You can now develop native Android applications with Apple's Swift programming language

Joannis Orlandos has announced the first nightly preview of the Swift SDK for Android, marking a major step for developers interested in using the Swift programming language to build Android applications. With this SDK, developers can now write and test Swift code for Android devices, broadening Swift's reach beyond Apple platforms.

Following this announcement, developers can access the Swift SDK for Android today. The SDK is bundled with the Windows installer and is also available separately for use on Linux and macOS. This flexibility means that more developers, regardless of their operating system, can start experimenting with native Swift code on Android.

This preview release reflects months of focused work by the Android workgroup, built on a foundation of years of effort by the wider Swift community. In tandem with the SDK, a “Getting Started” guide is now available to walk new users through setting up their first native Swift code on an Android device. With these tools, developers can begin porting their existing Swift packages to Android, opening new avenues for code sharing across platforms.

While the SDK for Android is a new milestone, it also highlights Swift's growing maturity and interoperability. Over the past decade, Swift has expanded its footprint to power applications in the cloud, on Windows, in web browsers, and on embedded devices.