你可以在textview上设置一个标签。

MyUITextView.h

@interface MyUITextView : UITextView {
    UILabel* _placeholderLabel;
}

@property(nonatomic, assign)NSString *placeholder;

MyUITextView.m

@implementation MyUITextView

- (id)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame {
    if (self = [super initWithFrame:frame]) {
        // Create placeholder
        viewFrame = CGRectMake(0, 0, frame.size.width, 15);
        _placeholderLabel = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:viewFrame];
        _placeholderLabel.textColor = [UIColor lightGrayColor];
        [self addSubview:_placeholderLabel];

        // Add text changed notification 
        [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self selector:@selector(textChanged:) name:UITextViewTextDidChangeNotification object:nil];
    }
    return self;
}

- (void)setPlaceholder:(NSString *)placeholder {
    _placeholderLabel.text = placeholder;
}

- (NSString*)placeholder {
    return _placeholderLabel.text;
}

#pragma mark UITextViewTextDidChangeNotification

- (void)textChanged:(NSNotification *)notification {
    _placeholderLabel.hidden = ([self.text lenght] == 0);
}

@end

我建议使用SZTextView。

https://github.com/glaszig/SZTextView

从storyboard中添加默认的UITextView，然后将其自定义类更改为SZTextView，如下所示

然后您将在属性检查器中看到两个新选项

如果你正在寻找一个简单的方法来实现这一点，试试我的方法:

- (BOOL)textViewShouldBeginEditing:(UITextView *)textView
{
    if ([[textView text] isEqualToString:PLACE_HOLDER_TEXT]) {
          textView.text = @"";
          textView.textColor = [UIColor blackColor];
    }

    return YES;
}

-(BOOL)textViewShouldEndEditing:(UITextView *)textView
{
    if ([[textView text] length] == 0) {
        textView.text = PLACE_HOLDER_TEXT;
        textView.textColor = [UIColor lightGrayColor];
    }
    return YES;
}

是的，就是它PLACE_HOLDER_TEXT是一个NSString包含你的占位符

我刚刚发现，在iOS 10中，你现在可以将UITextView转换为方法的UITextField，并在方法中设置占位符。刚试过，它不需要子类化UITextView就能工作。

下面是一个对我有用的例子:

-(void)customizeTextField:(UITextField *)textField placeholder:(NSString *)pText withColor:(UIColor *)pTextColor{

        textField.attributedPlaceholder = [[NSAttributedString alloc]
                                          initWithString:pText
                                          attributes:@{NSForegroundColorAttributeName:pTextColor}];
    }

为了将它用于UITextView，你只需要将它传递给方法，使用像这样的类型转换:

[self customizeTextField:(UITextField*)_myTextView placeholder:@"Placeholder" withColor:[UIColor blackColor]];

注:经过测试，我发现这个解决方案在iOS9上也很好。但是会在iOS8.x上导致崩溃

一个更简单的方法是创建一个次要的UITextView，它具有与原始文本视图相同的所有属性，除了不同的textColor，并带有约束以确保它们保持对齐。然后当任何字符进入主文本视图时，隐藏克隆文本视图，否则显示带有一些文本的克隆文本视图。

这可以通过几种方式实现，但相对简单的方法是子类化UITextView并将所有这些逻辑保留在子类中。

所以，子类UITextView并允许它惰性地创建它的占位符视图

接口文件:

@interface FOOTextView : UITextView <UITextViewDelegate>

@property (nonatomic, copy) NSString *placeholderText;

- (void)checkPlaceholder;

@end

实现文件:

#import "FOOTextView.h"

@interface FOOTextView ()

@property (nonatomic, strong) UITextView *placeholderTextView;

@end

@implementation FOOTextView

- (void)checkPlaceholder {
    // Hide the placeholder text view if we've got any text
    self.placeholderTextView.hidden = (self.text.length > 0 || self.attributedText.length > 0);
}

- (void)setPlaceholderText:(NSString *)placeholderText {
    _placeholderText = [placeholderText copy];

    // Setup the placeholder text view if we haven't already
    [self setupPlaceholderTextView];

    // Apply the placeholder text to the placeholder text view
    self.placeholderTextView.text = placeholderText;
}

- (void)setupPlaceholderTextView {
    if (!self.placeholderTextView) {

        // Setup the place holder text view, duplicating our visual setup
        self.placeholderTextView = [[UITextView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectZero];
        self.placeholderTextView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = NO;
        self.placeholderTextView.textColor = self.placeholderTextColor ? self.placeholderTextColor : [UIColor colorWithRed:199.f/255.f green:199.f/255.f blue:205.f/255.f alpha:1.f];
        self.placeholderTextView.userInteractionEnabled = NO;
        self.placeholderTextView.font = self.font;
        self.placeholderTextView.textAlignment = self.textAlignment;
        self.placeholderTextView.backgroundColor = self.backgroundColor;
        self.placeholderTextView.editable = NO;

        // Our background color must be clear for the placeholder text view to show through
        self.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];

        // Insert the placeholder text view into our superview, below ourself so it shows through
        [self.superview insertSubview:self.placeholderTextView belowSubview:self];

