This week I’ve been thinking about...
I keep noticing how the mood around cross-platform development changes. I was never a fan of cross-platform, but I understood the business value, since you write the code once and run it on two platforms. Now with AI, we can write the code twice, and it still takes LESS time than writing it once the old way. Moreover, once you build a new feature on iOS, porting it to Android is quite simple, and in this issue you will find a great article about that, so take a look 😉
A couple of months ago, I started working on both iOS and Android projects, and I can say from experience that it is cool. I even started a new initiative on our team called Platform Union, where iOS and Android engineers come together to share knowledge, look at each other’s tools, codebases, and approaches to unblock themselves and start contributing to the other platform.
And it is not only about writing code, there are also a lot of other useful cases here: you can help each other with testing and debugging, and you start thinking in terms of mobile as a whole instead of just an iOS or an Android platform.
What’s New
Tim Cook’s full memo to Apple employees on his last day as CEO
Tim Cook wrote a farewell memo to Apple employees on his last day as CEO. I remember when Cook became CEO after Steve Jobs, and it was clear that Apple turned into a company that focused on making money. Apple achieved huge success under Cook, but a part of me still misses the new, innovative products Apple used to ship regularly. Ternus comes from an engineering background; I hope for more innovation-driven solutions.
Releases
Must Read
How We Built an Android App in One Month from an Existing iOS Project Using Claude Code
Sergey described how his team ported an iOS app to Android in a month using Claude Code. With AI, I now do both iOS and Android stories myself, and I think the mobile engineer role covering both platforms is becoming the new best practice. I like that UI stays separate on each platform instead of getting shared through something like Flutter or React Native. Cross-platform was great for writing the code once for both platforms, but now AI lets you write native code twice as fast as you used to write it once.
MVVM in SwiftUI: Using view models without overengineering
I’ve used a Redux-like architecture for the last three years and LOVE IT, but MVVM is my pick for most projects. Every other pattern comes with a learning curve and boilerplate to set up, and MVVM lets you just sit down and write code without any overhead. Let’s read this one to better understand when a SwiftUI view needs a view model and when it doesn’t.
SwiftUI data dependencies and their effect on view updates
An excellent explanation of the main wrappers to handle data in SwiftUI. It is important to understand the differences between them to update your views appropriately.
Quick Read
Effective Geometry: Layout Without UIScreen.main
// Use scene geometry instead of UIScreen.main let bounds = windowScene.effectiveGeometry.coordinateSpace.boundsManaging toolbar visibility and overflow in SwiftUI
// Push less important items into the overflow menu .toolbar { ToolbarItemGroup { /* Undo, Redo */ } .visibilityPriority(.high) ToolbarOverflowMenu { Button("Delete", role: .destructive, action: delete) } }
Video
These Apple Icons Can Do WHAT?!
Sean explains what SF Symbols can do beyond being a basic icon set, and shows how to prompt an AI agent with the right terminology to get the best results. This is a great tool when you’re building a prototype or your own app and want interesting icons and animations without extra effort. Apple designers made these symbols, so they blend into any iOS app without looking out of place.
Toolbox
Proxyman replaced Charles as my preferred tool for inspecting HTTP traffic on macOS. It has a native app and an incredible UI/UX. I wish Xcode had a built-in equivalent for this kind of debugging, but it is what it is...
iOS Job Market (USA)
150 new iOS positions this week (+219% vs last week · +200% vs last month)
Senior / Mid / Junior — 42% / 56% / 2%
Most wanted skills: Most wanted skills: SwiftUI 59% · UIKit 37% · MVVM 31% · Combine 27%
This week’s picks:
Staff Software Engineer, iOS at PayPal (Venmo) (Austin, TX) — Strong Swift and multi-threaded/async-focused role consuming GraphQL and REST APIs with MVC/MVVM patterns, setting technical direction for Venmo’s iOS app; base pay $160,500–$238,700 → Apply
Software Engineer III - iOS at JPMorganChase (New York, NY) — Ships production Swift code with XCTest/XCUITest coverage and enterprise AI-assisted tooling for the bank’s Business Access & Tools platform; $137,750–$185,000 → Apply
Software Engineer, iOS/Mobile — Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) at Beacon AI (San Carlos, CA) — Builds Swift/SwiftUI/UIKit iPad apps rendering real-time wind and weather data with zero lag that must stay fully operational offline → Apply
Weekly Poll
📊 Last Week’s Poll Results
How do you feel about the foldable iPhone?
Top Answer: Curious but not sold yet
Upcoming Conferences
September
7–11 — Swift Island 2026 (Texel 🇳🇱)
17–18 — NSSpain XIV (Logroño 🇪🇸)
29–2 — MacSysAdmin (Gothenburg 🇸🇪)
October
7–9 — Next.App DevCon 2026 (Berlin 🇩🇪)
12–14 — SwiftLeeds 2026 (Leeds 🇬🇧)
November
2–3 — Swift Connection (Paris 🇫🇷)
10–12 — Do iOS 2026 (Amsterdam 🇳🇱)
19–20 — Swift Bharat (Mumbai 🇮🇳)
20–22 — SwiftSonic 26 (Nashville 🇺🇸)
February 2027
16–18 — ARCTIC Conference (Oulu 🇫🇮)
March 2027
2–4 — try! Swift Tokyo 2027 (Tokyo 🇯🇵)
16–18 — Appdevcon 2027 (Amsterdam 🇳🇱)