How to add MapKit to a SwiftUI app

What MapKit does for a SwiftUI app

MapKit renders an interactive Apple Maps view: pan, zoom, pins, the user's location dot, and a camera you can point at a region. It is how a store-locator, a delivery tracker, or a travel app shows places on a map. In SwiftUI the modern Map view takes content directly, so you place Marker and Annotation views the same way you build the rest of your UI. If you need the device's location, that comes from Core Location and requires a permission prompt.

Adding it with AppFlight, and manually

In AppFlight you describe the map screen, for example pins for a list of places or a centered user location, and the AI generates the Map view, the markers, and the Core Location permission flow including the Info.plist usage string. There is no key to manage for the iOS map. If the places come from a server, AppFlight connects Supabase to load them, keeping any backend secret server-side.

Manually, you add a Map view, supply Marker or Annotation content for your coordinates, add the location usage description to Info.plist, and use a CLLocationManager to request authorization before showing the user's position.

A SwiftUI example

Show a map with a marker at a coordinate:

import MapKit
import SwiftUI

struct PlaceMap: View {
    let coordinate = CLLocationCoordinate2D(
        latitude: 37.3349, longitude: -122.0090)

    var body: some View {
        Map {
            Marker("Apple Park", coordinate: coordinate)
        }
        .mapControls {
            MapUserLocationButton()
        }
    }
}

Common pitfalls

Forgetting the Info.plist location usage description means the permission prompt never appears and the location dot stays hidden, since iOS requires that string. Assuming you need an API key for the iOS map is a common confusion, since the key is only for MapKit on the web or server, not the Map view. Requesting precise location when coarse would do can lower opt-in rates, so request only what the feature needs. Not handling a denied permission leaves a blank map, so center on a sensible default region when location is unavailable.