Redux in SwiftUI: When Web Patterns Meet Apple's Declarative World

#swiftui #ios #mobile #programming

Redux in SwiftUI: When Web Patterns Meet Apple's Declarative World

Last night, I'm debugging this nightmare state bug – you know the type where user data is getting out of sync across three different screens, and nobody can figure out why. My friend walks over and goes, "Have you tried Redux?"

Redux. In SwiftUI.

I literally stopped typing and stared at him. This is the same pattern everyone uses in React, but I'd never really considered if it could work with Apple's shiny declarative framework.

The Short Answer

Yes, Redux absolutely works with SwiftUI. Unlike VIPER – which, let's face it, is basically architectural roadkill in the SwiftUI world – Redux actually complements SwiftUI's reactive nature pretty well.

Why This Actually Makes Sense

VIPER was built for UIKit's imperative world. You know, those massive view controllers where you're manually updating UI elements, handling delegate callbacks, and basically micromanaging every pixel. SwiftUI said "nah" to all that.

Redux, though? It's about unidirectional data flow and predictable state management. SwiftUI is already reactive and declarative – it's just missing the state management part for complex apps.

Here's a quick look at what Redux + SwiftUI looks like with iOS 17's @Observable:

@Observable
class AppStore {
    var state: AppState

    func dispatch(_ action: AppAction) {
        let newState = AppReducer.reduce(state: state, action: action)
        DispatchQueue.main.async {
            self.state = newState
        }
    }
}

struct TransactionListView: View {
    @Environment(AppStore.self) private var store

    var body: some View {
        if store.state.isLoading {
            ProgressView("Loading transactions...")
        } else {
            List(store.state.transactions) { transaction in
                TransactionRow(transaction: transaction)
            }
        }
    }
}

See how clean that is? Your views become pure functions of state, and all your business logic lives in predictable reducers.

When Redux Actually Makes Sense

Look, I'm not saying every SwiftUI app needs Redux. If you're building a simple app with a few screens, @State and @Observable objects will do just fine.

But if you're dealing with:

Complex user flows across multiple screens
Real-time data that affects multiple parts of your app
Team development where state management needs to be predictable
Apps that need time-travel debugging (yes, that's a thing)

Then Redux starts making a lot of sense.

The Real Experience

I used to be a hardcore MVC guy. Then MVVM. Then I tried forcing VIPER into SwiftUI and wanted to throw my MacBook out the window. Redux? It just... works.

Your app becomes more predictable, debugging becomes easier, and your team stops arguing about where to put business logic.

Want the full implementation details? I dive deep into the actual code, gotchas with async actions, memory management tips, and all the production-ready patterns in the complete article.

Coming up next: I'm working on a deep-dive showing how to build a complete Redux implementation from scratch – no third-party libraries, just pure Swift and SwiftUI.

Read the complete guide: http://medium.com/@karan.pal/redux-in-swiftui-when-web-patterns-meet-apples-declarative-world-43c0d1af644d

Connect with me:

What's your experience with state management in SwiftUI? Have you tried Redux patterns, or are you sticking with Apple's built-in tools? Let me know in the comments!