How to show the loading indicator in the top status bar

Question

I have noticed that some apps like Safari and Mail show a loading indicator in the status bar (the bar at the very top of the phone) when they are accessing the network. Is there a way to do the same thing in SDK apps, or is this an Apple only thing?

score 217 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 18 '19 at 07:46

217

It's in UIApplication:

For Objective C:

Start:

[UIApplication sharedApplication].networkActivityIndicatorVisible = YES;

End:

[UIApplication sharedApplication].networkActivityIndicatorVisible = NO;

For swift :

Start

UIApplication.shared.isNetworkActivityIndicatorVisible = true

End

UIApplication.shared.isNetworkActivityIndicatorVisible = false

edited Sep 18 '19 at 07:46

Naveed Ahmad

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answered Oct 03 '08 at 13:06

Stephen Darlington

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1

Thanks that works perfectly. Just a side note: the simulator seems to ignore this value, which made me think at first it didn't work. – rustyshelf Oct 03 '08 at 13:33
11

@rustyshelf, it displays in the newer simulators. – MrHus Feb 11 '11 at 12:18
2

`[[UIApplication sharedApplication] setNetworkActivityIndicatorVisible:YES];` //as a one liner – David Douglas Jun 25 '15 at 22:16
1

For Swift syntax use `UIApplication.sharedApplication().networkActivityIndicatorVisible = true` – moraisandre Feb 04 '16 at 03:42
2

The activity indicator won't show in the status bar on the iPhone X – Melly Mar 05 '18 at 01:39
@ClareHuxtable Yep, for some reason Apple decided not to show the indicator on the X (and presumably all future phones with a "notch"). – Stephen Darlington Mar 05 '18 at 12:01
Likely the reason why it was deprecated: `'isNetworkActivityIndicatorVisible' was deprecated in iOS 13.0: Provide a custom network activity UI in your app if desired.` – jacksoor Jan 23 '23 at 11:11

score 30 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 17 '09 at 18:51

30

I've found the following macros pretty useful!

#define ShowNetworkActivityIndicator() [UIApplication sharedApplication].networkActivityIndicatorVisible = YES
#define HideNetworkActivityIndicator() [UIApplication sharedApplication].networkActivityIndicatorVisible = NO

So you can just call ShowNetworkActivityIndicator(); or HideNetworkActivityIndicator(); from within your app (as long as the header is included of course!).

answered Nov 17 '09 at 18:51

Michael Waterfall

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35

Why not define a category on UIApplication? Seems much nicer (and more debuggable) than a #define. – Barry Wark Nov 17 '09 at 18:56

Resh32 · Answer 3 · 2012-12-19T08:49:07.733

I wrote a singleton that solves the problem of multiple connections by keeping a counter of what is happening (to avoid removing the status when a connection returns but another one is still active):

The header file:

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

@interface RMActivityIndicator : NSObject

-(void)increaseActivity;
-(void)decreaseActivity;
-(void)noActivity;

+(RMActivityIndicator *)sharedManager;

@end

and implementation:

#import "RMActivityIndicator.h"

@interface RMActivityIndicator ()

@property(nonatomic,assign) unsigned int activityCounter;

@end

@implementation RMActivityIndicator

- (id)init
{
    self = [super init];
    if (self) {
        self.activityCounter = 0;
    }
    return self;
}

    -(void)increaseActivity{
        @synchronized(self) {
             self.activityCounter++;
        }
        [self updateActivity];
    }
-(void)decreaseActivity{
    @synchronized(self) {
           if (self.activityCounter>0) self.activityCounter--;
    }
    [self updateActivity];
}
-(void)noActivity{
    self.activityCounter = 0;
    [self updateActivity];
}

-(void)updateActivity{
    UIApplication* app = [UIApplication sharedApplication];
    app.networkActivityIndicatorVisible = (self.activityCounter>0);
}

#pragma mark -
#pragma mark Singleton instance

+(RMActivityIndicator *)sharedManager {
    static dispatch_once_t pred;
    static RMActivityIndicator *shared = nil;

    dispatch_once(&pred, ^{
        shared = [[RMActivityIndicator alloc] init];
    });
    return shared;
}

@end

Example:

    [[RMActivityIndicator sharedManager]increaseActivity];
    [NSURLConnection sendAsynchronousRequest:urlRequest queue:self.networkReceiveProcessQueue completionHandler:^(NSURLResponse *response, NSData *data, NSError *error)
    {
        [[RMActivityIndicator sharedManager]decreaseActivity];
    }

Thanks @Schrockwell, I further improved it by using synchronized blocks - I saw a race condition where the activity was not decreased properly. — Resh32, Dec 19 '12 at 08:50

score 19 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 29 '12 at 10:33

19

A single line code to do that:

[UIApplication sharedApplication].networkActivityIndicatorVisible = YES;

answered Nov 29 '12 at 10:33

asish

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4
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score 10 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 21 '19 at 04:55

10

The status bar network activity indicator was deprecated in iOS 13.

Using UIApplication.shared.isNetworkActivityIndicatorVisible = true will not work anymore.

The deprecation message says:

Provide a custom network activity UI in your app if desired.

answered Jun 21 '19 at 04:55

M Reza

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score 5 · Answer 6 · edited Dec 29 '16 at 05:52

5

You need to take care of hiding the activity indicator also once your network call is done.

If you use AFNetworking, then you don't need to do much.

Do following changes in AppDelegate Class:

Import AFNetworking/AFNetworkActivityIndicatorManager.h
Put this in didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:

[[AFNetworkActivityIndicatorManager sharedManager] setEnabled:YES]

edited Dec 29 '16 at 05:52

cnotethegr8

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answered Feb 17 '16 at 05:59

Babu Lal

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4

1

Or with restkit it will be #import [[AFRKNetworkActivityIndicatorManager sharedManager] setEnabled:YES]; – deepwinter Sep 21 '17 at 00:34

score 2 · Answer 7 · answered Mar 13 '15 at 19:49

2

It might also be helpful to make sure you are running it on the main thread as it is UI related.

dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
    [[UIApplication sharedApplication] setNetworkActivityIndicatorVisible:YES];
});

answered Mar 13 '15 at 19:49

Sev

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erickva · Answer 8 · 2018-11-08T02:58:49.333

As many have said, there is no network activity indicator for the iPhone X and probably for the other new iPhones with the notch.

I came across this incredible library written by Ortwin Gentz, FutureTap: https://github.com/futuretap/FTLinearActivityIndicator

It puts the indicator right back where it was when the iPhone X was initially released, many would remember the Knight Rider type of indicator.

This library is available for Swift 4.2, so you will need to change the Swift Language settings, as described here: Type 'NSAttributedStringKey' (aka 'NSString') has no member 'font'

How to show the loading indicator in the top status bar

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