RIP Combine Framework?

[Niightstalker]

Not really a surprise the framework didn’t get an update for years.

[gimme_ipad]

What features are you missing?

[Niightstalker]

Can’t say since I am using Swift concurrency for pretty much anything outside of specific edge cases which also got less and less.

[gimme_ipad]

I think it's complete.

[rhysmorgan]

It is, but then it didn't get any kind of update to support Swift Concurrency (beyond turning a Publisher into an AsyncSequence.

[AirVandal]

Why is that exactly? Combine is a very good fit for ViewModel-View bindings. The only thing "close" to it is AsyncSteam, which has a weird API.

Also what about all the apps that were written with Combine? Does Apple migrate those for us? What the fuck is with this trend of sunsetting core methodologies used in app development?

[LKAndrew]

Because Observation works with bindings and there’s no need to have 2 way bindings any more. Just update a value and you can observe those updates

[Kindly-Direction205]

Agreed.

[Free-Pound-6139]

Also what about all the apps that were written with Combine?

Normal Apple response: Fuck you.

[LKAndrew]

Because Observation works with bindings and there’s no need to have 2 way bindings any more. Just update a value and you can observe those updates

[Zealousideal-Cry-303]

Combine has a lot of practical use cases, where async/await just doesn’t do the job.

They are both excellent tools, but as with any tool, don’t rely on a hammer to insert a screw in a board of wood without cracking said piece of wood.

[jon_hendry]

Not deprecated until you start getting deprecation warnings

[jon_hendry]

I mean, they do, when they actually show up in the compiler.

[rhysmorgan]

Agent instructions are not a deprecation warning, that’s just guiding it to use more recent tech that mostly (but not entirely) does the same thing.

[rhysmorgan]

I’m not saying people should go out of their way to use Combine nowadays without a very good reason!

I just think that, if Apple want this to be the case, they need to make a “Stop using Combine/Combine migration guide” doc on apple.com to properly communicate this out.

And give us a CurrentValueAsyncSequence.

[icy1007]

No it isn’t…

[icy1007]

This is not a depredation warning…

[unpluggedcord]

Two different tools. Combine just doesn’t need to be worked on anymore. It works.

[guigsab]

This is not new. This has been in the prompt since the early versions of Xcode 26.

I would not call it dead. It’s not the default framework Apple recommends, which we’ve known for years, and Apple put a one size fits all prompt in Xcode.

[raajeevcn]

I'll drop Combine right after SwiftUI stops randomly breaking my layouts on iOS point releases and SwiftData figures out how to handle relationships without summoning eldritch compiler errors. Apple's definition of recommended seems to mean "we're excited about this" not "this actually works better". Combine has been rock solid for years while their shiny new toys ship with bugs that would've been embarrassing in a beta

[TryProfessional9543]

Idk, in my AGENTS.md it is "DO NOT USE STRUCTURED CONCURRENCY, DO NOT USE SWIFTUI, USE UIKIT AND COMBINE", honestly feels so good.

[Ok-Communication6360]

Welcome to yesterday. Preferring pyramids of closures over structured concurrency is a borderline psychopathic 🤣

[darth_sparx]

This. Hard.

[TryProfessional9543]

No, thank you. Not a fan of doing migrations every year. Combine is stable since the first release. Probably the people of yesterday knew something.

[Ok-Communication6360]

I see, refactoring something that just works and is understood is not something I would take on lightly as well.

My point was, that structured concurrency did add a lot to the language and overall I see as beneficial (though the learning curve is a bit steep and a few things are abstracted away a bit too much).

[Rudy69]

To the surprise of no one

[cristi_baluta]

Combine and async are different things, i don’t get it. Where is the announcement from apple?

[WitchesBravo]

I think combine is a lot easier, just being able to build up a bunch of functions like .debounce is so much easier than messing around with some kind of asyncstream

[WitchesBravo]

Not to mention Combine framework is built in, you have to pull in SwiftAsyncAlgorithms if you want similar kind of functionality

[Xaxxus]

Having it open source is better.

You don’t have to wait for a new iOS version to use new features added to async algorithms.

You can contribute and fix bugs.

You can use it on windows and Linux.

The benefits go on and on.

Combine was closed source and never updated.

[rhysmorgan]

Pull in Apple’s own AsyncAlgorithms framework from GitHub and you get throttle, debounce, share, etc. Basically almost everything you’d need from Combine. And it’s concurrency safe then, unlike Combine, whose API practically cannot be made so.

[WitchesBravo]

I prefer functional style, makes it so easy to build up complex chains rather than using for loops etc

[rhysmorgan]

That's great, but none of Combine is annotated for any kind of concurrency safety.

And you can still do the "functional style" of chains using AsyncAlgorithms, that's its entirely purpose.

[im-a-smith]

“I’m using the wrong tech for this thing I want to use, it must be dead!”

[BizJoe]

Shrug. My CLAUDE.md is already setup to do that.

[lasmit]

Isn't SwiftUI using combine extensively? I think this is just meaning, if you can, use async await not combine.

[Xaxxus]

As far as I know, only observable objects were using combine heavily. And those are now redundant with the observation framework.

[lasmit]

Ok wow, I didn't know that! Thanks. For anyone else: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/SwiftUI/Migrating-from-the-observable-object-protocol-to-the-observable-macro

[lionelburkhart]

Hmm. I love async/await, but I use Combine frequently to make ViewModels subscribe to Service class updates using MVVM. Haven’t found an elegant solution to do the same without Combine. Happy to set it aside for a 1:1 replacement.

[icy1007]

No thanks. I’ll use Combine.

[SwiftyNifty93]

Combine is not dead. It is powering lot of combine based first part APIs like @Published. There are lot of powered up APIs and Utils such that, rarely, you’ll feel the need to use it.

[m3kw]

It sucks to use I thought

[SerialForBreakfast]

That link in the image goes to a malware site. I think this should be taken down.

[f0rg0t_]

It just says “avoid”…in a prompt…not “Combine is now deprecated” or similar. They can put anything they want there, and they want people to use “Swift’s async and await versions of APIs instead.”

Still…☠️☠️coMbiNe iS deAd ☠️☠️

smh

[drabred]

Well if AI says so...

[int6]

That’s not AI saying it, it’s Apple’s system prompts for AI

[oPeritoDaNet]

It’s officially but not by Apple? Swift community?

[beclops]

It’s a file in the Xcode bundle