Florian

A screenshot of Xcode showing how canceled tasks look like

With Xcode 26.4 and Swift 6.3, there is finally an equivalent to XCTSkip in Swift Testing: Test.cancel(). A canceled task is not treated as a failure and is marked with a simple gray skip icon in Xcode.

#iOSDev

A screenshot of the subreddit's helpful links

My website exploreswiftui.com was added to the helpful links in the r/iOSProgramming subreddit 🥺
What an honor! I regularly add new SwiftUI content and I'm always open to suggestions.

#iOSDev #SwiftUI

TIL: You can rename the cases of your AppEnum without breaking existing configurations as long as the raw value stays the same. For example, renaming case1 to caseOne = "case1" works because the raw representation remains unchanged.

#iOSDev

ConcentricRectangle - SwiftUI Components A shape that is replaced by a concentric version of the current container shape. If the container shape is a rectangle derived shape with four corners, this shape could choose to respect corners indiv...

I may be a bit late to the party, but here are finally two examples of ConcentricRectangle, introduced with the OS 26 releases. It’s somewhat a smarter version of ContainerRelativeShape.

exploreswiftui.com/library/conc...

#SwiftUI #iOSDev

Only 48 hours remain until the end of this year's Swift Student Challenge. Take this time to thoroughly test your app, and avoid last-minute submissions. If you've already submitted and discovered a critical bug, you can still withdraw your app and resubmit.

An image showing that LabeledContent and TextField can't easily be initialized using localized symbols, while there is an easy workaround available.

Currently exploring localizable symbols introduced in Xcode 26 and I love it. However, one thing I don’t understand: why are some initializers marked 26+ while others aren’t? If String(localized:) can be used anyway, why is 26+ required? Can someone help me out?

#iOSDev #SwiftUI

A personal example: I have an App Entity instance named “nginx”. Even though it’s clearly defined, Siri never resolves it or selects it from the available items. I hope the new Siri will simply choose the most plausible match from the finite list.

I'm preparing a deep dive for when the first new Siri beta arrives, including a benchmark of its text understanding for App Intents, Entities & Enums. If you’ve seen cases where Siri struggles with your app’s phrases or parameters, I’d be interested to hear about them.

#iOSDev

Screenshot showing LabeledContent first and .badge second in a macOS list.

If you’re wondering about the difference between .badge and LabeledContent in a List: on iOS there’s hardly any visible difference, except the badge appears slightly darker. On macOS, the badge value is smaller than the LabeledContent value.

LabeledContent - SwiftUI Components A container for attaching a label to a value-bearing view. Explore 3 SwiftUI labeledcontent components with code examples.

Have you ever heard of LabeledContent? This element powers popular controls like pickers, steppers, and toggles. It lets you associate a value with a label, especially useful in lists. Explore its usage and variants here:
exploreswiftui.com/library/labe...

#iOSDev #SwiftUI

Hopefully, this will get fixed with the new Siri in the next few weeks. 🫡 I also have this issue with my AppEnums and App entities, where I can't add alternative names for queried content (Docker containers…).

I just released WhaleDeck 3, which makes Docker management and monitoring a joy.

In case you aren’t familiar, Docker enables you to run apps and services in isolated containers on your computer or server.

#iOSDev #indiedev #docker

And now that you made it this far: best of luck! There is nothing to lose.

Before you submit your app: test that your zipped app is smaller than 25 mb and actually runs in your preferred environment. My app last year wouldn't compile on my iPad in the Playground app after doing most of the coding in Xcode on the Mac.

Once you are done with your app, the last thing you have to do is create a few screenshots and fill out the form on Apple's website. Take your time with the form. Your responses contribute to the grading! Check the full Terms and Conditions: developer.apple.com/swift-studen...

My two cents regarding AI usage: Use it as a helpful tool when you're stuck on small technical challenges, but don't let it do the creative work for you. Don't submit vibe-coded AI slop in fairness to other students and the judges.

Don't spend too much time on making your code as pretty and readable as possible. To my knowledge, it does not affect the judging. Rather spend time testing on multiple devices, if available, and get feedback from family and friends.

If you are bad at design or simply don't want to spend the time on a custom one, which is totally fine, you may want to check out my free website exploreswiftui.com. It lets you find the code for all kinds of native SwiftUI elements and modifiers to build your UI.

On the coding side, take a look at "Develop in Swift": developer.apple.com/tutorials/de... and "Pathways": developer.apple.com/pathways/ by Apple. I can also highly recommend "100 Days of Swift" and all other tutorials by @twostraws.bsky.social , often available as text and videos.

To get started, take a look at this video by Apple: developer.apple.com/videos/play/... It should give you a good kickstart.

As the Playground app doesn't support 26 SDKs, you won't be able to use stuff like Liquid Glass and Foundation Models if you expect your app to be run on a real iPad. If your app can be judged in the simulator, you should be good to go.

Your app has to be an app playground (.swiftpm), work offline, and it will either be tested on an Apple Intelligence compatible iPad with an Apple Pencil available, or on Mac via Xcode in an iOS simulator.

To be eligible, you cannot be employed as a full-time dev, must be at least 13-16 years old (depending on your country) and enrolled as a student or have been shortly before. More here: developer.apple.com/swift-studen...

A simple calculator app probably won't cut it, but explaining in a fun, engaging way how to calculate by hand might. Get inspiration from past winners here: www.wwdcscholars.com

Be seriously creative! You don't need the most sophisticated app, using the most frameworks, with the most features and the most polished design. Try to tell a simple, short story that solves any kind of problem.

This year's topic is, as in previous years, "Create an interactive scene in an app playground that can be experienced within three minutes. Be creative."

Today opened the submission for this year's #SwiftStudentChallenge for three weeks.As a two-time winner, I can highly recommend it and got to know a few nice people along the way.

Here is the most important stuff you need (to know) from start to finish ⬇️

Meet agentic coding in Xcode - Tech Talks - Videos - Apple Developer Discover how Xcode 26.3 seamlessly integrates coding agents like OpenAI Codex and Claude Agent to work together on complex, multi-step...

If you want to learn more about the new agentic coding features in Xcode 26.3, here’s a short tech talk by Apple:
developer.apple.com/videos/play/...

#iOSDev #SwiftUI

Sheet - SwiftUI Components A modal Explore 11 SwiftUI sheet components with code examples.

🚨 Wake up! Eleven new examples, all about sheets, just dropped on Explore SwiftUI. Screenshots for different designs and devices are available to cover the edge cases.
Start exploring here:
exploreswiftui.com/library/sheet

#iOSDev #SwiftUI

Just a quick word of warning if you’re developing something for this year’s #SwiftStudentChallenge: don’t import assets via Xcode if you expect your app to run in the Playground/on a real iPad. They use different asset formats. I learned this the hard way last year!