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pod 'UITextView+Placeholder'

pod 'UITextView+Placeholder'

在代码中

#import "UITextView+Placeholder.h"

////    

UITextView *textView = [[UITextView alloc] init];
textView.placeholder = @"How are you?";
textView.placeholderColor = [UIColor lightGrayColor];

在尝试了一些建议的方法后，我写了一个更清晰的实现，并将其发布到Github上。拉请求和问题是欢迎的。

与其他方法相比，这里提出了一些关键的改进:

不会在drawRect:中分配一个UILabel。(请不要这样做。) 不将文本视图的当前文本与所需的占位符进行比较以交换颜色。 当听写处于活动状态时隐藏占位符(如UITextField)。

模拟本机占位符

一个常见的抱怨是iOS没有为文本视图提供原生占位符功能。下面的UITextView扩展试图通过提供人们期望从本机特性获得的便利来解决这个问题，只需要一行代码就可以向textview实例添加占位符。

这个解决方案的缺点是，因为它菊花链委托调用，它很容易(不太可能)在iOS更新中更改UITextViewDelegate协议。具体来说，如果iOS添加了新的协议方法，并且你在带有占位符的文本视图的委托中实现了它们中的任何一个，这些方法将不会被调用，除非你也更新了扩展来转发这些调用。

或者，内联占位符的答案是一个坚如磐石的和简单的可以。

使用例子:

•如果获得占位符的文本视图没有使用UITextViewDelegate:

    /* Swift 3 */

    class NoteViewController : UIViewController {
        @IBOutlet weak var noteView: UITextView!
        override func viewDidLoad() {
            noteView.addPlaceholder("Enter some text...",  color: UIColor.lightGray)
        }
    }

                                            -- 或者——

•如果获得占位符的文本视图使用了UITextViewDelegate:

    /* Swift 3 */

    class NoteViewController : UIViewController, UITextViewDelegate {
        @IBOutlet weak var noteView: UITextView!
        override func viewDidLoad() {
            noteView.addPlaceholder("Phone #", color: UIColor.lightGray, delegate: self)
        }
    }

实现(UITextView扩展):

/* Swift 3 */

extension UITextView: UITextViewDelegate
{

    func addPlaceholder(_ placeholderText : String, 
                      color : UIColor? = UIColor.lightGray,
                      delegate : UITextViewDelegate? = nil) {

        self.delegate = self             // Make receiving textview instance a delegate
        let placeholder = UITextView()   // Need delegate storage ULabel doesn't provide
        placeholder.isUserInteractionEnabled = false  //... so we *simulate* UILabel
        self.addSubview(placeholder)     // Add to text view instance's view tree               
        placeholder.sizeToFit()          // Constrain to fit inside parent text view
        placeholder.tintColor = UIColor.clear // Unused in textviews. Can host our 'tag'
        placeholder.frame.origin = CGPoint(x: 5, y: 0) // Don't cover I-beam cursor
        placeholder.delegate = delegate  // Use as cache for caller's delegate 
        placeholder.font = UIFont.italicSystemFont(ofSize: (self.font?.pointSize)!)
        placeholder.text = placeholderText
        placeholder.textColor = color
    }

      
    func findPlaceholder() -> UITextView? { // find placeholder by its tag 
        for subview in self.subviews {
            if let textview = subview as? UITextView {
                if textview.tintColor == UIColor.clear { // sneaky tagging scheme
                    return textview
                }
            }
        }
        return nil
    }
     
    /* 
     * Safely daisychain to caller delegate methods as appropriate...
     */

    public func textViewDidChange(_ textView: UITextView) { // ←  need this delegate method
        if let placeholder = findPlaceholder() {
            placeholder.isHidden = !self.text.isEmpty // ← ... to do this
            placeholder.delegate?.textViewDidChange?(textView)
        } 
    }

