WWDC26 AsyncImage Caching: What Changed And How To Use It

This article covers the WWDC26 improvements to SwiftUI's AsyncImage API, which now supports HTTP caching based on transport protocol rules, initialization with URLRequest instead of just URL, and scoping a custom URLSession for contained AsyncImage views. It explains how these changes reduce the need for custom image loaders for many apps, provides a decision guide for different use cases (e.g., public thumbnails, stale images, user-changed images), and notes that custom pipelines are still needed for huge images, transforms, prefetching, or older OS support. The content is focused on iOS/macOS development and SwiftUI, making it highly relevant to IT/TECHNOLOGY.