iOS Swift. How to create background view for status bar

Here I show you how to create custom background view for status bar. For demo example let create App with Navigation Controller and custom background color of Navigation bar. Code for that provided below. We will put it inside didFinishLaunchingWithOptions method.

func application(_ application: UIApplication, 
    didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplicationLaunchOptionsKey: Any]?) -> Bool {
        
    UINavigationBar.appearance().barTintColor = UIColor(red: CGFloat(68.0/255.0),
                                                        green: CGFloat(151.0/255.0),
                                                        blue: CGFloat(227.0/255.0),
                                                        alpha: 1.0)
    
    self.window = UIWindow(frame: UIScreen.main.bounds)
    self.window?.makeKeyAndVisible()
    let vc = ViewController()
    vc.view.backgroundColor = UIColor.white
    vc.title = "Custom Status Bar"
    self.window?.rootViewController = UINavigationController(rootViewController: vc)
}

This is how it looks.

Now we have blue color of navigation bar. It will be good to change status bar text color to white. We can do it by changing Info.plist file and set property 

View controller-based status bar appearance to NO

Make status bar text color white we can with settings in App Targets.

Or programmatically in didFinishLaunchingWithOptions method.

UIApplication.shared.statusBarStyle = .lightContent

Now we have white color of status bar text.

Let's go further. Now we need custom background color for status bar. For this purpose let's create special view and add it as subview to our window. Also we must provide couple of constraints.

let statusBarBackgroundView = UIView()
statusBarBackgroundView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
statusBarBackgroundView.backgroundColor = UIColor(red: CGFloat(54.0/255.0),
                                                      green: CGFloat(120.0/255.0),
                                                      blue: CGFloat(181.0/255.0),
                                                      alpha: 1.0)
self.window?.addSubview(statusBarBackgroundView)
self.window?.addConstraints(
            NSLayoutConstraint.constraints(withVisualFormat: "V:|[b(20)]",
                                       options: NSLayoutFormatOptions(),
                                       metrics: nil,
                                       views: ["b" : statusBarBackgroundView]))
self.window?.addConstraints(
            NSLayoutConstraint.constraints(withVisualFormat: "H:|[b]|",
                                       options: NSLayoutFormatOptions(),
                                       metrics: nil,
                                       views: ["b" : statusBarBackgroundView]))

Here is result.

Full Code

@UIApplicationMain
class AppDelegate: UIResponder, UIApplicationDelegate {

    var window: UIWindow?


    func application(_ application: UIApplication, 
        didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplicationLaunchOptionsKey: Any]?) -> Bool {
        
        UINavigationBar.appearance().barTintColor = UIColor(red: CGFloat(68.0/255.0),
                                                            green: CGFloat(151.0/255.0),
                                                            blue: CGFloat(227.0/255.0),
                                                            alpha: 1.0)
        
        UIApplication.shared.statusBarStyle = .lightContent
    
        self.window = UIWindow(frame: UIScreen.main.bounds)
        self.window?.makeKeyAndVisible()
        let vc = ViewController()
        vc.view.backgroundColor = UIColor.white
        vc.title = "Custom Status Bar"
        self.window?.rootViewController = UINavigationController(rootViewController: vc)
        
        let statusBarBackgroundView = UIView()
        statusBarBackgroundView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
        statusBarBackgroundView.backgroundColor = UIColor(red: CGFloat(54.0/255.0),
                                                          green: CGFloat(120.0/255.0),
                                                          blue: CGFloat(181.0/255.0),
                                                          alpha: 1.0)
        self.window?.addSubview(statusBarBackgroundView)
        self.window?.addConstraints(
            NSLayoutConstraint.constraints(withVisualFormat: "V:|[b(20)]",
                                           options: NSLayoutFormatOptions(),
                                           metrics: nil,
                                           views: ["b" : statusBarBackgroundView]))
        self.window?.addConstraints(
            NSLayoutConstraint.constraints(withVisualFormat: "H:|[b]|",
                                           options: NSLayoutFormatOptions(),
                                           metrics: nil,
                                           views: ["b" : statusBarBackgroundView]))
        
        return true
    }
}