^{Writing this essay from my couch next to my dog, was a wonderful, if at times painful experience because writing is hard. I crafted the text below without an agentic tool using my two favorite text editors and their built-in spell checking tools: Ulysses and iA Writer. My partner provided in-person feedback. All words are mine and all photos are mine except the selfie of me and Peter Friese. Credit for it goes to Peter who’s way better at taking photo memories than I am. The song lyrics in this post are from the song “Future Proof” by James Dempsey and the Breakpoints.}

Anyway, I hadn’t seen my friend Peter in person since 2014, and we barely interacted when Twitter got ruined by the person who has the funds to end world hunger or at least make a significant contribution but chooses not to. Twitter was “my” social network. The place where I met my mobile developer communities: First, I became part of the Android developer community, and then, starting in 2010, I became a member of the Apple developer community. Twitter was where I learned how to develop iOS apps. Twitter is where I hang out with my friends. We lived at opposite ends of Germany, so Peter and I would communicate and share information on Twitter. We were both regular speakers at (mobile) developer conferences in Germany between 2010 and 2014 and would meet a few times a year during conferences. I’ve coordinated my first visits to Canada and the USA using the platform. It’s where I met my first friends in the US, learned about Seattle and the Xcoders meetup. Heck, I met my boss and future GitHub-CEO Thomas through Twitter. I wouldn’t live in the US, had the opportunity to work at Microsoft, or even be at my career at Apple if it wasn’t for Twitter.

Twitter helped me get through the loneliness of the lockdown time in 2020, 2021, and 2022. And then, in 2023, when the man with the Hitler salute bought it, it all imploded. Twitter was no more, the community was gone. I finally deleted my account in 2025 after not logging in for months. I’m sharing this to explain why meeting Peter so unexpectedly in person made me quite emotional. We hugged, had drinks, and talked for a long time. The experience reinforced my gut feeling that the rupture of Twitter caused near irreparable damage to my professional community. Some connections survived through LinkedIn, Instagram, or Mastodon, but many friendships remain lost.

My mind may fly,
Watching the years go by,
Keeping up with all the changes since you first got started.
Even though some of your dreams are now long departed,
One day you’ll see the light from the other side of youth,
Ain’t nobody future proof.
_{– from “Future Proof” by James Dempsey and the Breakpoints}

Somehow it’s already July 2026, and the year keeps rushing past me. I generally struggle with the speed of life, and people who’re older than me keep saying that it will only increase in speed. June was exemplary of that: Several pets needed medical care, my partner’s nascent small business got traction while operating out of our home, the world continued its descent into a state of unhinged chaos, we traveled to attend a celebration of live in beautiful Morro Bay, CA, and I lead an intense team effort to complete deliverables for this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC26, or simply “DubDub”). Quite suddenly, I found myself traveling to Cupertino for a few days to meet friends from across the world who attended the conference or were in town to meet friends who attended.¹

---

Being busy almost literally 24/7 since March made it next to impossible to stop, catch my breath, and process my experiences. After my return from WWDC26, I felt like there’s something “there”, a thread or a theme that connects the last few months, maybe years, but I couldn’t quite see it yet. It was like something important was about to emerge, as if Atlantis was slowly rising from the depths of the ocean without anybody noticing juuuuust yet. My breakthrough was attending an annual midsummer celebration and music festival in the temperate rainforest of the Pacific Northwest. It’s sort of a pilgrimage for my partner and me. It’s a music festival without electricity (they have a generator that powers the sound system), cell signal, running water, food vendors, and capitalist motives. Actually, it’s much more than that. You buy a ticket that covers the cost of providing a safe environment and paying the bands. You bring what you need for a weekend of camping and being at a music festival, and then some more to share. You camp in the woods or in a meadow by the creek. You listen to music from your tend, by the big campfire in the meadow, or in front of two small stages that are nestled in the rainforest. When you leave, you pack it all out. The land itself almost forces itself on you and makes you stop and pause. It’s a spiritual experience, if you choose to see it that way — and I’m saying this as an agnostic person.

