Now for the animated emotes... They are also defined in the view hierarchy as a Text(Image(uiImage:)). However! The magic to make them animate is to make use of the new TextRenderer protocol.
When I have to add an animated emote to the hierarchy, I add it as an Image with the first frame. I also add a custom TextAttribute to it that contains all the needed images to render the animation.
(8/x)
Then, I wrap the chat message in a TimelineView to drive the animation. The timeline context is passed to the text renderer, which then reads the attribute to get the necessary frames, and uses the timeline context to pick which frame needs to be rendered
The relevant WWDC session (https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2024/10151/) and the snippets shared by @dlx were really helpful in getting comfortable with the renderer, which is an extremely powerful tool in SwiftUI.
(9/x)
Other than that, the app will support things that you'd probably expect from it. Some obvious ones are searching for channels (duh) or viewing the details of a specific channel (so you can see the name of that juicy emote).
(These UIs are WIP at the moment).
(10/x)
I also want to allow some form of customization, at the minimum setting a color scheme override and setting an accent color.
I have also implemented opt-in into using https://recent-messages.robotty.de/, which allows loading the recent history of a chat (if available) on joining it.
(11/x)
I have many more features in the backlog, but the app is now in an MLP state that I am happy to share.
I need to do a bit of polishing and fix a few bugs, but hopefully I will be able to send it to TestFlight in the next couple weeks.
I also want to keep updating this thread with the progress I make.
(12/x)