A Better Way to Pick Web Images in SwiftUI
Why force users to save images to their photo library first? Introducing SwiftUI-Web-Image-Picker.
2026-05-23
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Why force users to save images to their photo library first? Introducing SwiftUI-Web-Image-Picker.
I've run into the same friction in almost every app I build that handles user-generated content or profiles: getting images from the internet into the app.
The standard flow looks like this:
Six steps and a lot of context switching just to grab a picture from the web. It pollutes the user's photo library with temporary images and breaks the flow of your application.
I built a small Swift package to fix this: SwiftUI-Web-Image-Picker.
A Photos-like picker flow, but for the web. Instead of bouncing between apps, users search and select images directly from a web page inside your app.
Drop it in like a standard picker. It handles browsing, parsing the page for images, and returning the selected image data to your app.
I want users to stay in the flow of the app. The iOS photo library is great for personal memories. It should not be a mandatory staging ground for every random avatar, meme, or reference image someone wants to upload.
With a web picker built in, the user searches, taps, and they're done. No photo library cleanup later.
If you're using an AI Coding Agent (like Cursor or Claude), you can integrate it instantly with this prompt:
Add the SwiftUI Web Image Picker to my project from https://github.com/fennelouski/SwiftUI-Web-Image-Picker
To add it manually via Swift Package Manager, paste this URL into the SPM box in Xcode:
https://github.com/fennelouski/SwiftUI-Web-Image-Picker
If you're building apps that rely on external images, give it a try.
Check it out on GitHub and let me know how it works for you.