Swift Assist: Apple's AI tool for programming is still missing today

Compared to voice assistant Siri, it is a niche, but Apple is still owed to another large AI tool of his announcements in June 2024. The developer tool Swift Assist should make it easy to develop 16 prototypes of apps in the XCode programming environment and to experiment with the latest software development kits from Apple – until today, in March 2025, there is no trace of it.

In contrast to the large voice models from Openai, Google and Anthropic, Apple's Swift Assist should score with two features according to the iPhone manufacturer: One is Apple's knowledge advantage in his own programming language and design with SwiftUi. Apple promisedto incorporate all of his know-how, which other LLMs that feed from sources on the net could not.

To date, there is no trace

The second point, which, according to his idea of ​​developers, met with love was the data protection promise. Inputs from the users-and thus also their ideas for apps-would not be used to train machine learning models and also not saved on servers, Apple promised. Here the same rigid data protection approach should apply as with the rest of Apple Intelligence.

According to the videos shown by Apple, the Swift Assist should be able to be used via an input line in the lower area of ​​Xcode. Developers can formulate their wishes there and the AI ​​implements them directly in the code.

Unlike the completion of code, Swift Assist has not yet found its way into Xcode, although the software is already at version 16.3. So far there is no signs that the function that the far-reaching AI skills than many other tools in the Apple Intelligence could come shortly.

Developer questions about

Developers in Apple's support forums show little understanding of the postponement. One criticizes that code-completion alone is a joke compared to the possibilities that Microsoft now offers with his AI tool Copilot. Another complains that other LLMs could not really help with SwiftUi problems and Apple is the only company to have the data to improve the situation for developers.

In his developer keynote at the developer conference WWDC 2024, The Platforms State of the UnionApple dedicated a segment of several minutes to the Swift Assist function. If there is no sign of life with regard to the AI ​​tool up to the next developer conference, which is expected to take place next June, this should certainly provide some demand from developers.