Mobile Overview

Build iOS and Android apps from the same Go codebase as your desktop app

Wails v3 runs on iOS and Android using the same main.go and frontend you already write for desktop. There is no separate mobile project, no code-sharing bridge, and no rewrite: the Go binary is compiled for the mobile target and a native WebView renders your existing frontend.

See it running: Kitchen Sink example

The best way to understand what’s possible is to look at the Kitchen Sink — a single Wails app that runs identically on iOS, Android and desktop from one codebase:

To run it yourself:

git clone https://github.com/wailsapp/wails.git
cd wails/v3/examples/mobile

wails3 task ios:run        # iOS Simulator (macOS + Xcode required)
wails3 task android:run    # Android Emulator
wails3 task run            # Desktop

How it works

The same application model applies on every platform:

1. Go backend — your services, event handlers and application logic compile unchanged for GOOS=ios and GOOS=android.
2. Frontend — the exact same HTML/JS/CSS. The @wailsio/runtime package works identically; service bindings, events, dialogs and the clipboard all route through the same in-process transport.
3. WebView host — on iOS a WKWebView inside a UIViewController; on Android a WebView inside an Activity. Wails wires up the message bridge automatically.
4. In-process asset serving — assets are served directly from Go memory, not a localhost server. No open ports, no loopback, no extra latency.

Platform-specific behaviour lives in files guarded by //go:build ios or //go:build android, keeping your shared code clean.

Prerequisites at a glance

What’s supported

Both platforms share the same core feature set:

Build tag rules

Two important rules to know when writing platform-conditional code:

• ios implies darwin — a file tagged //go:build darwin will also compile for iOS. To target macOS-only, use //go:build darwin && !ios.
• android implies linux — a file tagged //go:build linux will also compile for Android. To target desktop-Linux-only, use //go:build linux && !android.

At runtime, runtime.GOOS returns "ios" and "android" respectively.

Runtime platform detection

Build tags are for code that can only compile on a given platform. For ordinary
branching in shared code, use application.System — it’s available in every build
(no build tags needed) so the same file works everywhere:

import "github.com/wailsapp/wails/v3/pkg/application"

if application.System.IsMobile() {
    // iOS or Android
} else if application.System.IsDesktop() {
    // macOS, Windows or Linux
}

// Or test a single target directly:
if application.System.IsPlatform(application.PlatformIOS) {
    // iOS only
}

Available: IsMobile(), IsDesktop(), IsServer() (the server build tag), and
IsPlatform(application.PlatformMacOS | PlatformWindows | PlatformLinux | PlatformIOS | PlatformAndroid | PlatformServer).

The frontend has the matching helpers in @wailsio/runtime:

import { System } from "@wailsio/runtime";

if (System.IsMobile()) { /* iOS or Android */ }
if (System.IsIOS()) { /* … */ }      // also IsAndroid, IsMac, IsWindows, IsLinux, IsDesktop

Next steps