForEach(items) { item in
      GridItemView(item: item)
    }
  }
  .padding()
}

Design choices to keep

• Use Lazy* stacks when item counts are large or unknown.
• Use non-lazy stacks for small, fixed-size content to avoid lazy overhead.
• Keep IDs stable for ScrollPosition tracking; changing IDs causes position jumps.
• Prefer explicit animations (withAnimation) when scrolling to an ID.

iOS 26 Scroll Edge Effects

scrollEdgeEffectStyle

Configure the visual treatment at scroll view edges (iOS 26+):

ScrollView {
    content
}
.scrollEdgeEffectStyle(.soft, for: .top)   // Soft fading edge at top
.scrollEdgeEffectStyle(.hard, for: .bottom) // Hard cutoff at bottom

ScrollEdgeEffectStyle values:

• .automatic -- platform default
• .soft -- soft fading edge effect
• .hard -- hard cutoff with dividing line

Use scrollEdgeEffectHidden(_:for:) to hide the edge effect entirely.

backgroundExtensionEffect

Duplicates, mirrors, and blurs the view to extend behind safe area edges (iOS 26+):

NavigationSplitView {
    sidebar
} detail: {
    BannerView()
        .backgroundExtensionEffect()
}

Use sparingly -- Apple recommends only a single instance for visual clarity and performance. The modifier clips the view to prevent mirror overlap.

safeAreaBar

Attach a bar view to the safe area edge, integrating with scroll edge effects (iOS 26+):

content
    .safeAreaBar(edge: .top) {
        FilterBar()
    }

Pitfalls

• Avoid nesting scroll views of the same axis; it causes gesture conflicts.
• Don’t combine List and ScrollView in the same hierarchy without a clear reason.
• Overuse of LazyVStack for tiny content can add unnecessary complexity.
• Apply scrollEdgeEffectStyle on the ScrollView, not on inner content.
• Use backgroundExtensionEffect() on only one view per screen.
• Do not mirror one reveal transition into multiple booleans or a parallel drag state machine.
• Do not write raw per-frame scroll geometry into broad app state.
• Do not let progress-driven layout change the geometry used to calculate progress.
• Use visibility callbacks for discrete threshold effects, not continuous interpolation or an assumed settled state.