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 state Media actions state Voice recording HUD

_{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

GitHub renders Mermaid diagrams natively. If your local Markdown preview does not, the source is still valid and will render correctly on GitHub.