What’s New in Xcode 14

Faster. Xcode 14 lets you get started faster than ever with a binary that’s 30% smaller than before.

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In the WWDC22, Apple announced a new version of Xcode. Xcode version numbered 14 has come with a lot of feature sets and a lot of improvements. There are some cool things about the source code editor and others. I’m going to share with you the news what you need.

Let’s dive into this topic.

Single Size App Icon

Single size app icon could be the best feature for developers.
You don’t need an App Icon Generator tool anymore. You can use a single 1024x1024 px App Icon asset for your app.

Not only that, it reduces your app size. You can check that. Make a 1024x1024 px App Icon asset, and then import it to the Xcode’s Assets and select the single size from the right sidebar of Xcode.

Once you export the IPA with a thinning setting for an iPhone model, you will see the difference between them.

Single Size App Icon

It shows how you can select a single-size app icon.

Single Size App Icon vs Multiple Size App Icon Results on App Size

The above screenshot is a single app archive result. It shows app sizes between single-size and multiple-size app icon selections.

Code Structure When Scrolling

Once I saw it I was surprised. I remembered the grouped table view style. I am sure about that. It is a valuable feature to show you where you are in the code editor while scrolling.

Code Structure When Scrolling

You can disable or enable it by the below setting.

Code Structure When Scrolling Setting

Also, you know the marks navigation that shows what you write with a mark label at the top of the code editor.

Pragma Marks

Memberwise Initializer Completion

In the previous version of Xcode, you need to click right to generate a memberwise initializer.

Xcode 14 provides it effortlessly. To create a memberwise initializer, you only need to write the init, and then you will see the rest of the initializer method.

Memberwise Initializer Completion

Code Completion

And there are more code completion improvements. These include more accuracy.

Code Completion Accuracy

Optional Unwrapping

One of the big progress I saw is that you don’t need to create an immutable variable by the if let set to check an optional variable.

Optional Unwrapping

Xcode Build Timeline

In the previous version of Xcode, we see build logs as a list as you see the below list on the left side. We also know which step is building and how much time it takes. Now, with Xcode 14, we can see these logs as a timeline.

Xcode 14 Build Timeline

Highlighted Other Features and Improvements in the Release Notes

• Simulator now supports remote notifications in iOS 16 when running in macOS 13 on Mac computers with Apple silicon or T2 processors.
• Xcode 14 can now compile targets in parallel with their Swift target dependencies.
• You can now enable sandboxing for shell script build phases using the ENABLE_USER_SCRIPT_SANDBOXING build setting.
• Xcode now provides RECOMMENDED_MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET, RECOMMENDED_IPHONEOS_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET, RECOMMENDED_TVOS_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET, RECOMMENDED_WATCHOS_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET, and RECOMMENDED_DRIVERKIT_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET build settings that indicate the recommended minimum deployment versions for each supported Xcode platform.
• Because bitcode is now deprecated, builds for iOS, tvOS, and watchOS no longer include bitcode by default.
• The Thread Performance Checker shows runtime performance issues in the Issue Navigator and the source editor while debugging an app.
• Interface Builder now updates scenes asynchronously.
• Wrapping code with an if statement now automatically reindents the block.

Don’t forget that Xcode 14 is still in beta progress.

Thanks for reading.

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