Imagine driving to a place where the closest town is 20 miles away and consists of a pretty rundown main street with one major intersection that has a gas station, a pub, and a few dozen houses. You’re literally in the middle of nowhere. You park your car about three quarters of a mile from the festival itself. To get your camping gear for the weekend to the festival grounds, you need to carry it (don’t forget that handy handcart!) or use one of the provided shuttles. Our shuttle was a black Porsche Macan. It made my heart sing for a bit — I grew up in a suburb of Stuttgart which is home to Porsche HQ, I can’t help but feel that gasoline in my upbringing sometimes. Anyway, why was the shuttle using a luxury SUV? One of the old trucks that the event was using had broken down, and one of the attendees simply volunteered to shuttle people back and forth in their (gasp) Porsche Macan all afternoon. We met the owner again later. They happened to camp two tents over and let us know immediately that they’d brought a 5-gallon self-cooling keg of ale that was…well…for everybody — and it was fromone of my favorite local craft beer breweries. 

While not everyone gave rides in a Porsche Macan or offered craft beer, those two data points give you an idea of the overall spirit of the gathering. A community comes together to catch up and have a good time — and for some people it’s more than that. I find it one of the most grounding experiences, and it feels like home.

People support each other, often proactively, in whatever way they can. When we were breaking down our tent at the end of the weekend, somebody who I’ve never met before stopped by to offer fresh-brewed coffee. They even brought compostable cups. Again: I’d never met the person before.

Someday, I might write a bit more about this gathering and how it relates to our world and/or our use of technology. For now, let me focus on what emerged over the weekend. I was finally able to put my finger on the hidden thread, the pattern that had been there but wasn’t visible yet, the perspective that’s been waiting to surface.

---

There are threads upon threads, tiny events during the days in Cupertino that connect to a larger theme. Something that my gut tells me will be more and more important in a world where we use agentic tools to work and communicate while the privileged stability of the world order I got to experience in the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s seems more and more like a thing of the past.

“…and then one day, you know, you’ll stumble upon the truth,
ain’t nothing future proof.”
_{– from “Future Proof” by James Dempsey and the Breakpoints}

Agentic tools, machine learning, and LLMs are “the future” and justifications for layoffs, excess use of natural resources, invasion of copyright and privacy on an unprecedented scale, … I could go on.

I intellectually and also intuitively know that agentic tools — “AI” — are here to stay. They have their use. They’ve been changing the world for the last couple of years. They’re changing much, much more than my profession (software engineering and tech writing), but I’ll keep this long essay at least somewhat focused.

At the same time, I also know with every fiber of my body, literally in my bones, that humanity — being human, “the human experience”, call it what you will — is more important than ever. It might be a hot take, and I’m for sure biased because of my experiences. I’m acknowledging that. But every fiber in my body tells me the above. After two intense experiences (WWDC26 and the midsummer celebration), the fabric of my body is SCREAMING it in my face.

We humans are apes that came down from the trees, and we have needs that are inherent to that experience.
_{– my friend Kristin — who’s freaking smart and my barber — while she cuts my hair and we talk about her perspective on “AI”.}

During my visit to Cupertino for WWDC26 week, I’ve witnessed a new generation of software developers who discover the Apple developer community for the first time. More broadly, they experience what it means to connect with fellow professionals in person, off-the-record, and in an environment that’s safe to everybody no matter their nationality, gender, sexual orientation, or age. Many folks under 25 haven’t had a chance to connect to their peers like I have when I was their age:

College: Mostly remote.
First steps in their career: Remote or in-person at work but without an intact developer community.

At a developer social hour, I not only met my friend Manuela (we haven’t met in person since 2019), a coworker who I’ve worked with on my first project at Apple, and a few other familiar faces. I also met new people. Many of them were young professionals in their early or mid-20s. At one point or the other, each conversation touched on their social experiences during WWDC26 week. People described them as “unique”, “like a family”, and “everybody’s curious and supportive of each other”. Even folks who’ve been part of the developer community for long have to re-learn what community means and how to build it.

