Remove back button text from navigationbar in SwiftUI

It's actually really easy. The following solution is the fastest and cleanest i made.

Put this at the bottom of your SceneDelegate for example.

extension UINavigationController {
    // Remove back button text 
    open override func viewWillLayoutSubviews() {
        navigationBar.topItem?.backBarButtonItem = UIBarButtonItem(title: "", style: .plain, target: nil, action: nil)
    }
}

This will remove the back button text from every NavigationView (UINavigationController) in your app.

Piggy-backing on the solution @Pitchbloas offered, this method just involves setting the backButtonDisplayMode property to .minimal:

extension UINavigationController {

  open override func viewWillLayoutSubviews() {
    super.viewWillLayoutSubviews()
    navigationBar.topItem?.backButtonDisplayMode = .minimal
  }

}

I have found a straightforward approach to remove the back button text using SwiftUI only, and keeping the original chevron.

A drag gesture is added to mimic the classic navigation back button when user wants to go back by swiping right.

import SwiftUI

struct ContentView: View {

  @Environment(\.presentationMode) var presentation

  var body: some View {
    ZStack {
      // Your main view code here with a ZStack to have the
      // gesture on all the view.
    }
    .navigationBarBackButtonHidden(true)
    .navigationBarItems(
      leading: Button(action: { presentation.wrappedValue.dismiss() }) {
        Image(systemName: "chevron.left")
          .foregroundColor(.blue)
          .imageScale(.large) })
    .contentShape(Rectangle()) // Start of the gesture to dismiss the navigation
    .gesture(
      DragGesture(coordinateSpace: .local)
        .onEnded { value in
          if value.translation.width > .zero
              && value.translation.height > -30
              && value.translation.height < 30 {
            presentation.wrappedValue.dismiss()
          }
        }
    )
  }
}

Standard Back button title is taken from navigation bar title of previous screen.

It is possible the following approach to get needed effect:

struct TestBackButtonTitle: View {
    @State private var hasTitle = true
    var body: some View {
        NavigationView {
            NavigationLink("Go", destination:
                Text("Details")
                    .onAppear {
                        self.hasTitle = false
                    }
                    .onDisappear {
                        self.hasTitle = true
                    }
            )
            .navigationBarTitle(self.hasTitle ? "Master" : "")
        }
    }
}

So I actually ended up with the following solution that actually works. I am overwriting the navigation bar items like so

.navigationBarItems(leading:
    Image("backButton")
        .foregroundColor(.blue)
        .onTapGesture {
            self.presentationMode.wrappedValue.dismiss()
    }
)

The only issue with this was that the back gesture wasn't working so that was solved by actually extending the UINavigationController

extension UINavigationController: UIGestureRecognizerDelegate {
    override open func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        interactivePopGestureRecognizer?.delegate = self
    }

    public func gestureRecognizerShouldBegin(_ gestureRecognizer: UIGestureRecognizer) -> Bool {
        return viewControllers.count > 1
    }
}

Now it's looking exactly the way I want it, the solution is kinda hacky... but it works for now, hopefully SwiftUI will mature a little bit so this can be done easier.

Using the Introspect framework, you can easily gain access to the underlying navigation item and set the backButtonDisplayMode to minimal.

Here’s how you might use that in the view that was pushed

var body: some View {
    Text("Your body here")
        .introspectNavigationController { navController in
            navController.navigationBar.topItem?.backButtonDisplayMode = .minimal
        }
}

Works on iOS 16

Solutions above didn't work for me. I wanted to make changes specific to view without any global (appearance or extension) and with minimal boilerplate code.

Since you can update NavigationItem inside the init of the View. You can solve this in 2 steps:

1. Get visible View Controller.

// Get Visible ViewController
extension UIApplication {
    
    static var visibleVC: UIViewController? {
        var currentVC = UIApplication.shared.windows.first { $0.isKeyWindow }?.rootViewController
        while let presentedVC = currentVC?.presentedViewController {
            if let navVC = (presentedVC as? UINavigationController)?.viewControllers.last {
                currentVC = navVC
            } else if let tabVC = (presentedVC as? UITabBarController)?.selectedViewController {
                currentVC = tabVC
            } else {
                currentVC = presentedVC
            }
        }
        return currentVC
    }
    
}

2. Update NavigationItem inside init of the View.

struct YourView: View {
    
    init(hideBackLabel: Bool = true) {
        if hideBackLabel {
            // iOS 14+
            UIApplication.visibleVC?.navigationItem.backButtonDisplayMode = .minimal
            
            // iOS 13-
            let button = UIBarButtonItem(title: "", style: .plain, target: nil, action: nil)
            UIApplication.visibleVC?.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem = button
        }
    }

}

custom navigationBarItems and self.presentationMode.wrappedValue.dismiss() worked but you are not allow to perform swiping back

You can either add the following code to make the swipe back again

//perform gesture go back
extension UINavigationController: UIGestureRecognizerDelegate {
    override open func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        interactivePopGestureRecognizer?.delegate = self
    }

    public func gestureRecognizerShouldBegin(_ gestureRecognizer: UIGestureRecognizer) -> Bool {
        return viewControllers.count > 1
    }
}

but the problem is, sometimes it will make your app crashed when you swipe half the screen and then cancel.

