How to preview your layout in different devices

Paul Hudson @twostraws September 3rd 2021

Updated for Xcode 13.0

Xcode’s SwiftUI preview lets us show our designs in multiple screen sizes at the same time using the .previewDevice() modifier. This needs to be provided with the exact name of a device as seen in Xcode’s destination menu, e.g. “iPhone 12”.

For example, this shows a preview on the iPhone 12 Pro Max:

ContentView()
    .previewDevice(PreviewDevice(rawValue: "iPhone 12 Pro Max"))

When using specific devices for previewing, you’re likely to find it useful to add in the .previewDisplayName() modifier, which lets you put a name under a device in the preview window.

For example, this creates two previews for two different devices, adding the name of each to make it clear what’s going on:

struct ContentView_Previews: PreviewProvider {
    static var previews: some View {
        ContentView()
            .previewDevice(PreviewDevice(rawValue: "iPhone 12"))
            .previewDisplayName("iPhone 12")

        ContentView()
            .previewDevice(PreviewDevice(rawValue: "iPhone 12 Pro Max"))
            .previewDisplayName("iPhone 12 Pro Max")
    }
}

Xcode showing Previews on an iPhone 12 and an iPhone 12 Pro Max.