The iOS Weekly Brief – Issue #6
From App Store shake-ups to hidden SwiftUI pitfalls, async DI tricks, and real-world tools like WhisperKit
🆕 What’s New
A judge just blew up Apple’s control of the App Store
A federal judge has ruled that Apple can no longer charge fees or restrict developers from guiding users to make purchases outside of their apps. This decision limits Apple’s control over the App Store and could significantly impact how in-app purchases work going forward.
This could reshape how apps monetize on AppStore. Definitely a big moment.
Updated guidelines from Apple:
📚 Must Read
Handling App Lifecycle In SwiftUI With scenePhase
Forget AppDelegate - this article shows how to use SwiftUI’s scenePhase to handle app lifecycle events like going to background, becoming inactive, or returning to the foreground. With clear examples and practical tips, it’s a great resource for making your app respond gracefully to state changes.
Using equatable() to Avoid the NavigationLink Pre-Build Pitfall
Using NavigationLink inside large lists or grids can silently destroy performance by pre-building all child views, causing lag and high memory use. This article explains why it happens and how a simple .equatable() modifier can prevent it. A must-read for anyone building scalable SwiftUI apps with navigation.
Dependency container on top of task local values in Swift
This article introduces a clever way to use @TaskLocal to create an implicit dependency container - perfect for managing services across async tasks. It shows how to switch between production and mocked services effortlessly using withValue, making testing cleaner and more isolated. A practical read for anyone working with Swift Concurrency and modern dependency injection.
Protecting mutable state with Mutex in Swift
Actors are powerful, but sometimes overkill - especially when all you need is simple, thread-safe access to shared state. In this post, Donny Wals explores how to use Swift’s new Mutex type to protect mutable state without turning everything async. It’s a great read if you’re looking to avoid unnecessary complexity or prepare your codebase for Swift 6.
🛠️ Toolbox
WhisperKit
WhisperKit is a fast, on-device speech-to-text framework for Apple platforms with real-time streaming and CoreML support. I’m using it in my pet project for offline transcription, and it’s been working great.
🍬 One More Thing…
Check out Dev Conversations #9 with Nick Lockwood, creator of SwiftFormat and iCarousel. He shares how open source shaped his iOS career and why clean, consistent code matters. A must-watch for iOS developers.
🗳️ Weekly Poll
👋 That’s it for this week
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Until next Friday — keep shipping 🍏