Swift Playgrounds Will Soon Be Able to Program and Control Robots, Drones, and Toys - MacRumorsOpen MenuShow RoundupsShow Forums menuVisit ForumsOpen Sidebar
Skip to Content

Swift Playgrounds Will Soon Be Able to Program and Control Robots, Drones, and Toys

by

Apple today announced that Swift Playgrounds, its iPad app aimed at making learning how to code interactive and fun, will be able to program and control robots, drones, musical instruments, and other toys when the latest version of the app is released at its Worldwide Developers Conference next week.

swift playgrounds children playing robots
Swift Playgrounds version 1.5, set to be released on June 5, will support several popular Bluetooth-enabled devices, including LEGO's MINDSTORMS Education EV3 robot, Sphero's SPRK+ robotic ball and BB-8 droid, UBTECH's Jimu Robot MeeBot Kit, Dash by Wonder Workshop, Parrot drones, and other toys.

“More than 1 million kids and adults from around the world are already using Swift Playgrounds to learn the fundamentals of coding with Swift in a fun and interactive way,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “Now they can instantly see the code they create and directly control their favorite robots, drones and instruments through Swift Playgrounds. It’s an incredibly exciting and powerful way to learn.”

Apple invited a small group of reporters to its Cupertino headquarters to demo the functionality, including Engadget, which put together a brief video showing off the programmable toys in action.


Swift Playgrounds requires no coding knowledge to begin with. Kids and adults alike learn how to code by completing a collection of coding lessons and challenges, and the ability to program and control robots, drones, and musical instruments will make it all the more fun. The app uses Apple's own programming language, Swift.

Swift Playgrounds is a free download on the App Store [Direct Link] for all iPad Air and iPad Pro models, and iPad mini 2 or newer.

Tags: Swift, Swift Playground

Popular Stories

Apple Acquires Award Winning App Play Feature

Apple Acquires Award-Winning App 'Play'

Monday June 29, 2026 7:39 am PDT by
In February, Apple notified the European Commission that it would be acquiring certain assets from and have the right to hire certain employees from Rabbit 3 Times, the company behind the award-winning app design tool Play. The notification was published on the European Commission's website this week, following a four-month waiting period. Play was a Mac and iPhone app that allowed designers ...
Read Full Article • 15 comments
iCloud iPhone 17 Pro

iPhone Users Who Pay for iCloud Storage Get Two New Perks on iOS 27

Thursday July 2, 2026 6:10 am PDT by
If you pay for certain iCloud+ storage plans beyond the 5GB that Apple offers for free, you will receive two more perks on iOS 27 at no additional cost. A summary of the two new iCloud+ perks on iOS 27:Increased daily usage limits for some new Apple Intelligence features, including image generation in the revamped Image Playground app. HomeKit Secure Video cameras receive generated video...
Read Full Article • 51 comments
iPhone 4 on Black Feature

Apple Facing One of Its Worst Leaks Since the iPhone 4

Thursday July 2, 2026 9:53 am PDT by
Apple supplier Tata Electronics recently suffered a cyberattack that resulted in thousands of confidential files being published on the dark web, and this reportedly included some photos and documents related to the upcoming iPhone 18 Pro. We have elected not to share any of the leaked photos in this story due to the illegal nature in which they were obtained, but they can easily be found...
Read Full Article

Top Rated Comments

AngerDanger Avatar
AngerDanger
119 months ago
But all MacRumors readers care about is whether or not you'll be able to use Swift Playgrounds to control the production of new Macs.



Attachment Image
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AngerDanger Avatar
AngerDanger
119 months ago
Does anyone remember the Logo programming language?
Yes, did that on my Commodore 64. Swift (from the screen shots) reminded me a lot of Logo.
I do! :)
I used it at school 25 years ago, it was funny and helped a lot learning about simple programming patterns.
Yes, that was what I first learned on in 3rd grade on an Apple IIe. I did it faster and quicker than my peers so the teacher didn't let me do any more thinking I'd be a distraction. So she put me on a reading course on the computer. Not as much fun.
I managed to dig this out of my closet. It predates me by over a decade, but I remember it fondly:



Attachment Image
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mikethemartian Avatar
mikethemartian
119 months ago
Does anyone remember the Logo programming language?
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Rogifan Avatar
Rogifan
119 months ago
Something that would get huge cheers from the crowd on Monday would be Xcode for iPad. I wonder if that will ever happen.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
A
Appleaker
119 months ago
Its really cool to have a 1st party Apple app to do this.
Again, it seems like they could be making time for certain other announcements at WWDC.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
nwcs Avatar
nwcs
119 months ago
While I am always happy to see kids get involved in thinking logically it's also been shown that the majority of people are not abstract thinkers (see Myers-Briggs). I'll paraphrase the movie Ratatouille: It's true that anyone can code but only those who are predisposed to the discipline and effort required will succeed.
[doublepost=1496334228][/doublepost]
Does anyone remember the Logo programming language?
Yes, that was what I first learned on in 3rd grade on an Apple IIe. I did it faster and quicker than my peers so the teacher didn't let me do any more thinking I'd be a distraction. So she put me on a reading course on the computer. Not as much fun.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Read All Comments