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Author: finagolfin

_posts/2025-11-19-exploring-the-swift-sdk-for-android.md

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+---
+layout: new-layouts/post
+published: false
+date: 2025-11-19 10:00:00
+title: "Exploring the Swift SDK for Android"
+author: android-workgroup
+category: "Developer Tools"
+---
+
+Since the announcement of [the preview Swift SDK for Android last month](/blog/nightly-swift-sdk-for-android/),
+we've seen a lot of questions about how it works and what's next. Please read on for those answers.
+
+### Swift in the World of Android
+
+Swift is a natively-compiled language to machine code and Android is no different.
+That renders it on par with C and C++ code built using the Android NDK, which are
+languages more geared towards performance, while Swift attempts a happier balance between
+performance, safety, and usability. To enable that, Swift apps must bundle a native
+runtime for Android that implements many of its features, including its standard library and
+core libraries like Dispatch and [Foundation](/blog/foundation-preview-now-available/).
+
+However, since most Android APIs are only made available through Java and Kotlin
+in the Android Runtime (ART), their version of the Java Virtual Machine (JVM)
+optimized for mobile, we need to use the Java Native Interface (JNI) and write
+bindings both to call Swift from Java and go the other way. That is where the
+swift-java project's `jextract` tool and its [new support for generating such
+JNI bindings for you](/blog/gsoc-2025-showcase-swift-java/) comes in. Please
+watch its author Mads Odgaard's [Server-Side Swift Conference talk from last month](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOH6V1IvTAc)
+and try out the tool for yourself with [this example Android app that he put together](https://github.com/swiftlang/swift-android-examples/tree/main/hello-swift-java).
+
+### Swift is Already in Millions of Android Devices
+
+While Swift on Android may seem new, it's important to recognize that there are
+already millions of Android devices running Swift today. Production apps with
+substantial user bases have been shipping Swift on Android for years, proving
+the viability of this approach:
+
+- [Spark](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.readdle.spark) - A popular email client using Swift to share code between the iOS and Android versions
+- [flowkey](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.flowkey.app) - This interactive piano learning app has been built with Swift since its inception
+- [MediQuo](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mediquo.main) - A healthcare app leveraging Swift for cross-platform development
+- [Naturitas](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.naturitas.android) - An organic products marketplace running Swift in production
+
+These aren't experimental apps or proofs of concept—they're real businesses serving
+real users at scale. The fact that millions of people use Swift-powered Android apps
+daily, often without knowing, shows both the stability of Swift on Android and the
+practical benefits it provides to development teams sharing code across platforms.
+
+### Coming up Next
+
+Swift on Android [first got started as soon as the language was open-sourced a decade ago](https://lists.swift.org/pipermail/swift-dev/Week-of-Mon-20151207/000171.html),
+but it is by no means done. [The Android project board lists areas we are working on](https://github.com/orgs/swiftlang/projects/17)
+and easy debugging is a high priority for us next. While it [mostly works now](https://github.com/swiftlang/llvm-project/issues/10831),
+we need to test it more and make it easy to access. That will likely mean tying
+the debugger and [Swift Language Server Protocol tool, sourcekit-lsp](/blog/gsoc-2025-showcase-code-completion/),
+into editors like [Visual Studio Code](/blog/gsoc-2025-showcase-swiftly-support-in-vscode/),
+Android Studio, and [CodeEdit](https://www.codeedit.app/), another issue on our board.
+
+### Sharing Logic Versus Sharing UI
+
+A common concern is that we do not provide a cross-platform GUI toolkit. As we
+write in [our draft vision document](https://github.com/swiftlang/swift-evolution/blob/807b844be42db582e434d1667fc907ae7a7a8775/visions/android.md),
+the Android workgroup has no plans to create such a GUI toolkit, but will instead
+curate a list of cross-platform UI tools, everything from professional options
+like [Skip.tools](https://skip.tools/) (see their [open-source showcase app](https://github.com/skiptools/skipapp-showcase-fuse))
+and [SCADE](https://www.scade.io/) to open-source efforts like [FlutterSwift](https://github.com/PADL/FlutterSwift),
+[SwiftGodot](https://github.com/migueldeicaza/SwiftGodot), and the in-progress
+[SwiftCrossUI](https://swiftcrossui.dev/).
+
+### Diving in
+
+Finally, we intend to bring you interviews and information from those using Swift
+on Android already, as pioneering companies like [Readdle](https://readdle.com/blog/swift-for-android-our-experience-and-tools)
+and [Flowkey](https://medium.com/@ephemer/why-we-put-an-app-in-the-android-play-store-using-swift-96ac87c88dfc)
+have written about using Swift on Android for the last decade. The Left Bit's Pierluigi Cifani
+[wrote about their experiences recently](https://forums.swift.org/t/thoughts-on-swift-for-android/80961),
+gave [a great talk at NSSpain 2025 a couple months ago](https://youtu.be/EIGl6GOo210),
+and was [interviewed by Swift Toolkit last month](https://www.swifttoolkit.dev/posts/dc-pier).
+
+Swift on Android has been a community effort for the last decade, snowballing
+from that initial patch to many developers and businesses making their livelihood
+with it today. Join us to make it even better!