can I create a background thread in Swift?

Yes, you can create a background thread in Swift. Swift provides robust concurrency features that allow you to perform asynchronous operations, such as reading from the disk or messaging another service, without blocking the main thread. The fundamental unit of concurrency in Swift is a task, which represents an independent concurrent execution context. Tasks are lightweight, so you can create many of them.

To model task suspension in code, Swift uses the async and await syntax. A function that may suspend is marked with the async keyword, and when an async function is called, the await keyword is used to indicate that a suspension can occur on that line.

For example, you can use Swift's concurrency features to handle background operations efficiently:

func performBackgroundTask() async {
    // Perform some asynchronous operation
    await someAsyncFunction()
}

Additionally, Swift has a more convenient feature called actors, which are similar to classes but automatically protect their state by serializing accesses. This ensures that only a single task is allowed to execute at a time on an actor, making it easier to manage shared mutable state safely.

For more details on Swift's concurrency features, you can refer to the session A Swift Tour: Explore Swift’s features and design at WWDC 2024.