Google, Facebook, and Uber reportedly mulling deep investments in Swift
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- 07
Google, