Making an animation to expand and shrink an UIView

You can nest some animation blocks together like so:

Objective-C:

[UIView animateWithDuration:1
                 animations:^{
                     yourView.transform = CGAffineTransformMakeScale(1.5, 1.5);
                 }
                 completion:^(BOOL finished) {
                     [UIView animateWithDuration:1
                                      animations:^{
                                          yourView.transform = CGAffineTransformIdentity;
                                          
                                      }];
                 }];

Swift 2:

UIView.animateWithDuration(1, animations: { () -> Void in
    yourView.transform = CGAffineTransformMakeScale(1.5, 1.5)
    }) { (finished: Bool) -> Void in
        UIView.animateWithDuration(1, animations: { () -> Void in
            yourView.transform = CGAffineTransformIdentity
        })}

Swift 3/4/5:

UIView.animate(withDuration: 1, animations: {
    yourView.transform = CGAffineTransform(scaleX: 1.5, y: 1.5)
}) { (finished) in
    UIView.animate(withDuration: 1, animations: { 
        yourView.transform = CGAffineTransform.identity
    })
}

and replacing the scale values and durations with your own.

Swift 5 UIView extension:

extension UIView {
    func pulse(withIntensity intensity: CGFloat, withDuration duration: Double, loop: Bool) {
        UIView.animate(withDuration: duration, delay: 0, options: [.repeat, .autoreverse], animations: {
            loop ? nil : UIView.setAnimationRepeatCount(1)
            self.transform = CGAffineTransform(scaleX: intensity, y: intensity)
        }) { (true) in
            self.transform = CGAffineTransform.identity
        }
    }
}

And then use the following:

yourView.pulse(withIntensity: 1.2, withDuration: 0.5, loop: true)

Just make sure you replace yourView with your own view.

Here is a smaller approach that also loops:

[UIView animateWithDuration:1
                      delay:0
                    options:UIViewKeyframeAnimationOptionAutoreverse | UIViewKeyframeAnimationOptionRepeat
                 animations:^{
                     yourView.transform = CGAffineTransformMakeScale(1.5, 1.5);
                 }
                 completion:nil];

The option UIViewKeyframeAnimationOptionRepeat is what makes it loop, if you don't want it to keep "breathing". The animation block acts as the "inhale" and the UIViewKeyframeAnimationOptionAutoreverse option automatically plays the "exhale" animation.