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iOS

Posted by Michael Thomas
Michael Thomas
10,910 Points

What's a smooth transition to get my app ready for Swift 3?

Hi

I successfully submitted my very first app to the store a few weeks ago.

How do I get ready for Swift 3? I'm still running Swift 2, Xcode 7 on my Mac, so I guess I need to update that first to the latest beta and fix anything that's broken in my app.

  1. But what do I do then? Do I just wait for iOS 10, Swift 3 to be released publicly and then resubmit my app?

  2. Do I need to check for backwards compatibility with iOS 9, Swift 2? Or is that not how it works?

Thank you.

Best wishes, Mike

3 Answers

Michael Hulet
Michael Hulet
47,913 Points

If you plan on publishing updates to your app before Swift 3 is released (probably next month), you should stay put on Xcode 7. Once you update, though, there's a tool built into Xcode 8 that'll automatically convert all your code to Swift 3. Just make sure that all the 3rd-party libraries and frameworks you're using have also been compiled for Swift 3, and make sure to use those

Michael Thomas
Michael Thomas
10,910 Points

Thank you Michael.

I'll probably just do that then. One more question tho - can't I just leave it as it is, or will my Swift 2 app break once people update their iPhones to iOS 10?

I'm still learning iOS and there are a lot of Swift 2 app tutorials I wanted to finish before updating my Mac to Swift 3.

Best wishes, Mike

Michael Thomas
Michael Thomas
10,910 Points

There aren't any Swift 3 app tutorials on Tree House yet! Maybe I'll just have to update to Xcode 8 and make the most of the Swift 2 tutorials and inevitable bugs hah.

Michael Hulet
Michael Hulet
47,913 Points

Your app will still work, even for people on iOS 10. You can update to Swift 3 whenever you like, but Apple won't accept submissions of Swift 3 apps until iOS 10 is released, and they'll likely stop accepting submissions of Swift 2 apps soon after that, but if your app is already on the App Store, that version will continue to work forever

Michael Thomas
Michael Thomas
10,910 Points
Michael Thomas
Michael Thomas
10,910 Points

Ahh thank you Michael, now I understand the situation, you've really been very helpful, I owe you one!! Have a great weekend :)

Michael Hulet
Michael Hulet
47,913 Points

No problem! I hope you have a great weekend, too.

One last note, though: For what it's worth, Swift 3 isn't all that different code-wise from Swift 2. I'd be willing to bet that Xcode 8's converter tool will take care of everything for you, and then autocomplete will take care of the rest as you're writing your code. At least, that's how it's been for me

Michael Thomas
Michael Thomas
10,910 Points
Michael Thomas
Michael Thomas
10,910 Points

Yeah I think you're probably right, the last transition from Swift 1 to 2 wasn't too bad, mostly just swapping the occasional "?" for a "!" - thanks again for your insight!