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MobilePro #165: Introducing Swiftly, what's new in Swift 6.1, GPT-4o, WWDC 2025, and more…

Hi ,

Welcome to the 165th edition of MobilePro! We hope you are having an exciting week and are ready to explore the world of mobile development. From a flurry of announcements in the world of Swift, with both Swift 6.1 and Swiftly 1.0 being released, to WWDC 2025’s upcoming in-person event and Google’s major shift in Android development—there’s a lot to unpack:

🎨 OpenAI rolls out native image generation in GPT-4o to free users with conversational refinement, alongside upgrades to speech models for more dynamic voice interactions.

💻 Swift 6.1 is now available. This release includes updates to the language and package manager as well as details on how to get started with this new version, especially with the release of Swiftly 1.0 (as detailed up next).

🛠️ Meet Swiftly 1.0 – the new way to manage Swift versions, now a significant part of the core Swift toolchain and soon to become the default way to install Swift outside of Xcode.

🍏 WWDC 2025 is coming up on June 9 and applications are open until April 2 (11:59 p.m. PT). Don’t miss your chance to be part of this exciting in-person event at Apple Park for developers!

📱 Google is taking Android development behind closed doors, moving away from AOSP to streamline its processes. Get all the details on what this means for the future of Android.

That isn’t all. Just like in the previous edition, the What's Happening in AI? section will glance at all the developments in the world of artificial intelligence, including a look at how the Studio Ghibli trend overwhelmed OpenAI. We also have the Developer Tip section to enhance your workflow and the Did You Know? section, because how else can you plan for the future without knowing your past?

Let’s dive in!

P.S.: If you have any suggestions or feedback, or would like us to feature your project on a particular subject, please write to us. Just respond to this email!

📱 What's Happening in Mobile Development?

If there’s any major news in the world of mobile app dev in the last week, MobilePro has you covered.

Swift 6.1 is now available: Six months after Swift 6 entered the realm of public availability, the Swift team has released Swift 6.1, with a host of changes, including improvements in language as well as diagnostics, which help enhance productivity. There are updates to the package traits alongside attempts to refine compile times. To ease the stress of installation, Swift has introduced Swiftly 1.0; you can learn more about it in the next bullet.
Meet Swiftly 1.0 – the new way to manage Swift versions: Swiftly 1.0 is making it easier than ever to install, manage, and update Swift toolchains. Developers can seamlessly switch between versions, access nightly builds, and keep projects consistent with .swift-version files. Now officially part of the Swift toolchain, Swiftly can update itself and is set to become the go-to way to install Swift outside of Xcode.
WWDC 2025 kicks off June 9; applications close April 2: Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference is back, and it all starts with a special event at Apple Park. Attendees can watch the Keynote and Platforms State of the Union, connect with Apple experts in labs, explore the campus, and take part in exclusive activities. Want in? Applications are open until April 2 at 11:59 p.m. PT, with notifications going out on April 3. Eligibility is limited to Apple Developer Program members, Apple Developer Enterprise Program members, and Swift Student Challenge winners from 2023 to 2025.
Google locks down Android development: Google is taking Android OS development fully behind closed doors, according to Android Authority. The company is moving away from its long-standing practice of developing parts of the OS in the open via the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). The goal? To streamline development by eliminating the need to maintain separate public and internal branches. While this means fewer early insights into upcoming features, Google says it will continue releasing source code to AOSP after each official launch, ensuring manufacturers and developers can still customize Android.
Jetpack’s latest update enhances Compose runtime: The Compose Runtime library—responsible for state management and composition—gets a boost with new features aimed at smoother, more efficient UI updates. PausableComposition now enables asynchronous composition, while runtime-tracing offers deeper performance insights. The takeaway? More responsive and optimized Compose apps.
Firebase expands AI and cloud capabilities: The latest Firebase update brings upgrades across its SDKs for Android, Apple, JavaScript, Admin, Unity, and Flutter. Key highlights? Improved Analytics, enhanced Cloud Functions, and expanded Remote Config support—plus a public preview of Vertex AI integration. Also new: streaming callable functions for real-time data handling and broader App Check support. The goal? Smoother performance, better developer experience, and deeper integration across the Firebase ecosystem.

💭 What is the Mobile Community Talking About?

What are mobile app developers discussing? Do you have any concerns, advice, or tutorials to share? MobilePro brings them to you all in one place.

Optimizing SwiftUI for scalability: Mobile developer Bunthoeun Soeun has created an AI-driven smart-banking mobile app. While doing so, he tried maintaining clean code principles and a modular organization so that it could be scaled, reused, and tested with ease. You can read more on their LinkedIn post.
Flutter plugins to make development easier: Those working with Flutter often find themselves at a crossroads when trying to find plugins, or figuring out whether they exist at all. You won’t be lost any further though as Rishad has compiled 586 plugins (at the time of writing) for ease of access. Do you require a plugin for creating and managing multiple windows on the desktop or one for detecting screenshots on Android/iOS? Rishad’s post in LinkedIn has you covered.
Fix performance bottlenecks in your mobile app: Your app’s gone live but you notice it lags between certain pages. Another time, you feel that your app isn’t being as fast as it should be. Aneeqa Khan provides a few tips and tricks on solving these problems so that your app is running as smoothly as possible.

🤖 What’s Happening in AI?

AI is evolving fast—are you keeping up? MobilePro brings you key discussions, trends, and expert takes in one place.