    /* 
     * Since we're becoming a delegate on behalf of this placeholder-enabled
     * text view instance, we must forward *all* that protocol's activity expected
     * by the instance, not just the particular optional protocol method we need to
     * intercept, above.
     */

    public func textViewDidEndEditing(_ textView: UITextView) {
        if let placeholder = findPlaceholder() {
            placeholder.delegate?.textViewDidEndEditing?(textView)
        } 
    }

    public func textViewDidBeginEditing(_ textView: UITextView) {
        if let placeholder = findPlaceholder() {
            placeholder.delegate?.textViewDidBeginEditing?(textView)
        } 
    }

    public  func textViewDidChangeSelection(_ textView: UITextView) {
        if let placeholder = findPlaceholder() {
            placeholder.delegate?.textViewDidChangeSelection?(textView)
        } 
    }

    public func textViewShouldEndEditing(_ textView: UITextView) -> Bool {
        if let placeholder = findPlaceholder() {
            guard let retval = placeholder.delegate?.textViewShouldEndEditing?(textView) else {
                return true
            }
            return retval
        }
        return true
    }

    public func textViewShouldBeginEditing(_ textView: UITextView) -> Bool {
        if let placeholder = findPlaceholder() {
            guard let retval = placeholder.delegate?.textViewShouldBeginEditing?(textView) else {
                return true
            }
            return retval
        } 
        return true
    }

    public func textView(_ textView: UITextView, shouldChangeTextIn range: NSRange, replacementText text: String) -> Bool {
        if let placeholder = findPlaceholder() {
            guard let retval = placeholder.delegate?.textView?(textView, shouldChangeTextIn: range, replacementText: text) else {
                return true
            }
            return retval
        } 
        return true
    }

    public func textView(_ textView: UITextView, shouldInteractWith URL: URL, in characterRange: NSRange, interaction: UITextItemInteraction) -> Bool {
        if let placeholder = findPlaceholder() {
                guard let retval = placeholder.delegate?.textView?(textView, shouldInteractWith: URL, in: characterRange, interaction:
                    interaction) else {
                        return true
            }
            return retval
        }
        return true
    }

    public func textView(_ textView: UITextView, shouldInteractWith textAttachment: NSTextAttachment, in characterRange: NSRange, interaction: UITextItemInteraction) -> Bool {
        if let placeholder = findPlaceholder() {
            guard let retval = placeholder.delegate?.textView?(textView, shouldInteractWith: textAttachment, in: characterRange, interaction: interaction) else {
                return true
            }
            return retval
        }
        return true
    }
}

1. 作为一个像UITextView这样的基本iOS类的扩展，重要的是要知道这段代码没有与任何不激活占位符的textview交互，例如textview实例没有被调用addPlaceholder()初始化

2. 支持占位符的文本视图透明地变成一个UITextViewDelegate来跟踪字符计数，以控制占位符可见性。如果一个委托被传递给addPlaceholder()，这段代码会将委托回调给该委托。

3.作者正在研究如何检查UITextViewDelegate协议并自动代理它，而不必硬编码每个方法。这将使代码免受方法签名更改和添加到协议中的新方法的影响。

这里有一个更简单的解决方案，它的行为完全像UITextField的占位符，但不需要绘制自定义视图，或辞职第一响应器。

- (void) textViewDidChange:(UITextView *)textView{

    if (textView.text.length == 0){
        textView.textColor = [UIColor lightGrayColor];
        textView.text = placeholderText;
        [textView setSelectedRange:NSMakeRange(0, 0)];
        isPlaceholder = YES;

    } else if (isPlaceholder && ![textView.text isEqualToString:placeholderText]) {
        textView.text = [textView.text substringToIndex:1];
        textView.textColor = [UIColor blackColor];
        isPlaceholder = NO;
    }

}

(else if语句中的第二个检查是针对没有输入任何内容且用户按下退格键的情况)

只需要将你的类设置为UITextViewDelegate。在viewDidLoad中，你应该这样初始化

- (void) viewDidLoad{
    // initialize placeholder text
    placeholderText = @"some placeholder";
    isPlaceholder = YES;
    self.someTextView.text = placeholderText;
    self.someTextView.textColor = [UIColor lightGrayColor];
    [self.someTextView setSelectedRange:NSMakeRange(0, 0)];

    // assign UITextViewDelegate
    self.someTextView.delegate = self;
}

你能做的是在文本属性中设置文本视图的初始值，并将textColor更改为[UIColor grayColor]或类似的东西。然后，每当文本视图变为可编辑时，清除文本并显示游标，如果文本字段再次为空，则将占位符文本放回。根据需要将颜色更改为[UIColor blackColor]。

它与UITextField中的占位符功能不完全相同，但很接近。