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Xcode is a suite of developer tools for building apps on
Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...
devices. It includes an
integrated development environment An integrated development environment (IDE) is a Application software, software application that provides comprehensive facilities for software development. An IDE normally consists of at least a source-code editor, build automation tools, an ...
(IDE) of the same name for
macOS macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...
, used to develop software for macOS, iOS, iPadOS,
watchOS watchOS is the operating system of the Apple Watch, developed by Apple Inc., Apple. It is based on iOS, the operating system used by the iPhone, and has many similar features. It was released on April 24, 2015, along with the Apple Watch, the o ...
, tvOS, and visionOS. It was initially released in late 2003; the latest stable release is version 16, released on September 16, 2024, and is available free of charge via the Mac App Store and the Apple Developer website. Registered developers can also download preview releases and prior versions of the suite through the Apple Developer website. Xcode includes command-line tools that enable
UNIX Unix (, ; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multi-user computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, a ...
-style development via the Terminal app in macOS. They can also be downloaded and installed without the GUI. Before Xcode, Apple offered developers Project Builder and Interface Builder to develop Mac OS X applications.


Major features

Xcode supports
source code In computing, source code, or simply code or source, is a plain text computer program written in a programming language. A programmer writes the human readable source code to control the behavior of a computer. Since a computer, at base, only ...
for the
programming language A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Programming languages are described in terms of their Syntax (programming languages), syntax (form) and semantics (computer science), semantics (meaning), usually def ...
s: Swift, C++,
Objective-C Objective-C is a high-level general-purpose, object-oriented programming language that adds Smalltalk-style message passing (messaging) to the C programming language. Originally developed by Brad Cox and Tom Love in the early 1980s, it was ...
, Objective-C++,
Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...
, AppleScript, Python,
Ruby Ruby is a pinkish-red-to-blood-red-colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum ( aluminium oxide). Ruby is one of the most popular traditional jewelry gems and is very durable. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called sapph ...
, ResEdit (Rez), and C, with a variety of programming models, including but not limited to Cocoa,
Carbon Carbon () is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalence, tetravalent—meaning that its atoms are able to form up to four covalent bonds due to its valence shell exhibiting 4 ...
, and Java. Third parties have added support for
GNU Pascal GNU Pascal (GPC) is a Pascal programming language, Pascal compiler composed of a frontend to GNU Compiler Collection (GCC), similar to the way Fortran and other languages were added to GCC. GNU Pascal is International Organization for Standardizat ...
, Free Pascal, Ada, C#, Go,
Perl Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Though Perl is not officially an acronym, there are various backronyms in use, including "Practical Extraction and Reporting Language". Perl was developed ...
, and D. Xcode can build '' fat binary'' ( universal binary) files containing code for multiple architectures with the Mach-O executable format. These helped ease the transitions from 32-bit
PowerPC PowerPC (with the backronym Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC – Performance Computing, sometimes abbreviated as PPC) is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) created by the 1991 Apple Inc., App ...
to 64-bit PowerPC, from PowerPC to
Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...
x86, from 32-bit to 64-bit Intel, and most recently from Intel x86 to Apple silicon by allowing developers to distribute a single application to users and letting the operating system automatically choose the appropriate architecture at runtime. Using the
iOS SDK The iOS SDK (iOS Software Development Kit), formerly the iPhone SDK, is a software development kit (SDK) developed by Apple Inc. The kit allows for the development of mobile apps on Apple's iOS and iPadOS operating systems. The iOS SDK is a ...
, tvOS SDK, and watchOS SDK, Xcode can also be used to compile and debug applications for iOS, iPadOS, tvOS, and
watchOS watchOS is the operating system of the Apple Watch, developed by Apple Inc., Apple. It is based on iOS, the operating system used by the iPhone, and has many similar features. It was released on April 24, 2015, along with the Apple Watch, the o ...
. Xcode includes the GUI tool Instruments, which runs atop a dynamic tracing framework,
DTrace DTrace is a comprehensive dynamic tracing framework originally created by Sun Microsystems for troubleshooting kernel and application problems on production systems in real time. Originally developed for Solaris, it has since been released un ...
, created by
Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc., often known as Sun for short, was an American technology company that existed from 1982 to 2010 which developed and sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services. Sun contributed sig ...
and released as part of
OpenSolaris OpenSolaris () is a discontinued open-source computer operating system for SPARC and x86 based systems, created by Sun Microsystems and based on Solaris. Its development began in the mid 2000s and ended in 2010. OpenSolaris was developed as ...
. Xcode also integrates built-in support for source code management using the Git
version control Version control (also known as revision control, source control, and source code management) is the software engineering practice of controlling, organizing, and tracking different versions in history of computer files; primarily source code t ...
system and protocol, allowing the user to create and clone Git repositories (which can be hosted on source code repository hosting sites such as
GitHub GitHub () is a Proprietary software, proprietary developer platform that allows developers to create, store, manage, and share their code. It uses Git to provide distributed version control and GitHub itself provides access control, bug trackin ...
, Bitbucket, and Perforce, or self-hosted using open-source software such as GitLab), and to commit, push, and pull changes, all from within Xcode, automating tasks that would traditionally be performed by using Git from the command line.


