A modern approach in app software development involves adding a development menu to the app. This feature is commonly found in larger companies, like Trade Republic, and is designed to streamline the development process.

Rather than navigating through the app or sifting through code for minor adjustments, the menu serves as a centralized hub. Within it, you can visually examine and interact with various elements of your app, such as UI components, color palettes, behaviors, and fonts. Additionally, you can easily change the values of feature flags and also use it as a playground for testing new technologies. At Trade Republic, our development menu is in SwiftUI, even though our app uses UIKit. My personal projects also feature a SwiftUI development menu.

The development menu is solely for development purposes and may not adhere to the same software quality and development rules as the actual app. Based on certain directives, it is stripped out from the versions of the app released on the App Store or Google Play. However, companies may still enable it in internal builds of the app.

It’s like having a secret lab for your app.