        // Setup constraints to ensure the placeholder text view stays aligned with us
        NSLayoutConstraint *constraintCenterX = [NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem:self.placeholderTextView attribute:NSLayoutAttributeCenterX relatedBy:NSLayoutRelationEqual toItem:self attribute:NSLayoutAttributeCenterX multiplier:1.f constant:0.f];
        NSLayoutConstraint *constraintCenterY = [NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem:self.placeholderTextView attribute:NSLayoutAttributeCenterY relatedBy:NSLayoutRelationEqual toItem:self attribute:NSLayoutAttributeCenterY multiplier:1.f constant:0.f];
        NSLayoutConstraint *constraintWidth = [NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem:self.placeholderTextView attribute:NSLayoutAttributeWidth relatedBy:NSLayoutRelationEqual toItem:self attribute:NSLayoutAttributeWidth multiplier:1.f constant:0.f];
        NSLayoutConstraint *constraintHeight = [NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem:self.placeholderTextView attribute:NSLayoutAttributeHeight relatedBy:NSLayoutRelationEqual toItem:self attribute:NSLayoutAttributeHeight multiplier:1.f constant:0.f];
        NSArray *constraints = @[constraintCenterX, constraintCenterY, constraintWidth, constraintHeight];
        [self.superview addConstraints:constraints];

    }
}

- (void)setPlaceholderTextColor:(UIColor *)placeholderTextColor {
    _placeholderTextColor = placeholderTextColor;
    self.placeholderTextView.textColor = _placeholderTextColor;
}

- (void)setBackgroundColor:(UIColor *)backgroundColor {
    // We don't want a background color ourselves, instead we want our placeholder text view to have the desired background color
    [self.placeholderTextView setBackgroundColor:backgroundColor];
}

- (void)removeFromSuperview {
    // Ensure we also remove our placeholder text view
    [self.placeholderTextView removeFromSuperview];
    self.placeholderTextView = nil;
    [super removeFromSuperview];
}

#pragma mark - Text View Delegation 
- (void)textViewDidChange:(UITextView *)textView {
    [self checkPlaceholder];
}

@end

使用上面的类，如果你设置了一个FOOTextView的委托实例到它自己，一切都将开箱工作:

FOOTextView *myTextView = ...
myTextView.placeholderText = @"What's on your mind?";
myTextView.placeholderTextColor = [UIColor lightGrayColor];
myTextView.delegate = myTextView;

如果你想另一个对象接管作为委托，那么你只需要在textViewDidChange: delegate方法中调用文本视图的checkPlaceholder方法，例如;

FOOTextView *myTextView = ...
myTextView.placeholderText = @"What's on your mind?";
myTextView.placeholderTextColor = [UIColor lightGrayColor];
myTextView.delegate = self;
self.myTextView = myTextView;

- (void)textViewDidChange:(UITextView *)textView {
    // Call the checkPlaceholder method to update the visuals
    [self.myTextView checkPlaceholder];
}

在swift 5。工作很好。

class BaseTextView: UITextView {

    // MARK: - Views
    private var placeholderLabel: UIlabel!

    // MARK: - Init
    override init(frame: CGRect, textContainer: NSTextContainer?) {
        super.init(frame: frame, textContainer: textContainer)
        setupUI()
        startupSetup()
    }

    required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
        super.init(coder: aDecoder)
        setupUI()
        startupSetup()
    }

    deinit {
        NotificationCenter.default.removeObserver(self)
    }    
}

// MARK: - Setup UI
private extension BaseTextView {
    func setupUI() {
        addPlaceholderLabel()

        textColor = .textColor
    }

    func addPlaceholderLabel() {
        placeholderLabel = BaseLabel(frame: .zero)
        placeholderLabel.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
        insertSubview(placeholderLabel, at: 0)

        placeholderLabel.alpha = 0
        placeholderLabel.numberOfLines = 0
        placeholderLabel.backgroundColor = .clear
        placeholderLabel.textColor = .lightTextColor
        placeholderLabel.lineBreakMode = .byWordWrapping
        placeholderLabel.isUserInteractionEnabled = false
        placeholderLabel.font = UIFont.openSansSemibold.withSize(12)

        placeholderLabel.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: topAnchor, constant: 8).isActive = true
        placeholderLabel.leftAnchor.constraint(equalTo: leftAnchor, constant: 5).isActive = true
        placeholderLabel.rightAnchor.constraint(lessThanOrEqualTo: rightAnchor, constant: -8).isActive = true
        placeholderLabel.bottomAnchor.constraint(lessThanOrEqualTo: bottomAnchor, constant: -8).isActive = true
    }
}

// MARK: - Startup
private extension BaseTextView {
    func startupSetup() {
        addObservers()
        textChanged(nil)
        font = UIFont.openSansSemibold.withSize(12)
    }    

    func addObservers() {
        NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(self, selector: #selector(textChanged(_:)), name: UITextView.textDidChangeNotification, object: nil)
    }
}

// MARK: - Actions
private extension BaseTextView {
    @objc func textChanged(_ sender: Notification?) {
        UIView.animate(withDuration: 0.2) {
            self.placeholderLabel.alpha = self.text.count == 0 ? 1 : 0
        }    
    }
}

// MARK: - Public methods
extension BaseTextView {
    public func setPlaceholder(_ placeholder: String) {
        placeholderLabel.text = placeholder
    }
}