explaingit

chenyilong/cyltabbarcontroller

★ 6,981SwiftAudience · developerComplexity · 2/5LicenseSetup · easy

TLDR

An iOS library that replaces the standard tab bar with one that supports Lottie animations on tab icons, a prominent center action button, and Apple's Liquid Glass frosted-glass style from iOS 26.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((repo))
    What it does
      iOS tab bar library
      Animated tab icons
      Liquid Glass style
    Features
      Lottie animations
      Center action button
      Badge indicators
      Dynamic badge updates
    Tech
      Swift
      Objective-C
      CocoaPods
    Setup
      One CocoaPods line
      Minimal code changes
      iOS 12 and later
Click or tap to explore — scroll the page freely

Code map

Detail Auto

An interactive map of this repo's files and how they connect — its source is parsed live in your browser. Click Visualize to build it.

filefunction / class

Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Add Lottie animation effects to tab bar icons in an iOS app to make navigation feel more dynamic.

USE CASE 2

Place a prominent center action button in the tab bar for a primary action like creating a new post.

USE CASE 3

Upgrade an existing iOS app's tab bar to Apple's Liquid Glass style with fewer than ten lines of changed code.

Tech stack

SwiftObjective-CCocoaPodsLottie

Getting it running

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 30min

Requires CocoaPods, the project must already use CocoaPods or you need to initialize it before adding the dependency.

Use freely in any personal or commercial project as long as you keep the copyright notice.

In plain English

CYLTabBarController is a library for iOS app developers that adds animated icons and visual effects to the tab bar at the bottom of an app. The tab bar is the row of buttons users tap to switch between the main sections of an app. This library lets those buttons play Lottie animations when tapped, and on newer versions of iOS it adds a frosted-glass appearance called Liquid Glass that Apple introduced with iOS 26. Beyond standard tab items, the library also supports placing a larger button in the center of the tab bar, styled with a plus sign. This kind of layout is common in apps where one action, such as creating a new post, is more prominent than the others. Badge indicators can be placed on any tab item, and the library includes support for dynamic updates while the app is running. The library is written in Swift and Objective-C, works with iOS 12.0 and later, and can be added to a project through CocoaPods with a single line in the project configuration file. The README lists several published apps that use it, including apps from major Chinese technology companies, suggesting the library has been tested in production environments at scale. Setup requires minimal code changes. The README states that developers already using the library can upgrade to support Liquid Glass in fewer than ten lines of changed code. The implementation avoids private Apple APIs, which means apps using it are intended to pass App Store review without issues. The library is released under the MIT License. The full README is longer than what was shown.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Using CYLTabBarController in Swift, set up a tab bar with four items where tapping the first tab plays a Lottie animation. Include the CocoaPods setup line and the Swift initialization code.
Prompt 2
Add a center action button to my CYLTabBarController tab bar styled with a plus icon that opens a new post screen when tapped. Write the Swift configuration code.
Prompt 3
How do I add a numeric badge to the second tab in CYLTabBarController and update its value dynamically at runtime from a background thread?
Open on GitHub → Explain another repo

← chenyilong on gitmyhub — every repo by this author, as a profile.

Verify against the repo before relying on details.