The latest beta release of Apple’s Xcode 16 brings significant enhancements, including AI-powered code suggestions.

This beta version, available since June 10 on the Apple Developer website, features predictive code completion powered by a machine learning model tailored specifically for Swift and Apple SDKs. This release also accommodates the upcoming Swift 6 language, integrating features and support for the new version.

For Swift, the update enhances the build system, coordinating with Clang and Swift compilers to identify and construct module dependencies. These modules, built explicitly, enhance debugging and optimize build scheduling for better parallelism.

Swift 6 introduces a new mode that handles existential values with “self-conforming” types, such as any Error or @objc protocols, passed to generic functions. The SWIFT_VERSION build setting now includes Swift 6 language mode, allowing developers to gradually migrate their projects by enabling specific new features through updated build settings.

Xcode 16 beta includes SDKs for iOS 18, macOS Sequoia 15, iPadOS 18, tvOS 18, watchOS 11, and visionOS 2.

Additional improvements in Xcode 16 include:

• The ability to copy and paste using the xconfig file syntax from the build settings editor.
• The Project Navigator’s “Open As” context menu now lets developers set default editors per file type.
• A new option in Build Settings to enable C++ Standard Library hardening, which checks for common API misuse.
• An updated debug bar that shows the current backtrace in the source editor, integrated with relevant code for each frame.
• A new execution engine for Previews that supports a wide variety of projects and configurations.
• Streamlined workflows for creating new files.
• Quick Actions now support semantic search, offering results that align with the intent of a query rather than just matching text exactly