How to let the user select multiple dates >

How to open web links in Safari

Paul Hudson @twostraws June 19th 2025

Updated for Xcode 16.4

Improved in iOS 26

SwiftUI gives us several ways of linking to web content, including a dedicated Link view that looks like a button but opens a URL in Safari when pressed, and an openURL action we can call programmatically.

To use Link just give it a title for the button, plus a destination URL to show, like this:

Link("Learn SwiftUI", destination: URL(string: "https://www.hackingwithswift.com/quick-start/swiftui")!)

Download this as an Xcode project

As it’s just a text link, you can customize it with a font, color, and more:

Link("Visit Apple", destination: URL(string: "https://www.apple.com")!)
    .font(.title)
    .foregroundStyle(.red)

Download this as an Xcode project

The words “Visit Apple” in red.

And if you’d rather create your own view rather than just use text, you can do that too:

Link(destination: URL(string: "https://www.apple.com")!) {
    Image(systemName: "link.circle.fill")
        .font(.largeTitle)
}

Download this as an Xcode project

A link icon on a blue circle.

Alternatively, you can open a URL from code by using the openURL environment key. In its simplest form this will open your link in Safari, like this:

struct ContentView: View {
    @Environment(\.openURL) var openURL

    var body: some View {
        Button("Visit Apple") {
            openURL(URL(string: "https://www.apple.com")!)
        }
    }
}

Download this as an Xcode project

A “Visit Apple” link in blue.

However you can also load URLs in an in-app browser that's equivalent to SFSafariViewController for UIKit developers. To use that instead, add prefersInApp: true to your openURL() call, like this:

struct ContentView: View {
    @Environment(\.openURL) var openURL

    var body: some View {
        Button("Visit Apple") {
            openURL(URL(string: "https://www.apple.com")!, prefersInApp: true)
        }
    }
}

Download this as an Xcode project

How to open web links in Safari

Similar solutions…