“I might have met you long ago,
might have met you lately,
I just wanted to let you know,
I appreciate you greatly.”
_{– from “Future Proof” by James Dempsey and the Breakpoints}

On another occasion, I met friends for drinks and dinner who currently live in Seattle or used to live in the greater Seattle area and moved to the Bay Area to work at Apple. Many of them are among the first people I met in Seattle over a decade ago. I’m not sure I would still be based in the US or even work at Apple if it wasn’t for them. It’s not because they gave me a fasttrack to work at “the mothership”, it’s because they helped me find my “work family”, my community. Attending Xcoders and meeting the Apple developer community in Seattle reinforced the spirit of mutual curiosity and support I had experienced and tried to build while I was living in Germany.² 2

Another evening, I sat with friends old and new in a fancy hotel lobby. I met my friend Laura, who I first met in Montreal back in 2013 during a conference trip that I coordinated via Twitter. It was my first intercontinental flight, my first time outside Europe, my first time at an American developer conference. I was TERRIFIED of being in the same room with all the “VIPs” of the time: folks like Marco Arment, David “Widgetsmith” Smith, Yuri, … I was completely overwhelmed. Years later, I learned that my director at Apple was at the conference, too. The world can be a village after all. One of the key memories from that year was one of those “VIPs” who invited me to join him and his friends for curry, and I remember somebody saying “don’t be afraid, we’re a big family here”. It’s 100% true and I can’t help but think about how this community has always felt like home to me.

I signed up for another developer happy hour because I knew that I’d be able to meet a former coworker who I collaborated with during the lockdown times. We’ve never met in person. Not only was I able to thank her and give her a hug — years after our collaboration —, I was able to meet other community members and coworkers for the first time. One of them shared that WWDC26 attendees who attended a special developer community event at the Developer Center across Apple Park remained outside in the parking lot long after the event was over. People across nationalities, age, gender, or sexual orientation were chatting the night away, making connections, and forming friendships. This description invokes memory of warm fall evenings in Montreal with dinner conversations over curry, of sitting on the patio at Rob Roy in Seattle with fellow Xcoders while seagulls scream overhead, of me heating up Swabian dumplings in a small office space in Stuttgart after a presentation about some cool new API somebody discovered, and many more.

I find my observations comforting, and they provide the perfect segue back to “Future Proof” by James Dempsey and the Breakpoints.

Technologies will come and go like passing seasons, Get too attached, you’ll feel it when they fall.
But keep in mind that people are the fundamental reason why we’re even writing code at all.

I might have met you long ago,
Might have met you lately,
I just wanted to let you know,
I appreciate you greatly,

Friendships made along the way never grow long in the tooth,
Ain’t nothing more future proof.
_{– from “Future Proof” by James Dempsey and the Breakpoints}

I encourage you to listen to the song in person when you get a chance. ’til then, check out the recording from Deep Dish Swift 2025. The song’s lyrics hit right home.

Sometimes, I feel like we truly are apes who came down from the trees, and we’re apes who have discovered fire (AI) too soon before we fully understood it. It’s like we went from touching ground with our feet to being handed a toaster oven or fire bombs.

I’m middle-aged, which I rarely feel, but when I talk to people who are just getting started in tech, I feel it more. It’s not a bad thing at all. It feels as much as a responsibility as purpose. My gut tells me that people need to know, need to remember, that they don’t have to face and learn to use fire all by themselves. It’s not just young folks, it’s everybody: myself, people my generation, and those who came before us and who’ve seen change for longer.

It’s SO easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of change and feel the anxiety that comes with it. We don’t have to face it alone. We’ve got each other. And while that’s terrifying when you think about some of the apes who use fire irresponsibly, it’s also comforting. Personally, I prefer to focus on being future proof by participating in and building community. I’ve been privileged in my experiences, and I’m biased. And, I’m fundamentally a humanist, and I refuse to cede the ground to those who leave behind scorched earth. We can be alright, if we want it. Let’s do it, one step at a time.

