What's new in XCode/

What's New in Xcode 16

Xcode 16 introduces several new features and improvements aimed at enhancing the development experience across various stages of app development. Here are some of the key updates:

1. Code Completion:

   • Xcode 16 features a new code completion engine powered by a specialized coding model trained specifically for Swift and Apple SDKs. This engine uses surrounding code context to provide more accurate suggestions, helping developers move through their ideas faster. This is made possible by Apple silicon and is available when running Xcode 16 on macOS Sequoia.
   • What’s new in Xcode 16

2. Swift 6:

   • Swift 6 introduces a new language mode that provides concurrency safety guarantees, turning data races that would normally be runtime issues into compile-time issues, thereby improving code correctness and safety.
   • What’s new in Xcode 16

3. Xcode Previews:

   • Xcode Previews now use a new dynamic linking architecture that avoids rebuilding the project when switching between previews and builds, resulting in a smoother workflow. A new previewable macro allows the use of dynamic properties like state directly in previews.
   • Platforms State of the Union

4. Build Improvements:

   • Explicit modules are introduced, providing improved parallelism, better diagnostics, and faster debugging without changing any code. For C and Objective-C, explicit modules are enabled by default, while for Swift, developers need to opt-in.
   • What’s new in Xcode 16

5. Debugging Enhancements:

   • The thread performance checker now surfaces issues like main thread hangs and priority inversions as runtime issues, pinpointing the exact code causing the problem.
   • What’s new in Xcode 16

6. Organizer Updates:

   • The organizer now includes new diagnostics for app launches and disk writes, helping developers prioritize and fix issues that have the greatest impact on users.
   • What’s new in Xcode 16

7. Instruments and Flame Graphs:

   • Instruments now feature a flame graph for profiling data, providing a visual way to see call stacks and identify performance issues.
   • What’s new in Xcode 16

8. SwiftAssist:

   • SwiftAssist is a new tool that leverages a larger and more powerful model running in the cloud to assist with coding tasks, providing answers and suggestions to improve productivity.
   • Platforms State of the Union

For a comprehensive overview, you can watch the full session on What’s new in Xcode 16.