SPONSORED Add subscriptions to your app in minutes. Many developers – myself included! – have a long wish list of features we want to see in Xcode 10, so there’s a never-ending trade-off between cutting size and adding features. It’s also important to note that Xcode has added features over those years, such as Swift in Xcode 6 or App Thinning in Xcode 7, so some amount of natural growth is inevitable. Now, some amount of natural fluctuation is to be expected – as Firlik said back in 2012, Apple can adjust its selection of simulators in order to reduce the initial download at the expense of possible later downloads.

Let’s take a look at some figures: Version When we shipped Xcode 4.2 we were able to shrink that package size down to about 1.5 gigabytes by making some of the legacy content – like the older iOS simulators – downloadable on demand.Īt the time that was a big and welcome improvement, but sadly it wasn’t to last: after going on its crash diet in 2012, Xcode has since been busy at the dessert aisle and has grown far beyond the “no more to be said about that” size of Xcode 4.1. Last year when we shipped Xcode 4.1 our download size was a little bit over 4 gigabytes, and I don't think there's anything more to be said about that. Here’s what Matthew Firlik (Director of Development Technologies at Apple) had to say at the time: We all know that Xcode has struggled with being a little on the portly side for some years, and even Apple acknowledged this back at WWDC 2012.

Xcode download beta