---

1. While I played a small part in the lead up to WWDC26, I wasn’t involved with DubDub during conference week itself. I stayed away from Apple Park, I didn’t attend the conference or help with it. The day before I left, I stopped by the Visitors’ across from Apple Park to buy the 50-year anniversary t-shirts. ↩︎
2. It took me a while to understand that “building communities and safe spaces” is just something I do. I lead an Android developer community that hosted events with up to 500 attendees, founded another monthly meetup in Germany, an internal mobile developer meetup at Microsoft, and then another meetup in Seattle. At Apple, I’m part of the leadership team of Pride@Apple Seattle, the company’s LGBTQ+ employee association and lead a bi-weekly virtual gathering for the content engineers in my department. ↩︎

Hi all,

Tomorrow, September 23, is Celebrate Bisexuality+ Day, where we celebrate non-binary sexual orientations such as bisexuality, pansexuality, and other queer identities. I want to take this opportunity to write about it and my journey.

First, here are some resources on bisexuality and non-binary sexual orientations:

• If you think you may be bisexual or queer, take a moment to read about it at The Trevor Project.
• If you are out, consider reaching out to your friends who are not openly bi+ to provide support.
• Participate in online events like this one on Facebook, Bivisibilityday.com or Workplace Pride Bi Visibility Day.

If you are an ally for the bisexual community but want to know more, check out these resources:

• Bi Any Other Name
• How to Be an Ally
• GLAAD’s Becoming a Better Bi Ally 

Personally, I’ve been struggling with my sexual identity a bit and I still am. Without going into too many details, let me share some of my personal journey. In my late teens, I got curious about kissing a man and having a boyfriend. Over time, I experimented and met wonderful men, but, somehow, all serious relationships I’ve had were with women. I also wasn’t “out”. As a result, I eventually stopped thinking about myself as a queer person.

Fast-forward to when I met and eventually married my wife Corinna. She was the first partner who I felt comfortable enough to talk about my interest in men and my crushes. It took time for me to realize that I am bisexual. And still, I sometimes feel like an impostor in the LGBTQ+ community because I’m straight-passing and married to a woman, and because of all the bisexual erasure that has happened — well, let’s be honest, it still happens.

It wasn’t until earlier this year when I fully realized that there is no such thing as “being not queer enough”. I eventually understood that I don’t have to provide proof to anyone that I‘m queer. I realized that utterances like “you can’t be queer because you’re married to a woman” or “you’re gay, you just don’t know it yet” are nothing but bisexual erasure.

At first, I was angry. However, anger in itself doesn’t help much, right?! So, I started looking into how and where I can bring positive change and support others. Amount other things, my journey let me to joining the local leadership team of Pride@Apple here in Seattle (Hi Fam! <3) earlier this summer. I‘m excited of what comes next. I guess my bi journey won‘t be over any time soon and that‘s okay. Easier said than done, right?! I guess I‘m writing this for myself as much as for others. 😉

I need to remind myself that I need time and repetition to internalize the following:
We, as bisexual, pansexual, non-binary, queer people, have all the right to demand visibility and to be proud of who we are.

So, if you’re bi+ or are thinking you might be, I hope you take away one thing from reading all of this:

You. Are. Queer. Enough.

Ben

Hey there,

I did a thing that I haven’t done in a while. I recorded a mixtape/DJ set. The mix ¹ is my attempt to capture what it feels like to drive around town with friends on a warm summer night — music playing, and the windows rolled down to feel the air in your hair and on your face. Nights, when even the air smells like summer, and you feel ALL THE THINGS. There’s joy, melancholy, and maybe a sense of carelessness. By the way, is this still a thing?! It definitely was when I was young™.

For the curious, here’s the real memory that I thought of when I created the mix:

It’s a Friday night in the summer of 2002 and I’m in a state of drunk euphoria after partying with my friends at my favorite metal and goth club. On the way home, we pull over to sit in a wheat field to have another drink.² It’s 4 o’clock in the morning and the air smells like summer and wheat while the taste of red wine and cola linger in my mouth.³ The music plays from the car, a distantly audible soundtrack to the early morning mixed with the ambient sounds of chirping crickets and birds singing their morning song. We talk about music, school, friends, and how we’re all single.
Later, on the way to my friend’s house: the car smells of leather, patchouli, traces of alcohol, and possibly dead people. Right, I didn’t mention the car is a black hearse; a Mercedes model from the late 70s. My friend’s cousin bought it from a funeral home the year before. After much persuasion, he loaned it to us for the night, by far the most goth car I’ve ever been in.
The horizon begins to glow golden around 5. We drive home in a hearse, down a small country road with Metallica’s Ride the Lightning blasting, and I’m as happy as I can be. I stick my head out the window and feel the warm air on my face.