Composition

The main application of the suite is the
integrated development environment An integrated development environment (IDE) is a Application software, software application that provides comprehensive facilities for software development. An IDE normally consists of at least a source-code editor, build automation tools, an ...
(IDE), also named Xcode. The Xcode suite includes most of Apple's developer documentation, and built-in Interface Builder, an application used to construct
graphical user interface A graphical user interface, or GUI, is a form of user interface that allows user (computing), users to human–computer interaction, interact with electronic devices through Graphics, graphical icon (computing), icons and visual indicators such ...
s. Up to Xcode 4.1, the Xcode suite included a modified version of the
GNU Compiler Collection The GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) is a collection of compilers from the GNU Project that support various programming languages, Computer architecture, hardware architectures, and operating systems. The Free Software Foundation (FSF) distributes ...
. In Xcode 3.1 up to Xcode 4.6.3, it included the LLVM-GCC compiler, with front ends from the
GNU Compiler Collection The GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) is a collection of compilers from the GNU Project that support various programming languages, Computer architecture, hardware architectures, and operating systems. The Free Software Foundation (FSF) distributes ...
and a code generator based on
LLVM LLVM, also called LLVM Core, is a target-independent optimizer and code generator. It can be used to develop a Compiler#Front end, frontend for any programming language and a Compiler#Back end, backend for any instruction set architecture. LLVM i ...
. In Xcode 3.2 and later, it included the
Clang Clang () is a compiler front end for the programming languages C, C++, Objective-C, Objective-C++, and the software frameworks OpenMP, OpenCL, RenderScript, CUDA, SYCL, and HIP. It acts as a drop-in replacement for the GNU Compiler ...
C/C++/Objective-C compiler, with newly-written front ends and a code generator based on LLVM, and the Clang static analyzer. Starting with Xcode 4.2, the Clang compiler became the default compiler, Starting with Xcode 5.0, Clang was the only compiler provided. Up to Xcode 4.6.3, the Xcode suite used the GNU Debugger (GDB) as the back-end for the IDE's
debugger A debugger is a computer program used to test and debug other programs (the "target" programs). Common features of debuggers include the ability to run or halt the target program using breakpoints, step through code line by line, and display ...
. Starting with Xcode 4.3, the LLDB debugger was also provided; starting with Xcode 4.5 LLDB replaced GDB as the default back-end for the IDE's debugger. Starting with Xcode 5.0, GDB was no longer supplied.


Playgrounds

The Playgrounds feature of Xcode provides an environment for rapid experimentation and development in the Swift programming language. The original version of the feature was announced and released by
Apple Inc Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Computer ...
on June 2, 2014, during WWDC 2014. Playgrounds provide a testing ground that renders developer code in real time. They have the capability of evaluating and displaying the results of single expressions as they are coded (in line or on a side bar), providing rapid feedback to the programmer. This type of development environment, known as a read-eval-print loop (or REPL) is useful for learning, experimenting and fast prototyping. Playgrounds was used by Apple to publish Swift tutorials and guided tours where the REPL advantages are noticeable''.'' The Playgrounds feature was developed by the Developer Tools department at Apple. According to
Chris Lattner Christopher Arthur Lattner (born 1978) is an American software engineer and creator of LLVM, the Clang compiler, the Swift (programming language), Swift programming language and the MLIR (software), MLIR compiler infrastructure. After his PhD ...
, the inventor of Swift Programming Language and Senior Director and Architect at the Developer Tools Department, Playgrounds was "heavily influenced by Bret Victor's ideas, by Light Table and by many other interactive systems". Playgrounds was announced by Apple Inc. on June 2, 2014, during WWDC 2014 as part of Xcode 6 and released in September. In September 2016, the Swift Playgrounds application for iPad (also available on
macOS macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...
starting in February 2020) was released, incorporating these ideas into an educational tool. Xcode's Playgrounds feature continued development, with a new step-by-step execution feature introduced in Xcode 10 at WWDC 2018.


