Building a Smooth Sliding Sidebar Menu in SwiftUI (No Third-Party Libraries)

Level up your iOS skills by building a professional sidebar menu from scratch with complete control

Ever downloaded a navigation drawer library only to spend hours fighting its limitations? You're not alone. Most developers eventually hit that frustrating wall where the library does 80% of what you need, but customizing that last 20% feels like wrestling with someone else's code.

Here's the thing: SwiftUI makes building custom navigation so elegant that you might wonder why you ever reached for external dependencies. With just a few state variables, some smooth animations, and gesture handling, you can create a sidebar menu that's perfectly tailored to your app's needs.

What You'll Build 🚀

• ✅ Silky-smooth sliding animations that feel natural
• ✅ Smart pan gesture interactions with velocity-based completion
• ✅ Tap-to-close functionality matching iOS standards
• ✅ Reusable component architecture with configurable options
• ✅ Professional visual design with proper spacing and typography

No black boxes, no mysterious configurations – just clean, readable SwiftUI code that you fully understand and control.

The SwiftUI Advantage

Unlike UIKit's imperative approach, SwiftUI's declarative nature makes sidebar menus surprisingly elegant. Instead of managing view controllers and manual animations, we simply declare "when isOpen is true, show the sidebar" and let SwiftUI handle the magic.

// The core concept - simple state-driven design @State private var isOpen = false @State private var dragOffset: CGFloat = 0 // SwiftUI automatically animates between states .offset(x: isOpen ? sidebarWidth + dragOffset : dragOffset) .animation(.easeInOut(duration: 0.3), value: isOpen) 

Key Features We'll Implement

🎯 Smart Gesture Recognition

Our sidebar responds to both pan gestures AND tap-to-close, with intelligent velocity-based completion that feels natural.

🎨 Professional Visual Design

We'll transform a basic sidebar into something that looks like it belongs in the App Store, complete with proper iconography and spacing.

⚡ Smooth Animation System

Using SwiftUI's animation system, we'll create buttery-smooth transitions that eliminate common glitches and feel responsive.

🔧 Reusable Component Architecture

The final component will be flexible enough to adapt to any design system while maintaining clean, simple usage.

A Peek at the Final Result

// Clean, simple usage SlidingSidebar(isOpen: $sidebarOpen) { // Your main content here MainContentView() } sidebar: { // Your custom sidebar design SidebarMenuView() } 

What Makes This Different

By building from scratch, you'll gain deep insights into:

• SwiftUI's gesture and animation coordination
• State management patterns for complex UI
• Performance optimization techniques
• Component design best practices

Ready to master SwiftUI navigation?

👉 Read the complete tutorial on Medium for the full implementation with step-by-step code examples, visual design tips, and advanced optimization techniques.

The tutorial covers everything from basic setup to production-ready code, with detailed explanations of the gesture system, animation coordination, and reusable component patterns.

Building custom components like this is the best way to level up your SwiftUI skills. Each time you avoid reaching for a dependency, you're building knowledge that'll serve you throughout your iOS development journey.

Your professional sliding sidebar menu awaits! 🎉