New version of Xcode hints at the release of Swift Playgrounds 4

The latest version of Xcode includes a not-so-subtle hint that the fourth generation of Swift Playgrounds could be released soon.

Today, Apple released version 13.2 of Xcode to the Mac App Store. In the release notes, Apple says that version 13.2 includes "support for Swift Playgrounds 4 app projects." It also includes a few other features as well as some bug fixes and performance improvements:

Xcode 13.2 includes SDKs for iOS 15.2, iPadOS 15.2, tvOS 15.2, watchOS 8.3, and macOS Monterey 12.1.

New in Xcode 13.2

• Support for Swift Playgrounds 4 app projects
• Xcode Organizer displays smart insight notifications for monitoring power and performance in your app
• Swift Concurrency is available for apps that deploy to iOS 13, iPad OS 13, tvOS 13, watchOS 6, and macOS 10.15 or newer
• TextureConverter adds support for error metrics, decompressing textures at build time, and skipping compression when output textures are up-to-date
• Additional bug fixes and stability improvements

Version 13.2 of Xcode is available to download for free from the Mac App Store now.

Apple originally announced the fourth generation of Swift Playgrounds, its Swift programming app for beginners, at WWDC21 earlier this year. The update will allow developers to publish an app right from Swift Playgrounds to the App Store.