Google considering adopting Swift for Android

13/04/2016
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Google may be planning to make the programming language Swift a “first class” language for the Android operating system.

This rumour is being reported by the website The Next Web. The leaders at Google, Facebook and Uber supposedly participated in a meeting to discuss opening up Apple’s language. The Android operating system currently supports Java as its preferred language, although sources report that Swift has been under consideration to replace Java, at least initially, since its recent open source release.

Interest for developers

The Next Web notes that the adoption of Swift would entail a major commitment on the part of Google, due to the need to create an execution environment for Swift and to integrate it with the company’s programming interfaces and development kits. However an Android operating system based on Swift would be a real godsend for developers creating native applications for iOS and Android platforms. Moreover, Swift is relatively easy to learn and implement.

Transition time

Although employees at Facebook are already ready to work on Swiftass internally, the shift from Java to Swift will be a lengthy process for Google, lasting several months or even years, given the need to rewrite its services, applications and interfaces.

Source: www.macrumors.com

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