When Apple unveiled iPadOS 15 earlier this year at the annual Worldwide Developers Conference, there were a variety of new features announced. That included a pretty big update for support for Apple’s Swift Playgrounds app. Being able to build apps right from the company’s tablet lineup was good news at the time.
But it’s been a bit of wait since then. Even after iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 initially launched back in September, the app itself has needed to be updated to support the new feature. But, for the folks who have been waiting for this particular development, the wait is finally over. Swift Playgrounds version 4.0 is now available to download and install.
And, as you would expect, it’s a free update. Despite what’s packed into it.
First and foremost, the ability to develop apps using Swift, Apple’s development language, right on the iPad. This means you can build an app from scrap, and even launch it on the App Store, right form the iPad. No Mac required at all in the process.
This does require iPadOS 15.2 or newer, though, so keep that in mind. Apple released that software to the public earlier this week, and it’s available to download and install now.
Here’s the changelog for the rest of what’s new in Swift Playgrounds 4.0:
Swift Playgrounds 4.0 features:
• Build iPhone and iPad apps with SwiftUI 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 SwiftUI controls, symbols, and colors
• Swift Package support lets you include publicly-available code to enhance your apps
So, the wait is over and that’s great for developers who have been wanting to build apps via the iPad.
Swift Playgrounds 4.0 is available now. The corresponding Mac version of the app is also available.