---

¹ It’s an odd mix of house, techno, minimal, retrowave and neo goth. It’s intentionally rough because I didn’t practice it at all and it was so much fun mixing and recording it. When I was a resident DJ, only 20% of my playlist (I’d dj for up to 8 hours straight) would be decided in advance. I’d make up most of a night’s music spontaneously, influenced by the vibe of the night, my intuition, and the crowd that showed up.
² Our driver was sober the entire night.
³ I used to regularly drink “Korea”, a mix of (boxed) red wine and cola.

TL;DR

• Most plans for 2019 got canceled as a close family member was diagnosed with leukemia.
• I quit my job at Microsoft, there are no hard feelings.
• I took a break.
• I joined Apple.

---

Some of you might have noticed I’ve been busy recently. I have been a little bit quieter on Twitter than usual, I didn’t frequent the usual watering holes Seattle Xcoders regularly and stopped being vocal about my work for Droidcon Boston 2019. So, what’s going on?

Fighting an Uphill Battle

At the beginning of the year – like an unwanted surprise for New Year’s – my mother-in-law was diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukemia. My wife and I flew to Germany right away. Fighting cancer and going down many rabbit holes related to it will require our attention for a long time. I don’t want to go into more detail but believe me, it sent us into a turmoil and we’re riding an emotional rollercoaster.

We changed our travel plans for this year and discussed every possible option, including moving back to Germany. Ultimately, we decided to stay in Seattle. The Pacific Northwest is our home and we have grown roots here over the past 4 years. Actually, my mother-in-law doesn’t want us to move back to Germany either.

It Was Time for a Change

In March, I decided to leave Microsoft after working there for almost 4 years (plus two years before HockeyApp got acquired). In hindsight, I actually made the decision over several months without making any progress on actually making a decision. Surprisingly, once I overcame the initial shock of my mother-in-law’s diagnosis, I felt a certain clarity about my career that I had lacked before. I just instinctively knew what I wanted to do: take a break, recharge, and figure out what to do next. So I did what every sensible adult would do: I did some more thinking.

Eventually, I let people at work know well in advance what was going on. My team at Microsoft was very kind and supportive of my decision to leave. They really are a bunch of amazing people.

Looking Back

The decision to leave Microsoft and the App Center team has been a tough one and I left with a heavy heart. Let me explain why. I joined Thomas, Stefan, and the other HockeyApp founders as the first full-time employee in Stuttgart, Germany, back in August 2012. I started working, learning, and growing as a software engineer under their mentorship and wrote apps that were installed on millions of devices all over Europe. Eventually, I started helping with HockeyApp, saw the team grow, and the company being acquired by Microsoft in late 2014. I moved to Seattle and started working out of the Redmond campus in August 2015. What a ride it has been! I am incredibly humbled and honored to have worked with so many smart, kind, and supportive people at Microsoft. Thank you and all the best to you all, make App Center rock even more and stay in touch!

Looking Ahead

After taking some time off, I’m now super excited and happy to announce that I’ve joined Apple as a Software Engineering Author on the Developer Publications team. All I can say is that it really feels like “coming home”.
As a result, my Twitter account will become much more boring and I won’t be talking about Apple stuff anymore. You have been warned. It also means that I am not available for any freelancing, teaching or public speaking.
It doesn’t mean that I am relocating, though. We’re staying in Seattle and I am working remotely.

Cheers, and see you during DubDub!

Ben

It’s October, and because I’m a German who hates Lederhosen, I feel like I need to compensate ;). Just kidding, have you heard of Hacktoberfest? It’s an awesome initiative that was started 5 years ago. A lot of companies are on board this year, including Microsoft. To learn more about Hacktoberfest, have a look at the the official website.

I’m definitely contributing something to one of the Microsoft Open Source repositories and likely elsewhere.

You should join Hacktoberfest. You might even get a free t-shirt!

 

 

TL;DR

Although the .framework packages of the App Center SDK look big at first glance, they have a minimal impact on your app’s release binary size. If you add all of App Center’s services to your app, your app’s installation size should increase by about 800KB. Your mileage may vary a little.

