#38 - Engineering blogs
Knowledge transfer by tech companies in FY25
Hey iOS developer! 👋
The iOS community is full of great developers who constantly write articles about building for Apple platforms. But there’s another great opportunity to learn new things - engineering blogs maintained by the tech companies.
Most of time, these blogs feature articles on non-mobile development, so finding iOS-related can be a challenge.
Each September, I look back and collect the most interesting iOS articles from engineering blogs published over past fiscal year.
How we sped up Android and iOS builds by 68% on CI
Every detail counts: faster build times → better developer experience → happier developers. That’s the Duolingo approach.
In this article, we can learn how the team improved iOS and Android build times from 50 to under 20.
Read on Duolingo blog
How we think about Threads’ iOS performance
At the time of writing, the article bellow notes that the Meta Threads app had over 300 million monthly users. Measuring performance is crucial - from how quickly the app launches to how long does it takes users to post a photo or video.
The Threads iOS team disclosures some interesting app performance metrics, such as time-to-network-content or creation-publish success rate.
Read on Engineering at Meta
A Behind-the-Scenes Look at How We Release the Spotify App (Part 1)
Releasing an application to the App Store is one of the most important parts of the development process - this is when users get access to new features. That’s why it’s important to have a clear process in place. For small teams and projects, this can be straightforward. But for large like Spotify, the release process can be a real challenge.
Here’s how Spotify makes sure every new feature release doesn’t negatively impact the user experience. For them, it’s not just about releasing the main app but also building the necessary tools to support it.
Read on Spotify Engineering
Understanding and Improving SwiftUI Performance
For apps like Airbnb, performance is crucial.
But how can SwiftUI performance be improved at scale?
In this article, Cal Stephens and Miguel Jimenez from Airbnb:
- Discuss how SwiftUI's built-in diffing algorithm impacts the performance
- Explain the techniques Airbnb used to improve SwiftUI performance
Read on Airbnb Engineering
Integrating Extensions into Large-Scale iOS apps
Lyft has a highly modular codebase which brings various challenges when developing a separate application extension for the booking rides in Apple Maps.
In this article, Max Husar and Artur Stepaniuk explore how to manage dependency constraints (including RAM and binary size limitations), share app extension development takeaways, and provide SiriKit integration tips.
Read on Lyft Engineering
Xcode Migrations: From Stone Age to AI Mastery
Do you think updating the code to the new iOS version is a pain?
No, the real one is migrating to the new Xcode!
Here is how Radu Dan and his team at Qonto are improving the Xcode migrations.
I personally liked the idea of the Xcode checker script.
Read on Qonto Way blog
If you missed last year’s Engineering blogs issue in Curated iOS, you can find it here.
Unfold's Modern Mobile Release Process and the Subtle Art of Making Them Boring
This is the second article I’m sharing about releases in this newsletter issue. But this time, the authors from Squarespace describe their release process as boring - because they don’t think much about it anymore.
It wasn’t always like this. In the past, the process often slowed mobile teams down. Here is how Squarespace moved from an eventful release process to a boring.
If I had to pick one idea from the article, it would be the concept of a release captain. It’s a rotation role where everyone on the team takes a turn overseeing the release.
Read on Squarespace Engineering
Tripadvisor MVVM-C → TCA
The next two articles are special as they contradict each other. Debates about the “right” architecture can go on for a long time, with each side having its own truth.
In this article, the Tripadvisor team discusses how they migrated from MVVM-C to TCA.
Read on Tripadvisor blog
How we used macros to promote MVVM architecture adoption
Here’s the opposite perspective: another well-known company is sticking with MVVM.
Read on Duolingo blog
If you found this Curated iOS issue useful, I’d be happy if you:
Until next time!
Artjoms
Very interesting. Appreciate you putting this list together.