Migrate an iOS app to WinUI 3
June 1, 2026 · View on GitHub
If you have an iOS app and want to bring it to Windows, AI tools can do most of the mapping work. This page provides the key concept translations from UIKit/SwiftUI to WinUI 3. Use these tables as context when prompting your AI agent — providing exact API mappings up front produces far more accurate output than asking for a generic conversion.
Install the WinUI agent plugin first to give your agent accurate WinUI 3 knowledge:
gh copilot plugin install winui@awesome-copilot
Concept mapping
| iOS (UIKit / SwiftUI) | WinUI 3 equivalent | Notes |
|---|---|---|
UIViewController | Page | WinUI pages are navigated via Frame |
UINavigationController | Frame + NavigationView | Use Frame.Navigate() for page transitions |
UITabBarController | NavigationView (top or left tabs) | |
UITableView | ListView | Use ObservableCollection<T> for data binding |
UICollectionView | GridView | |
UIAlertController | ContentDialog | Must be parented to the current XamlRoot |
UILabel | TextBlock | |
UITextField | TextBox | |
UIButton | Button | |
UIImageView | Image | |
UIStackView | StackPanel | Set Orientation to Horizontal or Vertical |
Auto Layout | Grid / StackPanel / RelativePanel | XAML layout is row/column based |
@State / @Binding (SwiftUI) | INotifyPropertyChanged / ObservableProperty (CommunityToolkit.Mvvm) | |
NSUserDefaults | ApplicationData.Current.LocalSettings | |
URLSession | HttpClient | Use System.Net.Http.HttpClient |
NotificationCenter | Events or WeakReferenceMessenger (CommunityToolkit.Mvvm) | |
DispatchQueue.main.async | DispatcherQueue.TryEnqueue | |
AppDelegate.applicationDidFinishLaunching | App.OnLaunched | |
SceneDelegate / windowScene | MainWindow / AppWindow | |
FileManager | StorageFolder / StorageFile | |
UserNotifications | AppNotificationManager (Microsoft.Windows.AppNotifications) |
Starter prompt
Use this prompt to give your AI agent the context it needs before starting a migration:
I'm migrating an iOS app to WinUI 3 using the Windows App SDK.
The app is written in [Swift / Objective-C] using [UIKit / SwiftUI].
Apply these mappings:
- UIViewController → Page, navigated via Frame
- UINavigationController → Frame + NavigationView
- UITableView → ListView with ObservableCollection<T>
- UIAlertController → ContentDialog (parented to XamlRoot)
- NSUserDefaults → ApplicationData.Current.LocalSettings
- URLSession → System.Net.Http.HttpClient
- DispatchQueue.main.async → DispatcherQueue.TryEnqueue
- @State / @Binding → INotifyPropertyChanged via CommunityToolkit.Mvvm
Use Microsoft.UI.Xaml.* namespaces throughout — never Windows.UI.Xaml.*.
Generate C# — not Swift.
What doesn't map directly
Some iOS concepts don't have a direct WinUI equivalent:
- In-app purchases: Use the Microsoft Store commerce APIs via
Windows.Services.Store - Push notifications (APNs): Use Windows Push Notification Services (WNS)
- HealthKit / ARKit / CoreML: Windows has related technology areas — Windows ML, Windows Mixed Reality, and Windows Sensors — but these are not direct equivalents and require platform-specific implementation
- App Clips: No direct equivalent — consider web-to-app linking