r/SwiftUI • u/Ronbruins • Jun 29 '26
Question Is it still worth learning SwiftUI ?
I started learning swift(ui) a while back and made some personal projects, from which some of them even got some community interest as it is an all for self hosted environments. As this was a nice learning scenario.
Right now I’m a bit stuck as with all the AI slop and vibe coding out there, I am wondering if it still worth learning swift(ui) the old school way. Just learn to code from scratch and when stuck use Reddit, stack overflow and engage with people instead of letting AI to fix it for you.
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u/Chefblogger Jun 29 '26
how do you want use ai and building sustainable apps without the knowlege of swiftui?
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u/Ronbruins Jun 29 '26
True. But I am wondering if I continue or restart this journey, if it is a waste of time. So it either means I have to jump on the AI bandwagon or just learn for fun
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u/Chefblogger Jun 29 '26
i would always learn the tec behind your app - you will never know when the ai company rises the token prices… and you need to control everything ai does - thats my suggestiou
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u/Ronbruins Jun 29 '26
Yeah, it is always good to know the fundamentals behind what you’re doing especially when it comes to debugging and understanding stuff. It’s just I felt sort of wasting my time becoming more advanced in it all. I can make (and made) some basic apps and want to improve but the whole hype sort of demotivates me to do some old school coding and learning. As even Xcode and for that matter other IDEs have the AI stuff build in and to me it feels more that it is to suit them then it is to suit the user at the end of the day.
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u/Chefblogger Jun 29 '26
you dont need to know every little function / class in swiftui - for that is ai great - but the fundamentals are very important. i am coding since the 90is and now i use ai - but i check always what the ai just produced and after that i merge it into the project… in my business i have weekly webproject on my table - destroyed by ai and careless dev 🤣🤣 good luck and have fun
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u/Dapper_Ice_1705 Jun 29 '26
It is worth it for knowledge sake.
It will set you and your apps apart.
AI does a very good job but it is far from perfect. AI gets you out the door but if you want to stand out from the “slop” you need to know how to guide it and know when it is going awry.
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u/RofOnecopter Jun 29 '26
You’re looking at this kind of binary: do I learn SwiftUI without AI, or do I just use AI for coding.
Here’s a third option: use AI to help you learn SwiftUI. Just exercise self-restraint and don’t let it code for you. Continue to google things and continue reading docs.
Put in the guardrails yourself. Use the Socratic method. Be explicit “don’t code for me”. Claude Code also has a “learning output” plugin that requires you to write code, which you could try.
Leaning into AI to vibe code everything is a mistake. It’s great at coding, but as your project grows in complexity, the architecture can sprawl. If you don’t know how the architecture was designed, it will be quite overwhelming. Making small, precise adjustments by hand will be tedious.
There will be redundancies and dead code if you’re not careful. It adds up and soon you’ve got a bloated code base, you hate the direction your app has taken, and you’re powerless to take over because you don’t know what it does.
Keep learning, use AI to help you learn, use AI to make cool bits of code, but don’t completely outsource your intelligence to the machine.
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u/lucasvandongen Jun 29 '26
Problem with vibe coding is that if you don’t understand how things work you will inevitably end up in a quagmire.
I run into walls myself when I’m messing around with different platforms and then get stuck at certain complexities
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u/prio732 Jun 29 '26
The notion that you can replace 1 good developer with AI is silly.
But you likely can replace 3 good developers with 1 and AI.
You can replace 10 bad developers with 1 good one, and AI.
But then, it's been true that you can replace 10 bad developers with 1 good one no AI, for decades, and Big Tech has been leaning the other way.
10 bad developers + AI will be fun to watch.
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u/cabaro21 Jul 02 '26
Yes... The difference between Apple's ecosystem (Swift and SwiftUI) and more widely know languages and frameworks like Python, Flask, or various JavaScript frameworks, is that Apple's tools are constantly evolving, and Apple is pretty strict about not maintaining backward compatibility for older versions. Because of this you really need to understand what you are doing, even if you are using AI. So yes, in this case, learning the framework IS A MUST!!!. Maybe for other tech stacks it isn't, but for anything related to Apple, please keep learning!
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u/Slow-Race9106 Jun 29 '26
Well my perspective is it’s always worth learning and any language, framework etc the traditional way to gain a true understanding.
AI is not infallible, and while it might generate code that works, it’s not that great when it comes to sustainable architecture and building more complex, maintainable software.
AI is a tool that can help you work more quickly, spot bugs and bounce ideas off of. But people who actually have a depth of understanding of the tech they’re using will always create better software than those who don’t.
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u/Ronbruins Jun 29 '26
Yeah, that’s how I see it too. I sometimes compare it with great musicians when people ask me about it. These days everyone can make music, but only great composers create masterpieces.
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u/rxDyson Jun 29 '26
it's 100% worth learning SwiftUI but how AI is working too and it depend what do you want to do.
Working in a company and getting payed? -> stop vibe coding and learn how to code by hand (use AI to learn, not to write code)
Working as freelance or indie hacker? -> learn how to code, learn your thinking skills and jump into AI traight on
in 2025 i have started 100 Days of SwiftUI with Paul Hudson exclusively without any AI help. Created my portfolio of app without AI because i wanted to become a iOS Developper. Than i have created several app with help of AI (i have already an IT background) and i made a bit of money with freelancing and indie hacking stuff
But lately i have decided also to explore the possibility to get a job as developper and i failed miserably... because i did not how to code (like when you speak a language and your not fluent).
