Apple Releases Swift Playgrounds 4 With Support for Creating Apps on iPad

Apple today released Swift Playgrounds 4, an update to the Swift Playgrounds app that's been in the works for some time. The newest version of the app allows iPhone and iPad apps to be created directly on an ‌iPad‌ without the need for a Mac.

swift banner
Swift Playgrounds 4 includes App Store Connect integration for uploading a finished app to the ‌App Store‌, plus there is an App Preview feature that shows live updates as you make changes. Apple's release notes for the update are below:

Swift Playgrounds 4.0 features:
- Build iPhone and iPad apps with SwiftUI right on your iPad (requires iPadOS 15.2 or later)
- App Store Connect integration lets you upload your finished app to the App Store
- App Preview shows live updates as you make changes to your app
- Full-screen preview lets you see your app edge-to-edge
- Smart, inline code suggestions help you write code quickly and accurately
- App Projects make it easy to move projects to Xcode and back
- Project-wide search finds results across multiple files
- Snippets Library provides hundreds of SwiftUI controls, symbols, and colors
- Swift Package support lets you include publicly-available code to enhance your apps

Designing and uploading an app on the ‌iPad‌ requires the iPadOS 15.2 update that was released earlier this week. Swift Playgrounds can be downloaded from the ‌App Store‌ for free. [Direct Link]

Apple has also released Swift Playgrounds 4 for the Mac, with support for Swift 5.5.

Popular Stories

Apple CarPlay Ultra instrument cluster themes 01

Apple's 'CarPlay Ultra' Experience Now Available

Thursday May 15, 2025 5:07 am PDT by
Apple today announced that its next-generation CarPlay experience, now dubbed "CarPlay Ultra" begins rolling out today, starting with Aston Martin vehicles. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. CarPlay Ultra is now available with new Aston Martin vehicle orders in the U.S. and Canada. It will also be available for existing models that feature the brand's next-generation ...
Apple CarPlay Ultra instrument cluster themes 01

Apple's CarPlay Ultra Is Here – Does Your iPhone Support It?

Thursday May 15, 2025 5:17 am PDT by
Apple's recently announced CarPlay Ultra promises a deeply integrated in-car experience, but not all iPhone users will be able to take advantage of the new feature. According to Apple's press release, CarPlay Ultra requires an iPhone 12 or later running iOS 18.5 or later. This means if you're using an iPhone 11, iPhone XR, or any older model, you'll need to upgrade your device to access...
CarPlay Ultra Climate Controls

Apple Says These Vehicle Brands Plan to Offer All-New CarPlay Ultra

Thursday May 15, 2025 8:13 am PDT by
Apple today announced the launch of CarPlay Ultra, the long-awaited next-generation version of its CarPlay software system for vehicles. CarPlay Ultra features deep integration with a vehicle's instrument cluster and systems, built-in Radio and Climate apps, customizable widgets, and more. The interface is tailored to each vehicle model and automaker's identity, and drivers can also adjust...
iPhone 12 Made in India

Trump Tells Tim Cook to Stop Building iPhones in India

Thursday May 15, 2025 2:21 am PDT by
President Donald Trump has asked Apple CEO Tim Cook to halt the company's manufacturing expansion in India, in a potential disruption of Apple's plan to shift iPhone production away from China. "I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday," Trump said during his state visit to Qatar, according to Bloomberg. "He is building all over India." "They [India] have offered us a deal where...
apple music

Apple Music Gets New Transfer Tool to Make Switching From Spotify Easier

Wednesday May 14, 2025 5:17 pm PDT by
Apple this week introduced a new feature designed to allow prospective Apple Music users to import their saved music and playlists from third-party music services to Apple Music. The feature is either in an expanded testing phase or it has started rolling out, and it is available in Australia and New Zealand according to an Apple Support document. Signs of the transfer option first surfaced...
maxresdefault

Here's the First Real-World Look at Apple's CarPlay Ultra

Thursday May 15, 2025 5:52 am PDT by
The first videos of Apple's CarPlay Ultra experience are now available, providing a never-before-seen look at the long-anticipated iPhone-linked infotainment software. British automaker Aston Martin today shared the first video of Apple's CarPlay Ultra experience in-action, followed by a detailed walk-through of the CarPlay Ultra system on Top Gear's YouTube channel, which provides the...
vision pro video recording

WSJ: Some Apple Vision Pro Buyers 'Feel Total Regret'

Friday May 16, 2025 7:43 am PDT by
Apple's Vision Pro headset has left many early adopters expressing dissatisfaction over its weight, limited use cases, and sparse software ecosystem, according to a new article from The Wall Street Journal. In the year following the device's launch, user feedback suggests that it has failed to meet expectations for comfort, software support, and social acceptance. In interviews conducted by T...
microsoft copilot plus pc

Microsoft Says 'We're Faster Than a Mac' in Latest Windows PC Ad

Thursday May 15, 2025 12:29 pm PDT by
Microsoft today shared a new ad on YouTube with the tagline "we're faster than a Mac." In the video, Microsoft says the top-end Windows PCs with Copilot+ branding are up to 58% faster than the previous-generation MacBook Air with the M3 chip, based on Cinebench 2024 multi-core CPU benchmark results. The ad is citing old figures that were reported on all the way back in May 2024, so take that ...

Top Rated Comments

darngooddesign Avatar
45 months ago

this is amazing.
also raises a good question: if something has the tools, environment,means to create apps from scratch, does it finally qualify as a computer?
Nah, expect those people to move the goalposts again.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
swm Avatar
45 months ago
this is amazing.
also raises a good question: if something has the tools, environment,means to create apps from scratch, does it finally qualify as a computer?
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Unregistered 4U Avatar
45 months ago

this is amazing.
also raises a good question: if something has the tools, environment,means to create apps from scratch, does it finally qualify as a computer?
computer:
an electronic device for storing and processing data, typically in binary form, according to instructions given to it in a variable program.

It’s always BEEN a computer. :)
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
erthquake Avatar
45 months ago

You do know iPads support keyboard and mouse, right?
And external monitors.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Stella Avatar
45 months ago

this is amazing.
also raises a good question: if something has the tools, environment,means to create apps from scratch, does it finally qualify as a computer?
I'd rather use Mac OS or some other desktop OS that isn't in a walled garden which will restrict the use of 3rd party development tools. The experience will be far better - having multiple applications being shown at once, more RAM, no walled garden.

If you are developing something basic, then an iPad will work for you, but much more, iPad will feel like a crippled / poor experience.

This is for XCode only. Developers use more IDEs than just XCode, outside of the Apple World, and XCode makes for a pretty poor IDE, if you need to use something other than Swift / ObjectiveC.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Conutz Avatar
45 months ago

Exactly, also the elephant in the room: ergonomics, but I'm sure there's plenty of devs dying to develop 6hrs per day fingering a tablet with "real" multitasking.
You do know iPads support keyboard and mouse, right?
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)