Question

This question has always bothered me. Why do people sometimes present view controllers as modal view controllers? Can’t you always just push a view controller onto the navigation controller and pop it later? It seems way more straightforward and consistent. I’ve seen people using the two interchangeably and it just ends up driving me nuts.

Are there any specific cases where it would be better to present a view controller as a modal view controller?

Answer 1

Apple’s View Controller Programming Guide describes its uses well.

Modal view controllers provide interesting ways to manage the flow of
your application. Most commonly, applications use modal view
controllers as a temporary interruption in order to obtain key
information from the user.

And

There are several reasons to use modal view controllers in your
application:

• Use them to gather information from the user immediately.
• Use them to present some content temporarily.
• Use them to change work modes temporarily.
• Use them to implement alternate interfaces for different device
  orientations.
• Use them to present a new view hierarchy with a specific type of
  animated transition (or no transition).