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Alright, let's talk about something that used to drive our mobile team crazy - waiting ages just to see if our SwiftUI changes looked right. I mean, who's got time for that? We sure didn't. So we built this PreviewSnapshots thing that cut our dev time in half. No joke. Before/after using PreviewSnapshots - night and day difference The Pain of Regular SwiftUI Previews Man, where do I even start? The default SwiftUI previews are great and all, but try using them in a big project like ours. Here's what sucked: Slow as molasses:  Waiting 30+ seconds just to see a button change Fragile:  Break if you look at them wrong Limited:  Hard to test different states and configurations Inconsistent:  Would work on Mark's machine but not Sarah's (classic) We were wasting hours every week just waiting for previews to load. That's when we said "enough is enough" and built PreviewSnapshots. What Makes PreviewSnapshots Different It's not rocket science, just smar...

Let’s be real - Facebook’s iOS app used to be a dumpster fire. Slow. Buggy. Crashed if you looked at it wrong. But here’s the wild part - they completely rebuilt the dang thing while BILLIONS of people were using it daily. No big deal right? Here’s the untold story of how they pulled it off without breaking everything. “Before” vs “After” - way less spaghetti code! The Hot Mess They Started With Back in like 2019, Facebook’s codebase was what devs nightmares are made of: 15+ years of legacy Objective-C piled up Build times longer than Avengers Endgame (seriously - 45+ mins) 500+ engineers stepping on each other’s code daily New features took weeks to implement cuz of dependencies One engineer told me: “It felt like changing tires on a moving Ferrari. While on fire.” The Breaking Point Three things forced them to act: App size ballooned to 400MB+ (users were deleting it) App Store rejection became weekly occurrence Top engineers were quitting cuz...

How Spotify Engineered a Seamless Build System Migration Without Disrupting Developers Imagine changing the foundation of a skyscraper while people continue working inside. That's essentially what Spotify's engineering team accomplished when they migrated their build systems without disrupting developer workflows. This remarkable technical feat enabled faster builds, improved tooling, and set the stage for future innovation. In this deep dive, we'll explore how Spotify planned and executed this complex migration, the challenges they overcame, and the valuable lessons they learned. Whether you're a build engineer, platform developer, or tech leader, this case study offers practical insights for managing large-scale infrastructure changes. Image Credit: Spotify Engineering Blog Why Spotify Needed to Migrate Build Systems Spotify's engineering team identified several compelling reasons for the migration: Performance Bottlenecks: Existing system c...

Imagine a bustling airport where every passenger has a unique itinerary, and the ground crew must coordinate thousands of flights in real-time. Now, imagine if the crew had to manually check each passenger’s details across multiple systems every time a change occurred. Chaos, right? This is the challenge Airbnb faced with its monolithic REST API, which struggled to handle the growing complexity of its platform. Enter GraphQL and Apollo , the dynamic duo that helped Airbnb move 10x faster at scale. In this blog post, we’ll explore how Airbnb adopted GraphQL and Apollo to modernize its API infrastructure, improve developer productivity, and deliver a seamless experience for millions of users. Whether you’re a backend engineer, a frontend developer, or a tech enthusiast, this deep dive will provide valuable insights into building scalable and efficient APIs. The Problem with REST Airbnb’s platform relies on a complex web of services and data sources, from property listin...

Imagine building a house where every room is designed by a different architect, each using their own unique blueprint. Now, imagine trying to make all those rooms feel like they belong to the same home. This is the challenge Airbnb faced with its iOS app, where multiple UI frameworks and legacy codebases created inconsistency and inefficiency. Enter SwiftUI , Apple’s declarative UI framework, which promised to streamline development and unify the user experience. In this blog post, we’ll explore how Airbnb embraced SwiftUI, the technical challenges they overcame, and the lessons they learned along the way. Whether you’re an iOS developer, a product manager, or a tech enthusiast, this deep dive will provide valuable insights into modern UI development. Why SwiftUI? SwiftUI, introduced by Apple in 2019, is a declarative framework for building user interfaces across Apple platforms. Unlike UIKit, which uses an imperative approach, SwiftUI allows developers to describe wh...

A sketch of Airbnb’s new iOS CI system. Imagine a bustling kitchen where chefs are preparing hundreds of dishes simultaneously. Now, imagine if every chef had to wait for a single oven to bake their dish. Chaos, right? This is the challenge Airbnb faced with its iOS development process, where a monolithic continuous integration (CI) system struggled to keep up with the growing complexity and scale of the codebase. Enter a flexible CI system , designed to handle the unique needs of Airbnb’s iOS team. In this blog post, we’ll explore how Airbnb reimagined its CI pipeline for iOS, enabling faster builds, better scalability, and improved developer productivity. Whether you’re an iOS developer, a DevOps engineer, or a tech enthusiast, this deep dive will provide valuable insights into building a modern CI system. The Problem with Monolithic CI Airbnb’s iOS codebase had grown significantly over the years, with hundreds of developers contributing to the app. The existing CI system, bu...

How Airbnb's iOS Team Supercharged Developer Productivity (Without Burning Everyone Out) Let's be real - working on a massive iOS codebase sucks sometimes. Wait 15 minutes for builds. Fight Xcode. Cry over merge conflicts. Airbnb's mobile team knew this pain all too well - until they completely reimagined their development workflow. Here's the untold story of how they turned their iOS environment from sluggish to speedy. Not pictured: The frustration before these changes The Productivity Nightmare By 2020, Airbnb's iOS app had become a victim of its own success: 45-minute clean build times (seriously?) 300+ developers committing daily Daily "works on my machine" incidents One engineer joked: "I got through two Netflix episodes per build." Not exactly peak productivity. The Breaking Point Three warning signs forced action: New hires took 3+ days to set up their environment Senior engineers were spending...

How GitHub Slashed iOS Testing Time with Innovative Runner Features Imagine waiting hours for your iOS app tests to complete, only to find out that a single test failed and you need to start over. For GitHub’s engineering team, this was a recurring challenge—until they introduced advanced runner features to their testing infrastructure. By optimizing their CI/CD pipeline, GitHub significantly reduced testing time, improved efficiency, and empowered developers to deliver high-quality iOS apps faster. In this blog post, we’ll explore how GitHub implemented these innovative runner features, the challenges they addressed, and the impact they had on their iOS development process. Whether you’re an iOS developer, a DevOps engineer, or a tech enthusiast, this story will inspire you to rethink how you approach testing in your projects. Image Credit: GitHub Engineering The Challenges of iOS Testing Before implementing the new runner features, GitHub’s iOS testing process faced seve...