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Latest Mobile Dev Insights: iOS, Android, Cross-Platform

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MobilePro #191: Swift 6.2, Claude in Xcode 26, Android 16 QPR2 Beta 2, and more…

Hi ,

Welcome to another week of MobilePro; this is edition no. 191.

A couple weeks ago, Apple released iOS 26. As with so many other, I did not hesitate in quickly getting hold of the new update. I love most of the changes. Liquid Glass does look cool, love the little jelly shake when you unlock your phone or shift tabs in Calls. Safari Browser has a leaner look too, where you can now parse more information as the address bar and other extras take lesser space at the bottom. However, it’s not all easy-going.

Of course, I have seen my phone battery diminish quicker. Now, this is commonplace for iPhones whenever a major update is out, and it generally does settle down soon enough. That’s what Apple has said this time around as well, that your phone will take some time adjusting to the changes across the device. So I say, let’s have a little patience and hopefully the battery will be back to what it was. It’s not all doom and gloom.

Anyway, it does seem that if you’re displeased with iOS 26, there’s no way back anymore. Apple has stopped the validation of iOS 18.6.2, which must have been your iPhone’s status before updating to iOS 26. This means that if you were planning to downgrade from iOS 26 to iOS 18.6.2, you can no longer do that. Again, this isn’t a new practice. Apple does this whenever they release a new, major update, like iOS 26 is. Time to get yourself familiar with Liquid Glass then, yes?

That’s not all the news this week. Let’s dive in.

⚡ Swift 6.2 released: Easier concurrency, safer low-level coding, faster builds, and smoother workflows for developers
😵‍💫 iOS 26 user backlash: Many report eye strain, vertigo, and visual discomfort from the new Liquid Glass UI
🔐 Apple stops signing iOS 18.6.2: Downgrades from iOS 26 are now blocked — once you upgrade, you can’t roll back
🚫 Android crackdown: From 2026, Google will require developer identity verification even for sideloaded apps, blocking unverified installs globally by 2027
🤖 Android 16 QPR2 Beta 2: Platform-stable with developer verification, SMS-OTP protection, custom icons, and performance boosts
🖥️ Claude in Xcode 26: Natural-language coding assistant for debugging, docs, and SwiftUI previews directly in Xcode
📝 GPT-5 Codex: AI optimized for complex code refactoring and large-scale reviews

Stick around for this week’s Developer Tip to learn how to smartly work with GitHub Copilot andtheDid You Know? section to learn about Anthropic’s settlement of a class-action lawsuit.

Let’s dive in!

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Cloud Ransomware Tabletop: Unpacking an Attack from Detection to Recovery

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Cloud ransomware isn't a matter of if, but when. Are you truly ready?

Watch our immersive fireside chat on October 1st @ 9 AM PDT as we unpack a fictional, yet alarmingly realistic, cloud ransomware attack on Horizon Retail.

Save Your Spot

📱 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.

iOS & Swift

Swift 6.2 is out: Swift 6.2 is here, bringing big upgrades for productivity and safety. It makes concurrency easier with less boilerplate, adds safer low-level tools like InlineArray and Span, and streamlines workflows with VS Code support, faster builds, and smarter debugging. In short, it’s a release that makes writing Swift code smoother, faster, and more reliable.
iOS/iPadOS 26.1 release: iOS/iPadOS 26.1 beta focuses on fixes and small updates: HealthKit now has a single blood pressure toggle, SwiftUI gains @Animatable on older OS versions, and NearbyInteraction supports more UWB parameters. It also resolves issues with Background Assets, Game Controller timestamps, and HealthKit blood pressure saves, though some Siri (Portuguese), SwiftUI, and NearbyInteraction bugs remain.
Claude is now generally available in Xcode: Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 4 is now generally available inside Xcode 26, letting developers use natural-language tools to debug, refactor, generate docs, preview SwiftUI, and more, all from within their project.

Android

Release of Android 16 QPR2 Beta 2: Android 16 QPR2 Beta 2 is now platform-stable, the APIs are locked, with new features like developer verification, SMS-OTP protection, custom icon shapes, better garbage collection, and more battery-/performance-friendly improvements.
Jetpack Compose 1.9.1 Lands: Jetpack Compose just hit stable with version 1.9.1, bringing improvements in shadows, 2D scrolling APIs, and more efficient list performance. Material3 is inching forward too, now in release-candidate with updates, while the alpha builds preview even newer tweaks.
Android 16 GSI binaries released: The GSI (Generic System Image) release gives devs early access to Android 16’s code for testing and compatibility checks on supported devices, plus instructions and caveats about flashing, known issues, and hardware requirements.
As Android developer verification gets ready to go, here's a new reason to be worried: Google is making developer identity verification mandatory even for apps installed outside the Play Store, meaning unverified apps may be blocked on devices without an active internet connection. The rollout starts in phases from September 2026 (in select regions) and will expand globally by 2027.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

OpenAI Releases GPT-5-Codex Optimized for Complex Code Refactoring and Code Reviews: OpenAI has unleashed GPT-5-Codex, a version of GPT-5 fine-tuned for heavy-duty dev work like big code refactors and code reviews. It adapts how much reasoning power it uses to the complexity of a task, supports both interactive tweaks and long-running automation, and shows much higher accuracy in large, multi-file changes.
Replit Introduces Agent 3 for Extended Autonomous Coding and Automation: Replit just dropped Agent 3, a much more autonomous coding agent that can keep working for up to ~200 minutes, self-test and debug its own code, and even spawn sub-agents for tasks like Slack or email integrations. It promises up to three times faster results at a tenth of the cost compared to Replit’s older models—kind of a shift toward agents that handle more of the dev workflow on their own.

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Apple’s new Liquid Glass UI makes native apps shine, but Flutter apps don’t get it out of the box. Why? Flutter’s Impeller engine paints its own layer — meaning your app could feel outdated next to iOS. Click here to know how to replicate the effect (and stay ahead).

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.

💭 What is the Mobile Community Talking About?

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

Flutter MVVM + Repository architecture slashes feature time from weeks to days: Rezvani’s team at TechCorp refactored their app’s architecture, cleanly separating Views, ViewModels, Repositories, and Services, and cut feature delivery from 6-8 weeks to just 5-7 days; they also improved code quality with tests, reduced duplication, and sped up build/startup times dramatically.
Error monitoring blind spots: how to reveal and fix unseen performance issues: Many apps suffer from performance issues that escape visibility because their error monitoring tools miss certain contexts, like background tasks, non-blocking async flows, or device-specific failures. This article outlines steps to enhance observability: capturing stack traces in all thread types, using synthetic monitoring, adding logging in edge cases, and proactively investigating user feedback to find what standard tools don’t catch.
Visual Studio adds prompts, resources & sampling to MCP for smarter Copilot context: Visual Studio now supports new MCP (Model Context Protocol) features: prompts, resources, and sampling, which let Copilot pull in project-specific context like work items, design specs, and app schemas directly within the IDE. These additions enable more customized, dynamic interactions (via prompt/templates), bring in external context via resources, and allow MCP servers to perform nested LLM calls with sampling, making Copilot assistance more intelligent and tightly coupled to your dev stack.

📚️ 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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🤖 Put Al to work in Figma with workflows that speed up content, assets, and cleanup while saving hours

Design Beyond Limits with Figma

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GitHub has been named a Leader in Gartner’s 2025 Magic Quadrant for AI Code Assistants for the second consecutive year, ranking highest in both “ability to execute” and “completeness of vision”.

Sourced from GitHub.

👋 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