How I Built A Performant On-device Instance Retrieval System For iOS

Read my story. Use SwiftAnnoy and you can build one too.

Diagram of instance retrieval pipeline. Source: Author

Remember 2020 when the world shut down to slow the spread of Covid and we had to figure out what to do while we waited patiently in our homes for the end of times? During breaks from Daddy daycare and an endless loop of Moana playing on our TV I developed…