I would suggest the other way to remove the "Back" text. Adding the isActive state to monitor whether the current screen is active or not. :)

struct ContentView: View {
    @State var isActive = false

    var body: some View {
        NavigationView() {
            NavigationLink(
                "Next",
                destination: Text("Second Page").navigationBarTitle("Second"),
                isActive: $isActive
            )
                .navigationBarTitle(!isActive ? "Title" : "", displayMode: .inline)
        }
    }
}

I am accomplishing this by changing the title of the master screen before pushing the detail screen and then setting it back when it re-appears. The only caveat is when you go back to the master screen the title's re-appearance is a little noticeable.

Summary:

• on master view add state var (e.g. isDetailShowing) to store if detail screen is showing or not

• on master view use the navigationTitle modifier to set the title based on the current value of isDetailShowing

• on master view use onAppear modifier to set the value of isDetailShowing to false

• on the NavigationLink in master screen use the simultaneousGesture modifier to set the isDetailShowing to true

  struct MasterView: View {
    @State var isDetailShowing = false
  
    var body: some View {
  
        VStack {
            Spacer()
                .frame(height: 20)
            Text("Master Screen")
                .frame(maxWidth: .infinity, alignment: .leading)
            Spacer()
                .frame(height: 20)
  
            NavigationLink(destination: DetailView()) {
                Text("Go to detail screen")
            }
            .simultaneousGesture(TapGesture().onEnded() {
                isDetailShowing = true
            })
        }
        .navigationBarTitleDisplayMode(.inline)
        .navigationTitle(isDetailShowing ? "" : "Master Screen Title")
        .onAppear() {
            isDetailShowing = false
        }
    }
  }
  
  struct DetailView: View {
    var body: some View {
        Text("This is the detail screen")
        .navigationBarTitleDisplayMode(.inline)
        .navigationTitle("Detail Screen Title")
    }
  }
  

If you want to:

• Do it globally
• Keep the standard back button (along with custom behaviours like an ability to navigate a few screens back on a long press)
• Avoid introducing any third party frameworks

You can do it by setting the back button text color to Clear Color via appearance:

let navigationBarAppearance = UINavigationBarAppearance()

let backButtonAppearance = UIBarButtonItemAppearance(style: .plain)
backButtonAppearance.focused.titleTextAttributes = [.foregroundColor: UIColor.clear]
backButtonAppearance.disabled.titleTextAttributes = [.foregroundColor: UIColor.clear]
backButtonAppearance.highlighted.titleTextAttributes = [.foregroundColor: UIColor.clear]
backButtonAppearance.normal.titleTextAttributes = [.foregroundColor: UIColor.clear]

navigationBarAppearance.backButtonAppearance = backButtonAppearance

//Not sure you'll need both of these, but feel free to adjust to your needs.
UINavigationBar.appearance().standardAppearance = navigationBarAppearance
UINavigationBar.appearance().scrollEdgeAppearance = navigationBarAppearance

You can do it once when the app starts and forget about it.

A potential downside (depending on your preferences) is that the transition to the clear color is animated as the title of the current window slides to the left as you move to a different one.

You can also experiment with different text attributes.

Why not use Custom BackButton with Default Back Button Hidden

You could use Any Design You Prefer !

Works on iOS 16

First View

struct ContentView: View {
var body: some View {
    NavigationView {
        VStack(){
            Spacer()
            NavigationLink(destination: View2()) {
                Text("Navigate")
                    .font(.title)
            }
            Spacer()
        }
    }
}
}

Second View

struct View2: View {
@Environment(\.presentationMode) var presentationMode

var body: some View {
    NavigationView {
        ZStack{
            VStack{
                HStack(alignment:.center){
//Any Design You Like
                    Image(systemName: "chevron.left")
                           .font(.title)
                           .foregroundColor(.blue)
                           .onTapGesture {                          
self.presentationMode.wrappedValue.dismiss()
                           }
                           .padding()
                   Spacer()
                }
                Spacer()
            }
        }
    }
    .navigationBarBackButtonHidden(true)
}
}