Apple’s Swift programming language has officially expanded into Android development, marking a major milestone for cross-platform app creation. The Swift team this week released the first preview version of the Swift SDK for Android, enabling developers to build native Android applications using Swift with official tooling rather than relying on community-maintained solutions.
The SDK’s release follows the formation of the Swift Android Working Group earlier this year, which was tasked with extending Swift’s capabilities beyond Apple’s ecosystem. The goal is to make Swift a practical option for developers who want to write shared codebases for both iOS and Android without compromising performance or compatibility.
A key part of this new toolchain is swift-java, a bridge that allows automatic generation of bindings between Swift and Java. This means developers can integrate Swift code directly with existing Android APIs and Java-based components, significantly simplifying mixed-language app development. According to the Swift Package Index, over a quarter of all Swift packages already compile successfully on Android, giving developers an expanding library of reusable code.
The Swift SDK for Android is currently available in a nightly preview, bundled with the Swift for Windows installer or as a standalone download for macOS and Linux. Developers can also access a comprehensive Getting Started guide, complete with end-to-end setup instructions and sample Android projects written entirely in Swift. These examples demonstrate real-world use cases such as UI integration, networking, and interoperability with Kotlin and Java components.
While Swift has been open source since 2015, Apple’s official Android support signals a shift toward a more inclusive development environment. By supporting both mobile platforms with one language, Swift could become a more viable alternative to cross-platform frameworks like Flutter or React Native — especially for developers who already work within Apple’s ecosystem and want to maintain code consistency across devices.
The move also reinforces Swift’s growing role as a general-purpose systems and application language, expanding its reach beyond iOS and macOS into new territories including Windows, server-side development, and now Android.
