Swift by Apple is coming on Android for the first time
While developers were earlier able to use Swift on Android through a third-party app, Apple has now officially launched its programming language for Android.
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In short
- Swift by Apple is officially set to support Android platform
- The move aims to improve Swift Tools for Android
- A major objective is to increase debugging and Java SDK integration
Apple’s Swift Programming Language is ready to enter deep into Android development, with the formation of a new work group, which aims to establish Android as an officially supported platform. Announcement is a significant change for the company, which historically has its techniques focused on their ecosystem.
Launched in 2014, Swift was originally designed for Apple’s platforms, including iOS, Macos, Watchos and TVOS. Over time, support for Windows and Linux was added, and now the language is expanding once again – this time for Android.
The newly created Android working groups within the Swift project will focus on building and maintaining official support for Android. This involves integrating Android to the main Swift distribution and removing the requirement of essential informal or downstream patches already required to run Swift on Android devices.
In the announcement, the group has underlined several major objectives. This suggests that the move aims to improve Android compatibility in the official Swift Toolchen and adapt the core Swift package such as Foundation and Dispatch to work more effectively within the Android development pattern. This platform will also collaborate with the Swift’s platform steering group to define support levels.
The announcement also mentions that it will develop support to debug on Android on Android and facilitates better integration between Swift and Java SDK of Android. It is also a supporting community Swift package in adding Android compatibility.
Although developers have been able to run Swift on Android using a third-party tools such as scades, the experience has been limited and lacks official support. The aim of the new working group is to streamline the development process and provide strong equipment, documentation and testing capabilities to ensure more reliable developer experience.
Interest in using Swift beyond the Apple platform is not new. Google had previously discovered integrating Swift in its experimental Fuchia OS, and there were initial reports that the company evaluated Swift for Android App Development. However, Kotlin remains Google’s favorite language for Android since its official adoption in 2017.
The formation of this work group indicates a more serious effort to bring Swift into Android in an official capacity, possibly the developers offer an option for Cotlene and Java for the creation of Android applications.
As part of the comprehensive Swift Open-SOS project, Android Working Group will work under the rule of the Swift community, which will contribute to both Apple engineers and external developers. Currently there is no timeline when full Android support will be finalized, but now the effort is going on.
