The tech-giant Apple started with just a name and has now become the world’s leading and most valuable brand. The company continues to innovate with each launch. Due to this, there’s always an increased demand for its products and services among people.
Well known for its innovation in hardware, software, and services, Apple also has a highly intuitive programming language called Swift, used for Apple’s OS like iOS, macOS, and watchOS. Like Apple’s other offerings, its programming language is also gaining popularity due to its unique features and taking iOS app development to a whole new level.
Announced in 2014, Swift has quickly become one of the fastest-growing languages in the world. With the recent version of Swift 5.1, this programming language has become more powerful and intelligent than ever before. Considering the traits of Swift, many businesses are seeking an iPhone development company that can build secure and high-performing iOS apps leveraging Swift.
A Few Brands Using Swift
- Accenture
- Airbnb
- Uber
- Slack
- Robinhood
- Delivery Hero
- Ruangguru
- ViaVajero
- Lyft
- Bepro Company
What Are the Latest and Pioneering Updates in Swift 5?
- Binary Compatibility and Stable ABI – The stability of ABI in Swift 5 is one of Apple’s biggest achievements so far. Now, the Swift libraries would be incorporated in iOS, tvOS, macOS, and watchOS, which was problematic earlier.
- Standard Library Updates – Standard library updates in Swift 5 come with faster coding with UTF-8 encoding, the addition of the SIMD vector, improved performance on set and directory, significant changes made to string implementation, and more.
- Package Manager Updates – Build setting specific to the target, customized deployment targets, dependency mirror, compatibility to generate the code coverage data, etc., are some new features added in the package manager of Swift 5.
- Additional Compiler and Language Updates – Swift 5 supports dynamically callable types that improve interoperability with languages such as JavaScript, Python, and Ruby. It also handles future enum cases, supports the less-than operator in the compilation, identifies key paths, and so on.
- Module Stability – Swift 5 helps create binary frameworks that can be shared with others to benefit from the language’s added support for module stability. It makes the creation of iOS apps easy and speedy for developers.
- Language Server Protocol – Swift 5 toolchain packages for Ubuntu and macOS cover binaries for SourceKit-LSP, implementing the language server protocol (LSP) for Swift and C-based languages.
- Swift Syntax Updates – The new Swift 5 has been re-architectured, emphasizing performance enhancement using a parser from the Swift compiler. Besides, the syntax tree visitation and its related operations’ performance also improved.
Top 7 Advantages of Using Swift 5 for iOS App Development
As we mentioned earlier about all the latest and pioneering updates in Swift 5, it’s imperative to see how apps companies will leverage Swift 5 to benefit your business and what business benefits Swift 5 updates bring in to make your business more profitable than before. Let’s see!
Reduced App Size
The new Swift makes the language binary compatible. This means the app developed using Swift 5 would be significantly smaller for the users to run on their new operating systems, compared to the other versions like iOS 12.2, macOS 10.14.4, tvOS 12.2, and watchOS 5.2. It is said that when the older version of iOS apps is updated to Swift 5, the app size reduces by more than 20% or so, making the app high-performing.
Greater App Performance
No user likes to use an app full of bugs, glitches, and errors that loads slower. In fact, these are the major reasons behind the increased app uninstallation rate, and this is something no business should neglect. The Swift 5’s ABI stability helps apps perform better with improved and speedy performance and makes the app faster than ever before.
Faster App Launch
With Swift 5, the possibility of a faster launch time also emerges. It happens because the app’s dynamic library would be shared among the apps and the cached memory, resulting in a faster app launch. The dynamic libraries of Swift 5 significantly increase the launch time. Faster launch time contributes to improving the overall user experience.
Improved Readability
One of the most critical reasons to choose Swift 5 is its readability. It is comparatively easy to modify, read, and write. The clean syntax makes it special and unique in all terms. The new Swift version needs a lesser number of lines of code than Objective-C. Better readability makes the development faster and reduces the cost and overall development time.
Enhanced UX
As mentioned earlier, the app developed with Swift 5 is smaller in size and has greater performance. The reduced size and enhanced performance make the app easy to install and use, thus improving the overall user experience. Besides, the faster app launch means a superior app experience for the end-users.
Low Maintenance
As soon as the app is launched, it requires regular maintenance to keep the app up and running, bug, error, glitch-free, and updated for better ROI. For instance, the app will reach your users, and you will need to add/change/modify the content and track the performance for integrating new features into it for behaving the whole functionality. However, the Swift 5 needs low maintenance comparatively.
Secure Platform
iOS app development is known for its security. Similarly, Swift is a more secure programming language than Objective-c that develops secure iOS apps. This is what every business needs in today’s time, where we hear the news of hacking and data breaching now and then. It has a dialect and structured development that avoids errors and develops a highly secured iOS app.
Final Thought
As we read, with Swift 5 comes a smaller app size, greater app performance, faster launch, improved readability, enhanced UX, low maintenance, and a secure platform. If you are still confused, is it good to build a Swift for iOS App Development? Then let me tell you, yes, it is. Your business will surely benefit a lot from Swift 5 as it brings innovations and advancements.
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