The iOS Weekly Brief – Issue #18
Dive into Swift Concurrency upgrades, hidden traps in Core Data migrations, and a behind-the-scenes look at how Xcode talks to ChatGPT.
🆕 What’s New
Updated age ratings in App Store Connect
Apple introduced more granular age ratings (now including 13+, 16+, and 18+) and a new questionnaire to better reflect sensitive content, in-app controls, wellness topics, and violent themes. All apps must answer the updated questions by January 31, 2026, or risk submission interruptions in App Store Connect.
📚 Must Read
Approachable Concurrency in Swift Packages
Xcode 26 ships with Swift 6.2 and introduces Approachable Concurrency, a simpler way to adopt Swift Concurrency by assuming main-thread-first execution. You can enable it in existing projects via build settings or in Swift Packages using .defaultIsolation(MainActor.self) and two new feature flags.
Threads vs. Tasks in Swift Concurrency
Still thinking every Task runs on its own thread? Think again. This deep dive into Swift Concurrency breaks down how Tasks work under the hood—and why Swift’s cooperative thread pool outperforms GCD while avoiding thread explosion. A must-read if you're still in a threading mindset.
Core Data Migration Incident Analysis
A white screen on app launch. Loyal users are locked out. A Core Data migration gone wrong, caused by subtle WAL config changes and a main-thread bottleneck. If you work with Core Data at scale, this deep dive reveals pitfalls you’ll want to avoid and a practical fix that brought users back online.
🛠️ Toolbox
iOS and iPadOS 26 design kits
Apple just released the official iOS and iPadOS 26 design kits for Figma and Sketch. If you're updating your design system, now's the time to grab the latest Apple Design Resources.
🍬 One More Thing…
ChatGPT in Xcode 26: there’s a hidden prompt!
Turns out Xcode 26 injects a hidden system prompt every time you chat with ChatGPT, and you can intercept it. Vincent Pradeilles demonstrates how to reveal the prompt using a custom model endpoint and Proxyman, providing insight into how Apple guides ChatGPT’s responses within Xcode.
🗳️ Weekly Poll
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November
👋 That’s it for this week
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Until next Friday — keep shipping 🍏