Those Who Swift - Issue 260
Weekly note ✏️Apple quietly released a significant update to App Store analytics this week, and it deserves attention. The platform now offers deeper insights into user acquisition, engagement, and monetization. Developers can better understand how users discover their apps, what drives downloads, and how different channels contribute to growth. This update brings features that were previously available mostly through paid analytics tools. For many teams, especially indie developers, this is a major step forward. What used to be a relatively basic stats platform is evolving into a much more advanced analytics environment. It allows developers to make more informed decisions about marketing, product improvements, and revenue strategies without relying heavily on third-party services. Apple is also encouraging developers to take advantage of these insights to improve conversion rates, refine product pages, and better align their apps with user expectations. Combined with other App Store tools, this creates a more complete ecosystem for growth and optimization. At the same time, congratulations are in order for the Swift Student Challenge winners. The distinguished winners this year showcased impressive creativity and technical skill, building projects that reflect both innovation and strong understanding of Apple technologies. It’s always inspiring to see how the next generation approaches problem-solving and design. Connect with the "Those Who Swift" team - Justas Markus & Anton Gubarenko 👋
Forget about Ruby and Fastlane installation issues!Discover Codemagic CLI tools — the free, open-source Fastlane alternative for automating iOS builds, code signing and publishing. Swift Around the Web 🌐What’s New In Swift: March 2026 EditionOwen Voorhees and Dave Lester round up a strong month for Swift, led by Swift 6.3 and steady progress toward making Swift Build the future default in Swift Package Manager. The most useful part is the compact mix of signals in one place: release notes, community highlights, concurrency and systems videos, and fresh Swift Evolution proposals worth tracking. Thread Vs Queue Vs Actor Executor In Swift: Interview EssentialsArtem Mirzabekian clearly separates three terms that are often mixed together in concurrency discussions: threads execute code, queues schedule work, and actor executors preserve isolation. It is also a nice start to his new interview preparation series, with practical explanations around Coding 👨💻SwiftUI Coordinator Pattern: Navigation Without NavigationLinkWesley Matlock shows how a coordinator can centralize pushes, sheets, tab switches, and deep links so SwiftUI views only declare destinations instead of owning navigation logic. The most useful idea is the split between lightweight external deep links and richer in-app routes, which keeps navigation easier to test, refactor, and scale. SwiftUI: Charts Axis ScaleArticle explains SwiftUI View Lifecycle: When onAppear Actually FiresKarin Prater explains the mental model that clears up most onAppear confusion: it tracks visibility, not view creation, so it can fire many times while @State still survives. The most useful part is the behavior breakdown across TabView, NavigationStack, and lazy containers, especially the reminder that the same code can behave differently between iOS 17 and iOS 18+. Apple 🍏New In-App Purchase And Subscription Data Now Available In AnalyticsApple says App Store Connect Analytics just received its biggest update yet, adding more than 100 new metrics, monetization and subscription data, cohort analysis, and new peer group benchmarks. The most useful part for teams is that subscription reports can now be exported through the Analytics Reports API, making it easier to plug App Store data into internal dashboards and offline analysis. App Store Adds Regulated Medical Device Status For Health AppsApple Developer Relations says apps distributed in the EEA, UK, or U.S. that fall under Health & Fitness or Medical categories, or reference medical or treatment information, may now need a regulated medical device status in App Store Connect. This status is already required for new qualifying apps, and existing apps must provide it by early 2027 to keep submitting updates. Brazil App Store Age Ratings Update To A6 For Some AppsApple says that starting March 30, 2026, some apps on the Brazil storefront will automatically move to the A6 age rating on devices running Apple’s 26-era platforms. The change applies to apps with descriptors like user-generated content, infrequent cartoon or fantasy violence, or infrequent contests, and does not affect ratings in other regions. Other cool stuff 🧰The Indie Path: My 5-Layer FrameworkAndrei Ilnitskii talks about the massive surge of new apps in the App Store. As the flood of junk keeps rising, he helps answer the questions many people who are just starting out have:
CI/CD Build Speed Benchmark: Codemagic Vs GitHub Actions Vs BitriseMasaki Sato compares the same iOS Flutter build across GitHub Actions, Bitrise, and Codemagic, showing how much machine specs change both speed and cost. The clearest takeaway is that GitHub Actions stays attractive for low-volume teams, while Bitrise and Codemagic cut build times by more than half in this benchmark. Top 10 Developer Tools Apple Introduced At WWDC25An almost one-year-old post by Cihat Gündüz, but still a very good refresher if you want one practical list of Apple developer tools worth revisiting after last year’s announcements. From Foundation Models and Xcode AI workflows to AlarmKit, SwiftUI WebView, App Store Connect analytics, and String Catalog improvements. AI 🤖OpenAI: Build For iOS And macOSOpenAI shows how Codex can help native Apple platform work across SwiftUI, UIKit, AppKit, testing, and migration tasks, with examples like fixing Auto Layout issues, adding features, and reviewing pull requests. The practical value is the workflow angle: Codex is presented less as a code generator and more as a teammate for large codebases, refactors, and platform-specific app maintenance. Tutorials 📒Animatable In SwiftUI Explained - Complete Guide With Examples & Deep DiveSagar Unagar explains that SwiftUI does not animate views directly, it animates data through animatableData, which is why custom motion depends on exposing values SwiftUI can interpolate. The most useful part is the progression from single-value animation to AnimatablePair and custom VectorArithmetic, showing how to animate richer shapes and data-driven visuals without relying on view-level tricks. Video 🎥Don’t Make This Mistake With A Spacer In SwiftUIVincent Pradeilles highlights a common SwiftUI layout mistake: using Spacer in places where it quietly breaks alignment or creates more flexible space than you intended. iOS Agent Skills, App Store Connect CLI, Foundation Models Tokens & MoreSean Allen’s latest Swift News episode pulls together several current Apple dev topics, including iOS agent skills, the App Store Connect CLI, and Foundation Models token work. I could not access the full video page content, so this summary is based only on the verified title and public snippets. Thanks for reading Those Who Swift! Subscribe for free to receive new posts.
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