UUChatTableView is a lightweight Objective-C UIKit chat UI for teams that want the core chat experience without dragging in a large product shell. It focuses on the pieces that matter in day-to-day messaging interfaces: message models, layout calculation, bubble rendering, image preview, voice playback, and a polished pure-code input bar.

What you get

A demo-ready chat surface with text, image, and voice states, plus a codebase that is small enough to understand quickly and extend safely.

_{Copy Menu     Media Actions     Recording HUD}

./SetupDemo.command
open Demo/UUChatTableViewDemo.xcworkspace

cd Demo
xcodegen generate
pod install
open UUChatTableViewDemo.xcworkspace

Inside the demo

One-to-one chat, multi-participant chat, image bubbles, voice bubbles, pull-to-load history, inline media actions, copy menu, and recording HUD presentation.

pod 'UUChatTableView'

For local development:

pod 'UUChatTableView', :path => '..'

Platform

Minimum supported version: iOS 13.0

The common integration path is small: listen to input callbacks, append a message into your own source of truth, rebuild frames, and render them through the chat table view.

@interface ChatViewController () <UUInputFunctionViewDelegate, UUMessageCellDelegate>
@end

- (void)inputFunctionView:(UUInputFunctionView *)inputFunctionView didSendText:(NSString *)text;
- (void)inputFunctionView:(UUInputFunctionView *)inputFunctionView didSendImage:(UIImage *)image;
- (void)inputFunctionView:(UUInputFunctionView *)inputFunctionView didSendVoiceData:(NSData *)voiceData duration:(NSInteger)duration;
- (void)inputFunctionView:(UUInputFunctionView *)inputFunctionView didSelectCustomActionItem:(UUInputActionItem *)actionItem;
- (void)messageCell:(UUMessageCell *)cell didTapAvatarForUserIdentifier:(NSString *)userIdentifier;

Custom actions can be added with a small configuration block:

self.inputFuncView.customActionItems = @[
    [UUInputActionItem actionItemWithIdentifier:@"file"
                                          title:@"File"
                                systemImageName:@"doc"]
];

• Focused chat surface: text, image, and voice are all supported without pulling in unrelated product logic.
• Pure-code input bar: no storyboard dependency, with expandable media actions and voice mode built in.
• Modern media entry: photo picking uses PHPickerViewController on supported systems.
• Voice feedback that feels alive: the recording HUD shows duration, waveform level, and cancel messaging.
• Customizable extension point: add your own action items under the input bar without rewriting the component.

The project stays intentionally compact: input drives controller callbacks, the data source produces messages, layout frames shape presentation, and cells render the final bubble states.

flowchart LR
    Demo[Demo View Controller]
    Input[UUInputFunctionView]
    Data[UUDemoChatDataSource]
    Message[UUMessage]
    Frame[UUMessageFrame]
    Cell[UUMessageCell]
    Audio[UUAVAudioPlayer / Recording HUD]

    Demo --> Input
    Demo --> Data
    Input --> Demo
    Data --> Message
    Message --> Frame
    Frame --> Cell
    Cell --> Demo
    Cell --> Audio
    Input --> Audio

The runtime flow is straightforward: user input becomes a message, the message becomes layout data, and the table view refreshes into a new visible state.

sequenceDiagram
    participant User
    participant Input as UUInputFunctionView
    participant VC as Demo/View Controller
    participant Source as Chat Data Source
    participant Frame as UUMessageFrame
    participant Table as UITableView

    User->>Input: Type / pick photo / hold to talk
    Input->>VC: Delegate callback
    VC->>Source: Append message
    Source->>Frame: Rebuild layout frames
    VC->>Table: Reload + scroll to bottom
    Table-->>User: Updated bubble state

• Class/ The reusable library source: models, layout, message cells, input UI, audio playback, and image preview helpers.
• Demo/ A pure-code example app generated by XcodeGen and wired through CocoaPods.
• Docs/Screenshots/ README image assets exported from the demo app.
• SetupDemo.command One-step setup script for generating the demo project and installing dependencies.
• UUChatTableView.podspec CocoaPods definition used for linting and release packaging.

The current repository has been verified with:

• xcodegen generate
• pod install
• xcodebuild -workspace Demo/UUChatTableViewDemo.xcworkspace -scheme UUChatTableViewDemo -sdk iphonesimulator -configuration Debug -derivedDataPath /tmp/uuchat-deriveddata CODE_SIGNING_ALLOWED=NO build
• pod lib lint UUChatTableView.podspec --allow-warnings --skip-tests

Tip

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