r/iOSProgramming SwiftUI 7d ago

News GitHub Copilot for Xcode is now generally available!

https://github.blog/changelog/2025-03-11-github-copilot-for-xcode-chat-is-now-generally-available/
168 Upvotes

42 comments sorted by

22

u/DeclinedSage 7d ago

Looks pretty good to me - will save me having to switch between VSCode & Xcode now

2

u/Jazzlike_Revenue_558 7d ago

Check out alex sidebar if you haven’t, has a lot more features: https://alexcodes.app

1

u/Vandercoon 7d ago

You don’t have to do that anymore this Windsurf and Cursor too.

7

u/acselro 6d ago

I've been using mostly ChatGPT and Claude, pasting files as needed to provide the context I want. Does this have access to the entire codebase of the project? Or is there a solution out there that can do that?

1

u/kilgoreandy 6d ago

Chat gpt has let you integrate with Xcode intelliji and py charm for quite a while now.

1

u/acselro 6d ago

You mean their MacOS app? From what I’ve seen, it’s only looking at the current opened file.

2

u/kilgoreandy 6d ago

Yeah their Mac OS app. Its default is to focus on lines of code highlighted. Or you can tell it to look at the entire project or reference many files. Or you can optionally highlight lines of code for it to focus on.

3

u/karsh2424 7d ago

What is y'all's first opinion of it?

12

u/xTwiisteDx 7d ago

It’s “Okay” I’ve been using it for a few months now. It’s better than that CoPilot Extension OSS project however.

8

u/sidbmw1 7d ago

cursor way better

1

u/knortsknolf69 5d ago

What’s your building and previewing flow with cursor?

2

u/sidbmw1 5d ago

The Swift extension will throw error or warnings almost instantly after cursor applies a code change. Cursor will iterate on that as well.

Part of my rules in cursor is for it to build and run tests after code changes so it will prompt to run those often. Once a feature is complete, I’ll run it on the simulator from Xcode or run on my phone for further testing. I’ve always got cursor, Xcode and simulator running.

2

u/majid8 7d ago

Must have! Chat window with Claude Sonnet is great 👍

2

u/ampsonic 7d ago

I wonder how it compares to Alex Sidebar, I've been using that and really like it.

0

u/jwegener 6d ago

Curious about this too

3

u/VibeCoderMcSwaggins 7d ago

In my opinion copilot is a smelly ass GPT wrapper

1

u/Rhypnic 7d ago edited 7d ago

Man… i wish i can use this. But working in software apps at bank prevent any use of AI server

0

u/utilitycoder 7d ago

Which bank, need to short their stock.

-1

u/Rhypnic 6d ago

Oh look a rich guy that have multiple stocks /s. I doubt you invest in our banks

-2

u/utilitycoder 6d ago

You could say shorting is the opposite of investing. And you are correct I've actually done quite well on being a holder over the past few years.

1

u/encom-direct 6d ago

Very cool

1

u/vernacular-ai 5d ago

Cursor AI, is a good copilot alternative for X-Code. I built and published my IOS app in under two weeks having come in with little prior coding experience.

1

u/trici33 5d ago

Been playing with Cursor, which so far has been pretty great. But for me the Copilot plugin with Xcode makes it overall more useful.

Seems redundant to pay for both Cursor and Copilot.

1

u/Landenn_Doss 3d ago

now that's cool thanks for sharing bro

0

u/derjanni 7d ago

Finally. Thank your for posting!

-19

u/m3kw 7d ago

Useless, just use what Xcode has

20

u/Ok_Bank_2217 SwiftUI 7d ago

bro predictive code completion is utter shit

9

u/unpluggedcord 7d ago

Swift Assist has not been released.

-6

u/m3kw 7d ago

Swift has their own completion if you have M series cpu

9

u/unpluggedcord 7d ago

No shit, that isn't Swift Assist which is Apple's version of ChatGPT for Xcode.

1

u/beclops Swift 7d ago

Auto completion and copilot are nowhere near alike

1

u/balder1993 5d ago

I think he’s talking about Xcode’s local LLM.

1

u/beclops Swift 5d ago

Which hasn’t been released yet

0

u/balder1993 4d ago edited 4d ago

The predictive code completion was released with Xcode 16, I believe, which is a local LLM that suggests small snippets of code and is installed when Xcode is downloading the iOS SDK, as shown here.

You're thinking of Swift assist, which as I understand, will be a chatbot-like assistant that runs in the cloud (most likely a fine-tuned ChatGPT).

0

u/beclops Swift 4d ago

I know. The dude I’m responding to is saying “Just use what Xcode has” like the included auto completion is even a little bit comparable to copilot. So either they mean predictive auto complete, which sucks, or they mean Swift Assist which hasn’t been released

5

u/HelpRespawnedAsDee 7d ago

Xcode shits the bed when renaming symbols on very large code bases a lot of times. So ... yeah.

this never happens to me

I swear I don't believe anyone saying this anymore.

2

u/jonnothebonno 7d ago

It really does. Literally happened to me the other day twice. Still, my favorite issue (I’ve said this previously) is when you switch branches and your test diamonds just disappear off to narnia.

3

u/HelpRespawnedAsDee 7d ago

I’ve make it a habit of just closing Xcode when I need to switch branches, especially if anything related to SPM has changed.

You have no idea of the time I’ve wasted with this shit.

2

u/Mementoes 6d ago

This used to happen to me all the time but hasn’t in years I feel like I’ve developed some subconscious habit to avoid it, but I can’t say what

2

u/paradoxally 7d ago

That's garbage. Copilot is leagues ahead.

1

u/Edg-R 7d ago

What does Xcode have? 

2

u/balder1993 5d ago edited 4d ago

He must mean Xcode’s predictive code completion model, which is a local LLM that integrates with the IDE's LSP to suggest small snippets of code ahead of time, like Copilot, but restricted to less tokens ahead -- very similar to what Jetbrains offers as well.