In this tutorial, you will create a simple iOS application using AWS Amplify, a set of tools and serverless services in the cloud. In the first module, you’ll build a simple iOS application. Through the remaining modules, you will initialize a local app using the Amplify Command Line Interface (Amplify CLI), add user authentication, add a GraphQL API and a database to store your data, and update your app to store images.
This tutorial will walk you through the steps to create a simple iOS application discussed above. You will learn to:
-
Manage serverless cloud backend from the command line
-
Add auth to your app to enable sign-in and sign-out
-
Add a GraphQL API, database, and storage solution
-
Share your backend between multiple projects.
This tutorial is divided into five short modules. You must complete each module in order, before moving on to the next one.
-
Create an iOS App (10 minutes): Create an iOS app and test it in the iPhone simulator.
-
Initialize a Local App (10 minutes): Initialize a local app using AWS Amplify.
-
Add Authentication (10 minutes): Add auth to your application.
-
Add a GraphQL API and Database (20 minutes): Create a GraphQL API.
-
Add the Ability to Store Images (10 minutes): Add storage to your app.
You will be building this iOS application using the Terminal and Apple's Xcode IDE.
| Info | Level |
|---|---|
| ✅ AWS Level | Beginner |
| ✅ iOS Level | Beginner |
| ✅ Swift Level | Beginner |
| ⏱ Time to complete | 1h |
| 💰 Cost to complete | Free tier eligible |
To follow this tutorial, you need the following tools and resources:
- Xcode 26.x or more recent, available on the Apple Store.
- an AWS Account with at least these permissions (an
Administratorrole orrootaccount will also work, but we recommend a least-privileges approach). - NodeJS 24.x or more recent.
- AWS Command Line Interface AWS CLI 2.31.x or more recent.
You can install these tools following these instructions:
# install brew itself, if not installed yet
/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
# install python3 and pip3
brew install python3
# install the AWS CLI
brew install awscli
# install Node.js & npm
brew install node
Once installed, you should have at least the versions shown below (anything more recent is valid !) :
brew --version
# Homebrew 4.6.17-57-g0b8eb66
# Homebrew/homebrew-core (git revision 7c2dc0cd028; last commit 2025-10-18)
# Homebrew/homebrew-cask (git revision b797e17faa4; last commit 2025-10-18)
python3 --version
# Python 3.14.0
aws --version
# aws-cli/2.31.17 Python/3.13.9 Darwin/25.0.0 source/arm64
node --version
# v24.10.0
Next : Create an iOS App.