Rumor: Google is considering supporting Swift for Android

Google, Facebook and Uber would consider using Swift. Google would consider using the programming language developed by Apple in the long term, partly due to the years-long battle with Oracle over the use of Java in Android.

Initially, Swift would not replace Java, The Next Web has heard from sources. Those sources did say that Swift should become a first-class language for Android. Swift was developed as an alternative to Objective-C and made open source by Apple last year. Uber and Lyft would probably not follow until Google has made a decision, according to the site.

The Next Web notes that a lot needs to be done before Google can use Swift for Android. APIs and SDKs need to be completely rewritten and a runtime is needed. As a result of the battle with Oracle, Google has already moved away from its implementation of Java libraries to Oracle’s open source OpenJDK at Android N. Incidentally, according to the rumor, Google has not fired Kotlin either. This programming language is easier to implement for Google, but according to the company, it would not compile fast enough.

Swift is rapidly gaining popularity. IBM, among others, makes it possible to develop and run applications for cloud services with Swift.