OpenAI GPT-4o Image Generator gains popularity, now available to free users: OpenAI has made its advanced image generation feature, powered by GPT-4o, available to all users, including free-tier subscribers. This tool, which can create photorealistic images, has gained attention for producing Studio Ghibli-inspired art. However, free users face limits, including a cap of three images per day. The rollout was initially delayed due to high demand (see next bullet!) but has now been completed.
Ghibli trend overwhelms OpenAI—Sam Altman urges users to slow down: OpenAI’s latest GPT-4o update brought native image generation, and one style took over—Studio Ghibli. Social media is now packed with AI-generated Ghibli-inspired art, pushing OpenAI’s servers to the limit. The response? CEO Sam Altman urged users to slow down, posting, “Can y’all please chill on generating images? This is insane, our team needs sleep.” To handle the surge, OpenAI has temporarily capped free-tier users at three image generations per day.
OpenAI unveils next-gen audio models for smarter, more expressive voice interactions: OpenAI has upgraded its speech-to-text and text-to-speech models, making voice interactions more natural and dynamic. GPT-4o-transcribe and GPT-4o-mini-transcribe boost accuracy across multiple languages and tough listening conditions, while the latest text-to-speech model introduces customizable speech styles—perfect for everything from empathetic customer support to expressive storytelling. The goal? More human-like, reliable audio AI.

📚️ Latest in Mobile Development from Packt

MobilePro presents the latest titles from Packt that ought to be useful for mobile developers.

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Designing Information Architecture

Buy now at $44.99

Designing Information Architecture is your guide to building intuitive digital spaces, helping users navigate information overload with ease. Written by UX expert Pabini Gabriel-Petit, it covers proven IA design strategies, effective search systems, and modern AI-driven approaches. Whether you're structuring websites, apps, or intranets, this book offers practical insights to improve organization, findability, and usability.

Mobile App Development Tutorial — Excerpt from An iOS Developer's Guide to SwiftUI by Michele Fadda

SwiftUI, like any other framework, can have its own quirks. For instance, why does @viewbuilder allow just 10 views and not more?Michele Fadda's An iOS Developer's Guide to SwiftUI is here to help you out on that front, with the following excerpt:

In this section, we will explain why we have a limit of just 10 child views, for example, on HStacks and VStacks.

The @SwiftUiBuilder attribute is a result builder that allows the creation of child views for a SwiftUI view without the need for return keywords.

You are already using @ViewBuilder; internally, the definition of the protocol View internal to the SwiftUI framework is the following:

Public protocol View {
 Associatedtype Body:View
@ViewBuilder var body: Self.Body { get }
}

There is no need to add the preceding code yourself, as this is a part of the SwiftUI code.

The effect of this protocol declaration is that you can write your SwiftUI body the way you have seen so far, that is, omitting the return. Take the following example:

struct ContentView: View {
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var body: some View {
Text("Example")
}
}

@ViewBuilder is defined this way inside SwiftUI:

@available(iOS 13.0, OSX 10.15, tvOS 13.0, watchOS 6.0, *)
extension ViewBuilder {
public static func buildBlock<C0, C1>(_ c0: C0, _ c1: C1) -> TupleView<(C0, C1)> where C0 : View, C1 : View
}

@ViewBuilder contains a static buildBlock method that receives two views and returns a TupleView function of generic views conforming to the View protocol.

@ViewBuilder also has similar definitions for up to 10 different views.

This is the underlying reason why @Stackbuilder and the views built with it, for example, HStacks and VStacks, can only contain up to exactly 10 different views.

We can use @ViewBuilder directly ourselves, inside initializers, definitions of methods, or in front of properties.

By using the @Stackbuilder result builder, it is possible to create more compact code and improve readability, or we can create our version of a view, kind of like a custom UI component.

***

Read Michele Fadda’s further thoughts and work in An iOS Developer's Guide to SwiftUIto find out.

mobilepro-165-introducing-swiftly-whats-new-in-swift-61-gpt-4o-wwdc-2025-and-more-img-2

An iOS Developer's Guide to SwiftUI

Buy now at$44.99

💡️ Developer Tip

If you’re a React Native user, this one’s especially for you. Priya Bapodra, a software engineer in the mobile dev space, has listed out 7 tips that will help you while navigating React Native. Here's one of those tips:

"While inline styles are easy to use, they can be less efficient and harder to manage in larger projects. Opt for StyleSheet.create to improve performance and make styles more maintainable."

You can read the remaining tips in Priya’s LinkedIn post here.

In case you have any tips to share with your fellow mobile developers, do reply to this mail and we’d be glad to feature you in a future edition of MobilePro.

❓ Did You Know?

On April 3, 1973, the first-ever mobile phone call creates history. Standing on Sixth Avenue in New York City, Motorola engineer Martin Cooper made a call that reshaped communication forever. Using the Motorola DynaTAC—a 2.5-pound, 10-inch prototype—he dialed his rival, Joel Engel of Bell Labs, proving that mobile phones weren’t just a concept. That moment kicked off the shift from bulky, stationary phones to the pocket-sized essentials we rely on today.

Sourced from Android Authority.

👋 And that’s a wrap. We hope you enjoyed this edition of MobilePro. If you have any suggestions and feedback, or would just like to say hi to us, please write to us. Just respond to this email!

Cheers,

Runcil Rebello,

Editor-in-Chief, MobilePro