Every year, I carefully watch WWDC sessions to find the ones that are the most useful in my daily work as an iOS engineer. My main goal is to select videos that bring real value to real projects-features I can apply right away. I focus on topics like localization, in-app purchases, testing improvements, and new capabilities available to users with the latest OS versions. SwiftUI is my top priority, so I always look for updates in this area first, as it’s the modern way to build iOS apps and preferred over UIKit for new development.
If you’re trying to stay up to date with the most important announcements without watching dozens of sessions, this curated list is for you. These 10 videos cover the most impactful updates from WWDC 2025-things you’ll actually use in production. I highly recommend watching them to get the most out of your time and bring immediate improvements to your apps.
Platforms State of the Union 2025
This is your yearly overview of everything new across Apple platforms. It covers enhancements in iOS, macOS, visionOS, Swift, SwiftUI, Xcode, and system frameworks. If you only watch one session this year, make it this one-it sets the stage for all the other updates.
What’s New in Xcode
This session highlights new features in Xcode 16, including improvements in code navigation, debugging, Swift Testing, and performance tooling. If you want to be more productive and write better code, don’t skip this one.
What’s New in Swift
Explore the latest changes in the Swift language, including macros, ownership features, and compiler enhancements. This session is great if you’re passionate about writing more expressive, safe, and efficient Swift code.
What’s New in SwiftUI
The SwiftUI team shares new APIs and design improvements for building better UIs across all Apple platforms. This session includes layout updates, animation enhancements, and new view modifiers that will simplify your UI development workflow. A must-watch if SwiftUI is your primary framework.
Optimize SwiftUI Performance with Instruments
Learn how to use the latest Instruments features to find and fix performance issues in SwiftUI apps. This video walks through practical scenarios and demonstrates how to detect slow views, measure rendering cost, and optimize navigation. A must for shipping smooth, fast user interfaces.
Meet the Foundation Models Framework
A high-level introduction to Apple’s new on-device LLM API. Learn about guided generation, streaming, tool calling, and stateful sessions in Swift. If you’re planning to integrate AI features in your apps while keeping data private, this is your entry point.
Create Icons with Icon Composer
Apple introduces Icon Composer, a new tool to generate all necessary app icon assets from a single SVG. This tool saves time and ensures pixel-perfect results across platforms. It’s ideal for developers and designers who want to streamline the app icon workflow.
Record, Replay, and Review: UI Automation with Xcode
Discover how to record UI interactions, replay them across devices, and analyze them in Xcode. This new UI testing flow simplifies test creation and debugging. If you care about test coverage and regression safety, this session is worth your time.
What’s New in StoreKit and In-App Purchase
This session introduces updates to StoreKit 2: expanded offer support, SwiftUI views for subscriptions, and simpler verification using App Store Server Library. If your app includes subscriptions or IAPs, this session helps you boost monetization with less code.
Code-Along: Explore Localization with Xcode
A hands-on walkthrough of localization in Xcode using String Catalogs, plural rules, language exports, and auto-generated comments. If you support multiple languages or plan to, this will save you hours and help translators do a better job.
Conclusion
WWDC is the best time of the year for every iOS engineer to learn, get inspired, and bring new ideas to their apps. If you don’t have time to watch everything, I hope this list helped you prioritize the most impactful sessions.
But I strongly recommend opening the full list of WWDC 2025 videos and checking out sessions that match your domain. If you’re working with games, visionOS, watchOS, accessibility, or anything beyond iOS, there’s a lot more value waiting for you. Explore and build something great!
If you enjoyed this selection of must-watch sessions and want to stay updated with the most practical insights for iOS engineers, I invite you to subscribe to The iOS Weekly Brief. Every week, I handpick the most useful news, tips, tools, and updates from the iOS world - all in a short, developer-friendly format that you can read in 5 minutes. It’s made for iOS engineers who want to stay ahead without spending hours reading every changelog or watching every video.
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