At WWDC 2024, Apple unveiled Swift Assist, an AI-powered coding companion designed to integrate seamlessly into Xcode 16. This tool is intended to help developers transform ideas into code more efficiently, focusing on higher-level problems by generating code from natural language prompts. Swift Assist utilizes a powerful model running in the cloud, ensuring it remains up-to-date with the latest software development kits (SDKs) and Swift language features. This allows for rapid testing of new frameworks and experimenting with innovative ideas by the programmers.
One of the biggest benefits of Swift Assist is that it can do a lot of various kinds of coding tasks. For instance, it can convert functions to async/await, insert maps with the user’s location, improve view accessibility, and so forth. Because the tool is integrated into Xcode, developers can access its functionality directly within their development environment, which is handy for creating and modifying code.
At WWDC, Apple demonstrated Swift Assist’s capability to build an app listing vintage Macs. From a fresh Xcode project, the tool was called to generate a struct for Mac models and a SwiftUI view with a list of Macs already populated. Further requests allowed Swift Assist to rework the code in place, adding images next to each Mac and changing the layout from a list to a grid.
Though there is buzz about Swift Assist, it has yet to come out. When it was initially announced to be released later this year 2024, its silence raised questions among developers. Apple has also not made any such announcements about potential delays or cancellations and the entire world is left wondering about its status. The fact that it has been absent in the last Xcode releases such as Xcode 16.3 beta 2 has raised more question marks.
The timing of the delay for Swift Assist is particularly noteworthy in light of Apple’s typical timeframe for announced developer tools at WWDC. Those tools typically are released by summer’s end following their announcement. With WWDC 2025 looming, there is growing fear that Swift Assist might be delayed to Xcode 17 or even scrapped in favor of integrating other AI tools like ChatGPT into Xcode.
Swift Assist’s non-appearance is further given credence by the current controversy surrounding Apple’s delayed personalized Siri features. This has been followed by increasingly intense scrutiny of Apple’s ability in bringing developer software tools and AI-enabled features to market. As the developers hold out for more information, Apple’s lack of answer has created doubt around the fate of Swift Assist and what this might mean for the development community.
At the same time, other tools in Xcode 16 are still being used by developers, such as predictive code completion, which runs on a developer’s local device. While this feature offers some coding support, it falls short of Swift Assist’s cloud-based AI features. As the community of developers waits with bated breath for WWDC 2025, there is hope that Apple will give some hints about what the future holds for Swift Assist and when it will integrate AI into developer tools.
