Apple Unveils New AI Frameworks and Agentic Coding in Xcode 27

Apple has introduced new intelligence capabilities, expanded productivity features in Xcode, and a range of platform improvements aimed at making apps faster, more adaptive, and easier to build. The updates were detailed at WWDC 2026, and developer betas are available now.



"Developers are at the heart of the Apple ecosystem, and our goal is to provide them with the best possible tools and technologies to build the future," said Susan Prescott, Apple's vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations. "With new intelligence frameworks and agentic coding in Xcode 27, developers have the tools they need to focus on what they do best: bringing their incredible ideas to life."

Intelligence Frameworks

With the latest enhancements to Apple Intelligence and the introduction of Siri AI, developers can make their apps' content and capabilities more discoverable across the system. Updates to the App Intents framework let developers connect their apps to Siri AI features such as personal context understanding, app actions, and onscreen awareness.


Building on the Foundation Models framework introduced last year, the framework now serves as a single native Swift API that supports more powerful on-device models with image input, support for server models, and the ability to build custom skills.

Using this API, developers can tap into the next generation of Apple Foundation Models, which were custom-built in collaboration with Google and its Gemini models. Developers enrolled in the App Store Small Business Program with fewer than 2 million total first-time App Store downloads can access the next generation of Apple Foundation Models running on Private Cloud Compute at no cloud API cost.

Developers can also use models of their choice, such as Claude and Gemini, or any other provider that implements the new language model protocol. The framework also introduces Dynamic Profiles, which let developers update how models interact with their apps on the fly.


For developers who want to bring their own custom models into an app, Core AI is a new framework for running models on device. It provides an architecture optimized for the unified memory and Neural Engine of Apple silicon, allowing developers to deploy full-scale LLMs locally.

Xcode 27 and Agentic Coding

Xcode 27 brings the full power of models and agents from Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI directly into the developer workflow. Conversations with coding agents feature interactive planning, multiturn Q&A, and a canvas that can render Markdown and display code changes and previews alongside.



Xcode 27 also gives coding agents the tools to validate their own work so they can run autonomously for longer, including writing and running tests, trying ideas in isolation with Playgrounds, checking visual changes with previews, and interacting with the simulator in the new Device Hub.

With plug-ins, developers can extend Xcode with custom skills, bring in tools through the Model Context Protocol, and connect any agent compatible with the Agent Client Protocol. GitHub and Figma are the first to offer seamless installation between their tools and Xcode.

Xcode 27 is now Apple silicon only, 30 percent smaller, and offers faster performance and a simpler setup process. It adds a fully customizable toolbar and a new theme system that spans colors across the entire editor. Xcode Cloud is now up to twice as fast, with new support for apps that use Metal and for visionOS builds.

Refined Design and UI Frameworks

Liquid Glass, Apple's unified visual design, continues to evolve this year with improvements to legibility, customizability, and consistency. A new transparency slider in Settings lets users adjust the appearance to their preference, and the design adapts to a variety of accessibility settings.



SwiftUI makes apps more responsive without requiring code changes, through more efficient state initialization and faster layout rendering. Developers can write less custom code using new reorderable containers, and the new Spatial Preview framework allows 3D models from Mac apps to be viewed spatially when streamed to Apple Vision Pro.

Swift 6.4 streamlines the daily developer experience with targeted warning suppression, simplified availability attributes such as "anyAppleOS," and improved compiler diagnostics.

Tools and Resources for Games

Managed Background Assets reduce game install sizes by automatically identifying a player's preferred language and downloading only the asset packs required for that language. A new Steam Asset Converter streamlines adapting PC games for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, and visionOS.

Game Porting Toolkit 4 adds open source skills for use with agents, equipping them with Apple-specific best practices for Metal development. Official Unity plug-ins bring native Apple integration for StoreKit and Background Assets, and Reality Composer Pro 3 lets developers build complete spatial experiences in a single tool, with new Live Previews combined with Mac Virtual Display.

Availability

Developer betas for iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, watchOS 27, tvOS 27, visionOS 27, and Xcode 27 are available now through Apple's developer website. Apple Intelligence features are available only in supported regions.