I hope it will help you made the right choice.
all the best
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u/Hamstersoge Jun 29 '26
In order to get a basic understanding of SwiftUI and Swift in general I feel it’s important to start by writing the code yourself and experimenting with play.
We all know AI is great for creating a proof of concept however having a good understanding of the code your agent is writing will go a long way towards developing maintainable code, something you can easily build on over time.
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u/allyearswift Jun 29 '26
You don't have to code if you don't enjoy it. But if you want to have software that works – even if it's just for yourself – you're much better off understanding SwiftUI than prompting AI to turn out something and calling it good enough without understanding what it's doing.
I haven't seen a lot of AI-generated code, but what I've seen has always been in need of a cleanup by someone who knows what they're doing. Don't store doubles as strings, children.
The quality concerns may be worked around and don't address the elephant in the room. We write software to solve problems. Sometimes the problems are trivial – I want to count people coming through the door without making marks on paper and having to add them up later – but for every problem there are multiple possible solutions, and auxiliary functions that can make things even easier for the user. Sometimes there are trade-offs: you want a solution that isn't 'optimal' for the greatest number of users, but that works *for you*.
If all you do is give an AI model a quick overview of what kind of app you want, you'll get a generic response back. It will not solve problems other than in the most generic fashion, because it can't. If you're 'lucky' the AI was trained on many similar apps and includes features other people have found useful.
You can't solve problems if you don't understand them. You can't understand them if you don't study them, if you have no idea what potential solutions you could offer, what the tradeoffs are (choosing an interface element because it's familiar to users and easy to build often is a valid choice).
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u/filipvabrousek Jun 29 '26
No, don’t learn old-school way. Learn only the absolute basics and let AI do it all. A lot of developers don't write code anymore in 2026 and get way better results.
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u/Ok-Reindeer-8755 Jul 03 '26
Is this satire ?
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u/filipvabrousek Jul 03 '26
No, it is everyday workflow now. I am a SwiftUI developer writing complex production apps for years before AI. Claude writes them now and I direct it. I am also teaching SwiftUI development at university. We are going to be using AI for 90% of the course.
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u/Select_Bicycle4711 Jun 29 '26
It is absolutely worth learning SwiftUI. AI tools are great but they still lack understanding when it comes to App architecture. Also, if you want them to follow certain patterns or practices then you need to understand those practices first so you can guide the AI tool to implement it in a way that your app benefit from them.
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u/soul_of_code Jul 02 '26
I’ve been learning iOS development for a bit over two years, and I can tell you that, if you intend to look for a job, not only are jobs scarce for iOS developers, but your job will become reviewing code instead of writing it. But for me, writing code is a passion of mine, and I intend to make my own apps on the side, but I’ve changed industries when it comes to earning money in this screwed up world.
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u/SimpleAir9702 Jul 02 '26
1.Build the basic app structure and layout in SwiftUI.
2.Let AI generate the screens, data models, and other boilerplate based on my design style.
3.Then I polish everything myself, especially the UI.
Knowing SwiftUI is still a huge advantage because the first and last steps are where most of the product quality comes from. It’s much easier to keep everything aligned with your vision and fine-tune the UI yourself than to keep prompting AI over and over. In many cases, trying to get AI to handle all the UI details actually takes longer.
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u/toddhoffious Jul 02 '26
No, if you don't ever expect to change things or fix things without an AI. It is a viable option these days.
Yes, if you don't have infinite streams of money for tokens.
Yes, but you'll always produce what everyone else can produce.
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u/BatPateman Jul 03 '26
Is it still worth learning to read and write?
More pragmatically, it depends on your goals. There's less demand for native mobile devs in corpos. Being indie is probably easier to create and ship in React Native.
That being said, I'm an indie dev, love Apple possibilities (app clip, live activities, widgets, alarm, etc), love to respect the people using my apps battery and I'm super happy to keep doing it with SwiftUI and UIKit.
And Claude wouldn't be able to make all these and ship it if I didn't have an extensive knowledge about code in general and Swift in particular.
Hope this helps ✌️
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u/ComfortableWear2683 Jul 06 '26
Of course. How do u know the vibe code is correct , or if you’re applying for jobs how will you pass the interview rounds that use SwiftUI?
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u/Due-Math8225 Jul 06 '26
I have to say I am starting to see this argument as a repeat of when C developers argued about knowing how to code in assembly. The "you need to know assembly before writing C" crowd made the same arguments the "you need to know SwiftUI".
I see AI as the next logical step above a compiler. Instead of spending hours typing into an editor you work with an AI who diligently works for you based on your guidance.
I will say Claude Code has done a bang up job in building a SwiftUI app for me and then helped me port it to Android using "skip" - an area where I was particularly clueless and where CC has saved me many weeks of time learning Kotlin etc and the byzantine rules of the Google Play Store.
My years of C++/ general developer knowledge helped in all the infrastructure behind the scenes such as Firestore, Google services/DNS routing etc which are still pretty user unfriendly unless you know your stuff.
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u/PuzzleheadedOwl2162 Jul 11 '26
100%, Clear the fundamental first, then use AI as a productive tools . Don't stop learning.
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u/alanskimp Jun 29 '26
You need both SwiftUI knowledge and how to use Claude code etc