After the release of iPadOS 15.2, Apple is finally releasing the long-awaited update to Swift Playgrounds with the ability to create apps using the iPad.
Swift Playgrounds 4 was announced back in June at WWDC 2021. The app helps developers and students learn the company’s Swift programming language, and the new version lets developers build and submit apps to the App Store directly from an iPad.
Last month, 9to5Mac showed a first look at the app with some exclusive screenshots of the app running on iPadOS 15.2. Now, it’s finally out for any user to try.
For those unfamiliar, Swift Playgrounds is an Apple app to help developers and students learn the company’s Swift programming language. Here’s how Apple describes the app:
Swift Playgrounds is a great way to learn to code right on a Mac or iPad. With Swift Playgrounds 4, coming later this year, users will be able to create the visual design of an app with SwiftUI. App projects can be opened and edited in the app or in Xcode, and when they’re ready, users can build a real app and submit it directly to the App Store right from their iPad.
Although before WWDC21 users were expecting a proper Xcode application for the M1 iPad Pro, Apple surprised its customers with the Swift Playgrounds 4 announcement.
This update also lets users preview and see changes in real-time as they type. Live editing also works when the developer shares the project with someone else via iCloud Drive, so multiple people can work on the same project at the same time. Users can even test the app on full screen, explore SwiftUI controls, search across all files in a project, use quick inline code suggestions, and easily switch between Swift Playgrounds and Xcode (or vice-versa).
You can download or update Swift Playgrounds for your iPad here. Just make sure you’re already running iPadOS 15.2.
Here are the full release notes of the update on the iPad:
- Build iPhone and iPad apps with SwiftUl right on your iPad (requires iPadOS 15.2 or later)
- App Store Connect integration lets you upload your finished app to the App Store
- App Preview shows live updates as you make changes to your app
- Full-screen preview lets you see your app edge-to-edge
- Smart, inline code suggestions help you write code quickly and accurately
- App Projects make it easy to move projects to Xcode and back
- Project-wide search finds results across multiple files
- Snippets Library provides hundreds of SwiftUl controls, symbols, and colors
- Swift Package support lets you include publicly-available code to enhance your apps.
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