Removed features

Formerly, Xcode supported distributing a product build process over multiple systems. One technology involved was named ''Shared Workgroup Build'', which used the Bonjour protocol to automatically discover systems providing compiler services, and a modified version of the free software product distcc to facilitate the distribution of workloads. Earlier versions of Xcode provided a system named ''Dedicated Network Builds''. These features are absent in the supported versions of Xcode. Xcode also includes Apple's WebObjects tools and frameworks for building Java web applications and web services (formerly sold as a separate product). As of Xcode 3.0, Apple dropped WebObjects development inside Xcode; WOLips should be used instead. Xcode 3 still includes the WebObjects frameworks.


Version history


1.x series

Xcode 1.0 was released in fall 2003. Xcode 1.0 was based on Project Builder, but had an updated
user interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine fro ...
(UI), ZeroLink, Fix & Continue, distributed build support, and Code Sense indexing. The next significant release, Xcode 1.5, had better code completion and an improved debugger.


2.x series

Xcode 2.0 was released with Mac OS X v10.4 "Tiger". It included the Quartz Composer visual programming language, better Code Sense indexing for Java, and
Ant Ants are Eusociality, eusocial insects of the Family (biology), family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the Taxonomy (biology), order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from Vespoidea, vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cre ...
support. It also included the Apple Reference Library tool, which allows searching and reading online documentation from Apple's website and documentation installed on a local computer. Xcode 2.1 could create universal binary files. It supported shared precompiled headers, unit testing targets, conditional breakpoints, and watchpoints. It also had better dependency analysis. The final version of Xcode for Mac OS X v10.4 was 2.5.


3.x series

Xcode 3.0 was released with Mac OS X v10.5 "Leopard". Notable changes since 2.1 include the
DTrace DTrace is a comprehensive dynamic tracing framework originally created by Sun Microsystems for troubleshooting kernel and application problems on production systems in real time. Originally developed for Solaris, it has since been released un ...
debugging tool (now named Instruments), refactoring support, context-sensitive documentation, and
Objective-C Objective-C is a high-level general-purpose, object-oriented programming language that adds Smalltalk-style message passing (messaging) to the C programming language. Originally developed by Brad Cox and Tom Love in the early 1980s, it was ...
2.0 with garbage collection. It also supports Project Snapshots, which provide a basic form of version control; Message Bubbles, which show build errors debug values alongside code; and building four-architecture fat binaries (32 and 64-bit Intel and PowerPC). Xcode 3.1 was an update release of the developer tools for Mac OS X, and was the same version included with the iPhone SDK. It could target non-Mac OS X platforms, including iPhone OS 2.0. It included the GCC 4.2 and
LLVM LLVM, also called LLVM Core, is a target-independent optimizer and code generator. It can be used to develop a Compiler#Front end, frontend for any programming language and a Compiler#Back end, backend for any instruction set architecture. LLVM i ...
GCC 4.2 compilers. Another new feature since Xcode 3.0 is that Xcode's SCM support now includes Subversion 1.5. Xcode 3.2 was released with Mac OS X v10.6 "Snow Leopard" and installs on no earlier version of OS X. It supports static program analysis, among other features. It also drops official support for targeting versions earlier than iPhone OS 3.0. But it is still possible to target older versions, and the simulator supports iPhone OS 2.0 through 3.1. Also,
Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...
support is "exiled" in 3.2 to the organizer. Xcode 3.2.6 is the last version that can be downloaded for free for users of Mac OS X Snow Leopard (though it’s not the last version that supports Snow Leopard; 4.2 is). Downloading Xcode 3.2.6 requires a free registration at Apple's developer site.


