7 Primary Reasons To Choose Swift For iOS App Development

For a very long period, Objective-C (a superset of C with added object-oriented features) was the primary programming language used for macOS and iOS mobile app development. But its usage has dwindled ever since Swift stepped into the market. Released in 2014, Swift is one of the most popular programming languages, today, used to create iOS applications. The language has remarkably enhanced various areas of app development and is considered the go-to option by developers for Apple operating systems like iOS, macOS, iPadOS, and watchOS.

Earlier, developing an iOS app used to be a challenging and time-consuming task. Moreover, the frequency of app crashes was also on the higher end. Swift for iOS has opened new doors not only for the enterprises but also for the iPhone app development companies by making the iOS mobile app development process efficient and more effective.

Benefits of Swift for iPhone App Development

Swift has grabbed the attention of iOS app developers because it provides them with a number of phenomenal tools, frameworks, and documentation to work with natives comfortably. It is fast and enables a level of interactivity in app development. Features such as closure, generics, and type interference make this language relatively easy to use. It blends features of both C and Objective-C, without having direct in-built C compatibility.

Read: 7 Reasons Why You Should Learn Swift

Let’s get into the details and take a look at the benefits of Swift for iOS over Objective-C, understand why it has become a primary choice for iOS app developers and how it has redefined iPhone app development.

1. Easy to Code

One of the major benefits of Swift for iPhone app development is that it is relatively easy to code as compared to its counterparts. When it comes to mobile app development, programming languages require high and complex command lines. Swift has an explicit syntax and is generally easier to read and write than most of the other programming languages. Swift is concise and can minimize the line of codes; making programming faster and more efficient. This is because it avoids using semicolons to end lines and brackets that encircles conditional expressions inside if/else statements.

The coding in Swift gets more simple because the method and function call in it makes use of a comma-separated list of parameters within the brackets. The code reusability is also high since only a few lines of code are needed for complex tasks, thereby helping developers save a lot of time and remember which part of the certain code can be used without any change in another part.

Also, codes written in Swift appear more like plain English texts that make it easy for the developers to understand and look for the faulty code. Even a non-coder would find Swift much easier to read, write, and understand.

2. Better Stability and Safety

App safety and security is the primary concern of any app developer as well as the entrepreneur. Swift is an ideal option for any iPhone app development company looking to create a safe and stable iOS mobile app for its clients. As we mentioned earlier, Swift uses clear and easy-to-understand syntax which reduces the chances of developers making mistakes while writing the codes that are often overlooked in Objective-C, thereby adding an additional layer of quality control. Even if an error occurs, it is way less compared to Objective-C; all thanks to the enhanced typing system and error handling capabilities of Swift. The error tracking capability and the short feedback loop will allow developers to review the coding errors instantly. The cases of problematic behavior and crashes are comparatively on the lesser side in Swift; one of the core reasons why it is considered a stable programming language for iPhone app development over Objective-C.

3. Easy to Maintain

One of the main reasons why developers prefer Swift over Objective-C for iOS app development is the former is easy to maintain. Unlike Objective-C which is highly dependent on C, Swift doesn’t come with any such dependencies, which makes it comparatively easy to maintain. In the case of C and Objective-C, iOS developers need to maintain two code files (Objective-C header (.h) and implementation files (.m))  in order to improve build time and code efficiency. Swift, on the other hand, combines these two files into a single code file (.swift), making it easy to manage. This provides developers with more time to plan the app logic and enhance the code quality so that the app runs smoothly. This helps get rid of the situation wherein the method name and comment between files are needed to be synchronized manually- one of the major flaws associated with Objective-C.

4. Open-Source

Apple declared Swift as an open-source language in 2015 that surged its popularity among developers. With this announcement, the language became free to use and aided small to large-scale businesses in saving development cost. Open-source languages are customizable which means developers can customize the code as per their requirements. It also gets easy to track bugs and upgrade codes. Also, businesses can get highly customized mobile applications as per their business needs. Apple gets continuous feedback from the community and makes the changes accordingly to make the platform even better.

5. Speed

Speed is also one of the important factors that compel iOS developers to go for Swift over Objective-C. Swift offers high speed be it during the development phase or testing, which eventually helps reduce the app development cost as well. It possesses one of the fastest algorithm calculation metrics. On average, an app developed using Swift will be nearly 3.9 times faster than an app developed using Python where the same algorithms are implemented. It also offers a better speed performance than Objective-C since it uses only a single code file instead of two. Swift permits iPhone app developers to use generics and high-order functions, thus making the codes clean and reusable. Swift’s performance is also considered equivalent to C++ by many developers but the latter overtakes the former in terms of speed. Apple had clearly stated during the Swift launch that its primary focus revolved around speed improvement and executing the app logic faster.

6. Interactive Coding

Adding to the benefits of Swift for iPhone app development is Interactive coding. Swift Playground enables iOS developers to test out a new algorithm in real-time without having to develop the entire app. This is generally known as Read-Eval-Print-Loop or REPL and is extremely helpful in learning, experimenting, and rapid prototyping. Apple has added inline code execution to assist developers to create a pile of codes or algorithms while getting the feedback alongside. The feedback helps improve the speed at which the code can be written with the assistance of data visualizations. Swift and Playground altogether result in easier, accessible, and approachable app development.

7. Dynamic Libraries’ Support

Swift supports dynamic libraries, unlike Objective-C. Dynamic libraries are feasible pieces of code that can be linked to the app either during runtime or load-time. The feature helps connect apps developed with older versions of the language with those developed using the latest releases. Put simply, it allows the apps currently built on a specific version to be updated comfortably to the future releases of Swift. Dynamic libraries are uploaded directly to the memory which significantly helps cut down the initial app size and speeds up the application performance.

Final Word

Within a very short span, Swift has become one of the leading programming languages to create engaging, intuitive, and user-friendly iOS mobile apps. Apple continuously strives to make Swift and other iOS languages more advanced in order to make them more efficient and high-performant. In future releases, we can expect some major enhancements in the Swift programming language.