How to Build a Cross-Platform iOS and macOS Chat App using Stream

Apple's Mac Catalyst enables developers to use a largely shared native codebase for both iOS and macOS apps, streamlining the process of creating desktop versions of iPad apps and enhancing user experience with consistent performance across platforms. This advancement allows existing iPad apps to be efficiently transformed into native Mac apps, reaching an audience of over 100 million active Mac users. Stream Chat's Swift SDK is compatible with Mac Catalyst, allowing chat experiences to translate easily from iOS to macOS, with minor modifications to accommodate platform-specific user experiences. Key features like UI components, context menus, attachment uploads, and push notifications seamlessly transition with minimal additional setup, thanks to the shared codebase. Developers can start building cross-platform chat applications using the Stream Chat iOS/Swift tutorial, ensuring compatibility with Mac Catalyst by simply adjusting deployment settings in Xcode, and addressing specific requirements such as file upload permissions in the .entitlements file.