4.x series

In June 2010, at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference version 4 of Xcode was announced during the Developer Tools State of the Union address. Version 4 of the developer tools consolidates the Xcode editing tools and Interface Builder into one application, among other enhancements. Apple released the final version of Xcode 4.0 on March 9, 2011. The software was made available for free to all registered members of the $99 per year Mac Developer program and the $99 per year iOS Developer program. It was also sold for $4.99 to non-members on the Mac App Store (no longer available). Xcode 4.0 drops support for many older systems, including all PowerPC development and software development kits (SDKs) for Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5, and all iOS SDKs older than 4.3. The deployment target can still be set to produce binaries for those older platforms, but for Mac OS platforms, one is then limited to creating x86 and x86-64 binaries. Later, Xcode was free to the general public. Before version 4.1, Xcode cost $4.99. Xcode 4.1 was made available for free on July 20, 2011 (the day of Mac OS X Lion's release) to all users of Mac OS X Lion on the Mac App Store. On August 29, 2011, Xcode 4.1 was made available for Mac OS X Snow Leopard for members of the paid Mac or iOS developer programs. Xcode 4.1 was the last version to include
GNU Compiler Collection The GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) is a collection of compilers from the GNU Project that support various programming languages, Computer architecture, hardware architectures, and operating systems. The Free Software Foundation (FSF) distributes ...
(GCC) instead of only
LLVM LLVM, also called LLVM Core, is a target-independent optimizer and code generator. It can be used to develop a Compiler#Front end, frontend for any programming language and a Compiler#Back end, backend for any instruction set architecture. LLVM i ...
GCC or
Clang Clang () is a compiler front end for the programming languages C, C++, Objective-C, Objective-C++, and the software frameworks OpenMP, OpenCL, RenderScript, CUDA, SYCL, and HIP. It acts as a drop-in replacement for the GNU Compiler ...
. On October 12, 2011, Xcode 4.2 was released concurrently with the release of iOS 5.0, and it included many more and improved features, such as storyboarding and automatic reference counting (ARC). Xcode 4.2 is the last version to support Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard", but is available only to registered developers with paid accounts; without a paid account, 3.2.6 is the latest download that appears for Snow Leopard. Xcode 4.3, released on February 16, 2012, is distributed as one application bundle, Xcode.app, installed from the Mac App Store. Xcode 4.3 reorganizes the Xcode menu to include development tools. Xcode 4.3.1 was released on March 7, 2012 to add support for iOS 5.1. Xcode 4.3.2 was released on March 22, 2012 with enhancements to the iOS Simulator and a suggested move to the LLDB debugger versus the GDB debugger (which appear to be undocumented changes). Xcode 4.3.3, released in May 2012, featured an updated SDK for Mac OS X 10.7.4 "Lion" and a few bug fixes. Xcode 4.4 was released on July 25, 2012. It runs on both Mac OS X Lion (10.7) and OS X Mountain Lion (10.8) and is the first version of Xcode to contain the OS X 10.8 "Mountain Lion" SDK. Xcode 4.4 includes support for automatic synthesizing of declared properties, new
Objective-C Objective-C is a high-level general-purpose, object-oriented programming language that adds Smalltalk-style message passing (messaging) to the C programming language. Originally developed by Brad Cox and Tom Love in the early 1980s, it was ...
features such as literal syntax and subscripting, improved localization, and more. On August 7, 2012, Xcode 4.4.1 was released with a few bug fixes. On September 19, 2012, iOS 6 and Xcode 4.5 were released. Xcode added support for iOS 6 and the 4-inch Retina Display on
iPhone 5 The iPhone 5 is a smartphone that was developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the List of iPhone models, 6th generation iPhone, succeeding the iPhone 4s, and preceding both the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c. It was formally unveiled as part of ...
and
iPod Touch The iPod Touch (stylized as iPod touch) is a discontinued line of iOS-based mobile devices designed and formerly marketed by Apple Inc. with a touchscreen-controlled user interface. As with other iPod models, the iPod Touch can be used as a po ...
5th generation. It also brought some new
Objective-C Objective-C is a high-level general-purpose, object-oriented programming language that adds Smalltalk-style message passing (messaging) to the C programming language. Originally developed by Brad Cox and Tom Love in the early 1980s, it was ...
features to iOS, simplified localization, and added auto-layout support for iOS. On October 3, 2012, Xcode 4.5.1 was released with bug fixes and stability improvements. Less than a month later, Xcode 4.5.2 was released, with support for iPad Mini and iPad with Retina Display, and bug fixes and stability improvements. On January 28, 2013, iOS 6.1 and Xcode 4.6 were released.


