Device Hub is a new standalone app shipping with Xcode 27 that serves as a unified hub for managing, controlling, and configuring both physical devices and simulators. It provides a live interactive screen view, device configuration panels, diagnostics collection, and app data container management — all without needing to open Xcode.
• Replaces scattered device management workflows with a single app: pair devices wirelessly, rotate simulators, change text size/dark mode/location instantly, and manage app data containers from one place
• Enables cross-device bug reproduction workflows — download a real device's app data container and restore it into a simulator to replicate exact conditions (location, text size, appearance) without the physical device
• Ships as a lightweight companion that auto-launches when you build and run in Xcode 27, so every iOS developer immediately encounters it in their daily workflow
Demonstrates how to use the xcrun simctl command-line interface — the underlying engine Device Hub builds on — to programmatically mirror key Device Hub configuration steps: setting a simulated location and changing the content size category on a booted simulator.
import Foundation
// Device Hub exposes these capabilities visually, but they are powered
// by simctl under the hood. This snippet shows how to drive the same
// simulator configuration steps programmatically from a Swift script
// or a helper tool — useful for CI pipelines that mirror Device Hub workflows.
@discardableResult
func runSimctl(_ arguments: [String]) -> String {
let process = Process()
process.executableURL = URL(fileURLWithPath: "/usr/bin/xcrun")
process.arguments = ["simctl"] + arguments
let pipe = Pipe()
process.standardOutput = pipe
process.standardError = pipe
try? process.run()
process.waitUntilExit()
let data = pipe.fileHandleForReading.readDataToEndOfFile()
return String(data: data, encoding: .utf8) ?? ""
}
// Step 1: Find the booted simulator's UDID
let listOutput = runSimctl(["list", "devices", "booted", "--json"])
print("Booted simulators:\n\(listOutput)")
// Step 2: Mirror a specific geographic location (e.g. Johannesburg)
// In Device Hub: Settings inspector → Location → set custom coordinates
let udid = "booted" // Use actual UDID from list output in production
let johannesburgLat = "-26.2041"
let johannesburgLon = "28.0473"
let locationOutput = runSimctl(["location", udid, "set", "\(johannesburgLat),\(johannesburgLon)"])
print("Location set: \(locationOutput)")
// Step 3: Override the content size category to extra-extra-extra large
// In Device Hub: Settings inspector → Text Size slider → drag to maximum
let accessibilityOutput = runSimctl([
"ui", udid, "content_size", "accessibility-extra-extra-extra-large"
])
print("Content size set: \(accessibilityOutput)")
// Step 4: Switch to dark mode
// In Device Hub: Settings inspector → Appearance → Dark
let darkModeOutput = runSimctl(["ui", udid, "appearance", "dark"])
print("Dark mode set: \(darkModeOutput)")
// Step 5: Rotate to landscape (Device Hub: canvas rotate button)
// Rotation is handled via the DeviceHub GUI or Xcode UI testing APIs;
// simctl does not expose a direct rotate command — use XCTest for that.
print("\nAll simulator configurations applied — matching Device Hub workflow.")
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