Background information

Time and again, we get customers who integrate our SDKs and are concerned about the size of our SDK when they integrate the SDK. This is understandable, as the App Center SDK is distributed as .framework packages that range from 1.7MB for App Center Analytics, to 13.4MB for App Center Crashes. The thing is, those sizes are misleading. Our SDK is, in fact, designed to have a minimal footprint when it is integrated into an app. In fact, a minimal footprint is why we created a modular SDK in the first place (I’ve blogged about this in the App Center blog), developers can pick the functionality they want, and don’t have to worry about their app size at all. So why are the .frameworks so big. The answer is really simple, they are “fake” fat frameworks, statically linked frameworks in disguise. The reason for this is rather simple: performance at app launch time. But let’s focus on their impact on an apps binary size. As the term “fat framework” implies, they contain slices for all architectures, meaning all device CPUs as well as the iPhone/iPad simulators. If you build your app for a specific target, the compiler will actually strip the unused ones. In addition to that, depending on your compiler/build settings, the compiler will strip away even more stuff, because it is smart. With Bitcode enabled, things get even more compacted and then, there’s also App Thinning. If your app’s size is important to you, you should check those techniques out.

How I measured

I created a really simple app using Xcode 9.2 and its default template for an app with one single view controller. I added two buttons, one that calls trackEvent: on the App Center Analytics module, and one to crash the app intentionally. You can check out the project on Github.

• I did not make any changes to Xcode’s default build settings.
• I created a release build using Xcode and then exported the .ipa manually using Xcode’s Organizer.
• I did not use Bitcode.
• I did not use App Thinning.
• I installed the app on my iPhone 7 that’s running iOS 11.3 using the Apple Configurator app.
• I launched the app once to make sure the SDK is initialized.
• I checked Settings > General > iPhone Storage and made sure it refreshed the data for my AppSizeSample app after each install.
• I removed the app after each install.
• I installed each variant of the app twice (and deleted it manually before).

Results

Take these with a grain of salt as I didn’t change any of Xcode’s default settings, and because I only measured with 1 app and 1 device. Your mileage may vary but my measurements should give you a pretty good idea of how “big” the impact of the SDK is.

App Center modules used	Exported IPA size	Installation size
None (blank app)	24KB	132KB
App Center Analytics	120KB	377KB
App Center Crash	239KB	705KB
App Center Analytics & Crash	250KB	741KB
App Center Distribute	163KB	528KB
AppCenter Analytics, Crash & Distribute	307KB	913KB
App Center Push	115KB	377KB
All App Center modules	314KB	930KB

The numbers are interesting as they don’t just “add up” because all modules share the same “core”, a module named “App Center” that contains shared logic for persistence and network i/o plus I suspect the compiler to be pretty smart about even more things.

In addition to that, the App Center SDK will use between 29KB and up to 1.2MB of space for “Documents & Data”. The amount varies depending on your internet connection as App Center buffers up to 300 event logs and 300 crash logs when offline.

Anyway, I hope this answers some questions.

What else?

1. Check out App Center, it’s awesome. We’re on Twitter, too. Get in touch if you have feedback.
2. Our SDK is open source on Github. Check that one out, too.
3. If you’re interested in learning more about static vs dynamic frameworks, Samantha has you covered. You should read her blog anyways. 😉 And send her some money through her Paypal because her blog is awesomesauce.
4. Do what I did on your device and let me know your numbers!

Final words

Thanks for reading, please get in touch if you have further questions or feedback.

Cheers,

Benjamin

How can we talk about core values and rules for companies, our pull requests or our code a lot, but we don’t talk about individual core values? Documentation gets pretty scarce when you look up “core values for software developers,” so let’s talk about what they are and how to change them!

And that’s what I did. About two weeks ago, I stood in front of an audience, at the Xcoders Meeting, and talked about a topic that I have been thinking, reading and writing for the past year or so. Well, the talk has its roots well before that but you’ll learn about them once you watch me talk.

I want to keep on talking about it. If you host a meetup, a gathering of your team where you invite people from outside, or whatever, please get in touch. =)

If you’re curious, slides are available (with notes).