5.x series

On June 10, 2013, at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, version 5 of Xcode was announced. On September 18, 2013, Xcode 5.0 was released. It shipped with iOS 7 and OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion SDKs. However, support for OS X 10.9 Mavericks was only available in beta versions. Xcode 5.0 also added a version of
Clang Clang () is a compiler front end for the programming languages C, C++, Objective-C, Objective-C++, and the software frameworks OpenMP, OpenCL, RenderScript, CUDA, SYCL, and HIP. It acts as a drop-in replacement for the GNU Compiler ...
generating 64-bit ARM code for iOS 7. Apple removed support for building garbage collected Cocoa binaries in Xcode 5.1.


6.x series

On June 2, 2014, at the Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple announced version 6 of Xcode. One of the most notable features was support for Swift, an all-new programming language developed by Apple. Xcode 6 also included features like ''
Playgrounds A playground, playpark, or play area is a place designed to provide an environment for children that facilitates Play (activity)#Children, play, typically outdoors. While a playground is usually designed for children, some are designed for othe ...
'' and live debugging tools. On September 17, 2014, at the same time, iOS 8 and Xcode 6 were released. Xcode could be downloaded on the Mac App Store.


7.x series

On June 8, 2015, at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Xcode version 7 was announced. It introduced support for Swift 2, and Metal for OS X, and added support for deploying on iOS devices without an Apple Developer account. Xcode 7 was released on September 16, 2015.


8.x series

On June 13, 2016, at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Xcode version 8 was announced; a beta version was released the same day. It introduced support for Swift 3. Xcode 8 was released on September 13, 2016.


9.x series

On June 5, 2017, at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Xcode version 9 was announced; a beta version was released the same day. It introduced support for Swift 4 and Metal 2. It also introduced remote debugging on iOS and tvOS devices wirelessly, through Wi-Fi. Xcode 9 was publicly released on September 19, 2017.


10.x series

On June 4, 2018, at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Xcode version 10 was announced; a beta version was released the same day. Xcode 10 introduced support for the Dark Mode announced for macOS Mojave, the collaboration platforms Bitbucket and GitLab (in addition to already supported
GitHub GitHub () is a Proprietary software, proprietary developer platform that allows developers to create, store, manage, and share their code. It uses Git to provide distributed version control and GitHub itself provides access control, bug trackin ...
), training machine learning models from playgrounds, and the new features in Swift 4.2 and
Metal A metal () is a material that, when polished or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electrical resistivity and conductivity, electricity and thermal conductivity, heat relatively well. These properties are all associated wit ...
2.1, as well as improvements to the editor and the project build system. Xcode 10 also dropped support for building 32-bit
macOS macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...
apps and no longer supports Subversion integration. Xcode 10 was publicly released on September 17, 2018.


11.x series

On June 3, 2019, at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Xcode version 11 was announced; a beta version was released the same day. Xcode 11 introduced support for the new features in Swift 5.1, as well as the new SwiftUI framework (although the interactive UI tools are available only when running under macOS 10.15). It also supports building iPad applications that run under macOS; includes integrated support for the Swift Package Manager; and contains further improvements to the editor, including a "minimap" that gives an overview of a source code file with quick navigation. Xcode 11 requires macOS 10.14 or later and Xcode 11.4 requires 10.15 or later. Xcode 11 was publicly released on September 20, 2019.


12.x series

On June 22, 2020, at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Xcode version 12 was announced; a beta version was released the same day. Xcode 12 introduced support for Swift 5.3 and requires macOS 10.15.4 or later. Xcode 12 dropped building apps for iOS 8 and the lowest version of iOS supported by Xcode 12 built apps is iOS 9. Xcode 12.1 also dropped support for building apps for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. The minimum version of macOS supported by Xcode 12.1 built apps is OS X 10.9 Mavericks. Xcode 12 was publicly released on September 16, 2020.


