Apple releases official Swift SDK for Android

Image Credits: Swift.org

The Swift open-source project has formally launched an initiative to bring the language to the Android platform by establishing the Android Workgroup under the project umbrella.

The announcement, made on the Swift blog and forums, describes the group’s “primary goal” as adding and maintaining Android as an officially supported platform.

At present, while developers have been able to use Swift on Android through third-party tools, these solutions lacked first-class integration with Android toolchains and frameworks.

The workgroup’s charter lays out several responsibilities:

• Ensure Swift can be compiled and used on Android without relying on downstream patches.
• Adapt core Swift libraries, such as Foundation and Dispatch, to align with Android idioms.
• Define supported Android API levels and hardware architectures and develop continuous-integration support for Android targets.
• Facilitate interoperability with Android’s Java SDK and improve support for packaging Swift libraries in Android apps.

Members of the workgroup include community veterans such as Abe White, Andrew Druk and Saleem Abdulrasool.

The Swift SDK for Android is available in preview mode, while no full release timeline was specified, the formation of the workgroup marks a structural commitment to Swift on Android.

Early commentary by trusted media outlets notes the move will not immediately displace Kotlin as Android’s preferred language, but offers an additional choice for cross-platform development.

The effort appears to reflect an industry trend toward broader multi-platform language support, and may influence how app developers consider cross-platform strategy going forward.