Brief Summary
This presentation highlights the latest enhancements in Xcode 26, focusing on optimizations, workspace and editing improvements, code intelligence features, debugging and performance enhancements, build system updates, and testing advancements. Key updates include a smaller Xcode download size, improved text input and workspace loading performance, enhanced source editor with intuitive tabs and powerful search, Voice Control for Swift coding, and the new Playground macro for code iteration. The presentation also covers Icon Composer for creating multi-layered icons, String Catalogs for easier localization, and Xcode's integration with large language models for coding assistance. Additionally, it introduces debugging improvements for Swift concurrency, new Instruments for CPU and SwiftUI performance analysis, and enhanced UI testing with improved code generation.
- Xcode 26 introduces a range of optimizations, including a smaller download size and improved performance.
- The source editor has been enhanced with intuitive tabs, powerful search, and Voice Control for Swift coding.
- Xcode now integrates with large language models for coding assistance and offers debugging improvements for Swift concurrency.
- New Instruments provide detailed CPU and SwiftUI performance analysis, while UI testing features improved code generation and device support.
Introduction
Eliza and Chris introduce the new features and improvements in Xcode designed to support app development. They outline the topics to be covered, including optimizations, workspace and source editor enhancements, code intelligence features, debugging and performance improvements, build system updates, and testing advancements. The goal is to help developers create great apps more efficiently.
Optimizations
Xcode has been optimized to be 24% smaller, achieving a download size smaller than Xcode 6 from 2014. Simulator runtimes no longer include Intel support by default, and the Metal toolchain is only downloaded when needed. Text input latency in complex expressions has been reduced by up to 50%, and workspace loading performance is now 40% faster, significantly improving the experience for large projects.
Workspace and editing
The source editor in Xcode has been enhanced with improved editor tabs that function more intuitively, similar to Safari, including a start page and the ability to pin tabs. A new "Multiple Words search" mode uses search engine techniques to find clusters of words in the project, even across multiple lines and in any order. Accessibility has been improved with Voice Control, allowing developers to write Swift code using natural spoken language, which understands Swift syntax and automatically handles spacing and casing.
Intelligence
Xcode now integrates large language models like ChatGPT to provide coding assistance, answering general Swift questions and offering project-specific help. A lighter-weight menu provides quick access to common actions and custom queries for selected code. The coding assistant can explain unfamiliar code, add features, and fix issues, with the ability to review and revert changes. Users can configure multiple model providers, including local models, and switch between them easily.
Debugging and performance
Debugging Swift concurrency code has been improved with Xcode now following execution into asynchronous functions and displaying task IDs. The debugger UI shows easy-to-read representations of concurrency types like Tasks and actors. Xcode now understands when an app stops due to a missing "usage description" for private resources and provides an "Add" button to navigate to the Signing & Capabilities editor. Instruments has been updated with Processor Trace, which captures every low-level branching decision the CPU makes, and CPU Counters, which uses preset modes to guide microarchitecture optimizations.
Builds
Explicitly Built Modules are now enabled for Swift code by default, improving build efficiency and debugging speed. Swift Build, a build engine used by Xcode and Swift Playground, has been open-sourced and is being integrated into Swift Package Manager, with support for multiple platforms. The Enhanced Security capability provides apps with the same protections used in Apple’s apps, such as pointer authentication, and is recommended for applications with a significant attack surface.
Testing
UI testing in Xcode has been significantly upgraded with a new code generation system for UI automation recording. Developers can record interactions in the app, and Xcode generates concise test code. The same code generation is integrated into the test report’s Automation Explorer, which provides a video recording of the test and allows developers to inspect elements and copy code snippets to fix issues. Xcode also has better device support for automated hardware interactions. Additionally, XCTHitchMetric has been added to the "measure" API to catch hitches in the app during testing, and Runtime API Checks have been expanded to surface framework runtime issues and threading problems.
Wrap-up
Xcode 26 offers numerous new features to enhance efficiency, guide feature development, and support more platforms and languages. It provides tools for debugging, performance inspection, and UI testing. Developers are encouraged to download Xcode 26, use Xcode Cloud for testing and distribution, and engage in the Developer Forums for questions and further learning.