13.x series

On June 7, 2021, at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Xcode version 13 was announced; a beta version was released the same day. The new version introduced support for Swift 5.5 and requires macOS 11.3 or later. Xcode 13 contains SDKs for iOS / iPadOS 15, macOS 12, watchOS 8, and tvOS 15. Xcode 13’s major features include the new concurrency model in Swift projects, improved support for
version control Version control (also known as revision control, source control, and source code management) is the software engineering practice of controlling, organizing, and tracking different versions in history of computer files; primarily source code t ...
providers (such as
GitHub GitHub () is a Proprietary software, proprietary developer platform that allows developers to create, store, manage, and share their code. It uses Git to provide distributed version control and GitHub itself provides access control, bug trackin ...
), including the ability to browse, view, and comment on pull requests right in the app interface, and support for Xcode Cloud, Apple’s newly-launched mobile CI/CD service (it also has a web version). Xcode 13 was publicly released on September 20, 2021.


14.x series

On June 6, 2022, at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Xcode version 14 was announced; a beta version was released the same day. Xcode 14 dropped support for building 32-bit iOS apps. Xcode 14 dropped support for building apps for iOS 9 and 10 (these versions of iOS supported 32-bit iOS apps) and the minimum version of iOS supported by Xcode 14 built apps is iOS 11. Xcode 14 also dropped building apps for macOS 10.12 Sierra. The minimum version of macOS supported by Xcode 14 built apps is macOS 10.13 High Sierra. Xcode 14 was publicly released on September 12, 2022.


15.x series

On June 5, 2023, at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Xcode version 15 was announced; a beta version was released the same day. Xcode 15 dropped support for building apps for iOS 11 and the minimum version of iOS supported by Xcode 15 built apps is iOS 12. Xcode 15 was publicly released on September 18, 2023.


16.x series

On June 10, 2024, at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Xcode version 16 was announced; a beta version was released the same day. Xcode 16 introduced predictive code completion on Apple silicon Macs, along with the Swift Testing framework. Xcode 16 was publicly released on September 16, 2024.


26.x series

On June 9, 2025, at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Xcode version 26 was announced; a beta version was released the same day. The version number change reflects a similar change done to unify version numbers across all of Apple's other platforms. Xcode 26 comes with automatic programming and chat query tools similar to GitHub Copilot, as well as AI-assisted actions accessible from anywhere in a codebase. These tools are powered using ChatGPT by default, but both local models and cloud models from other providers via API keys are supported.


Version comparison table


Xcode 1.0 - Xcode 2.x (before iOS support)


Xcode 3.0 - Xcode 4.x


Xcode 5.0 - 6.x (since arm64 support)


Xcode 7.0 - 10.x (since Free On-Device Development)


Xcode 11.0 - 14.x (since SwiftUI framework)


Xcode 15.0 - 16.x (since visionOS support)


Xcode 26.0 (since version number change)


Toolchain versions


Xcode 1.0 - Xcode 2.x (before iOS support)


Xcode 3.0 - Xcode 4.x


Xcode 5.0 - 6.x (since arm64 support)


Xcode 7.0 - 10.x (since Free On-Device Development)


Xcode 11.0 - 14.x (since SwiftUI framework)


Xcode 15.0 - 16.x (since visionOS support)


Xcode 26.0 (since version number change)


See also

* CodeWarrior *
Objective-C Objective-C is a high-level general-purpose, object-oriented programming language that adds Smalltalk-style message passing (messaging) to the C programming language. Originally developed by Brad Cox and Tom Love in the early 1980s, it was ...
*
Swift (programming language) Swift is a High-level programming language, high-level general-purpose programming language, general-purpose, multi-paradigm programming language, multi-paradigm, compiled language, compiled programming language created by Chris Lattner in 2010 ...
* XcodeGhost


References


External links


Xcode – Mac App Store

Apple Developer Connection: Xcode tools and resources


* ttps://developer.apple.com/downloads/index.action Download Xcode {{macOS developer tools 2003 software Freeware History of software Integrated development environments IOS IOS development software MacOS programming tools MacOS text editors MacOS-only software made by Apple Inc. Software version histories User interface builders