What's new in Xcode 26

Xcode 26 brings a slew of powerful enhancements aimed at improving developer productivity, accessibility, and app quality. From performance improvements to developer-friendly tools, Apple has refined the development experience for Swift and SwiftUI.

1. Smaller size, faster setup

Apple has significantly reduced the size of Xcode 26, making it quicker to download and install. According to the keynote, the download size of Xcode 26 is 24% smaller.

This number is achieved by including only components that are esential providing the option to download any extra components on demand.

2. Smarter editing

1. The new tabbed editor makes it easier to organize your open files
2. Multiple word search allowes developers to find pieces of code without remembering exact phases
3. Voice control for swift makes wirting and editing code using natural language while fully supporting the Swift language syntax
4. Playground macros bring the ease of use of the SwiftUI previews to any piece of code. All developers will add some test code to their app entry point just so they can verify what happens when the code is running. With playground macros, this won't be neccesery any more

3. Enhanced Code Intelligence

Xcode 26 allows the use of any llm like ChatGPT or Claude basically allowing a copilot like experience right inside Xcode

4. Improved debugger

1. Xcode 26 gives developers better insight into concurrency issues, with a revamped debugger that clearly shows task hierarchies and potential race conditions.
2. The Instruments suite gets new templates and visualization tools, helping developers track memory usage, power consumption, and CPU performance more effectively.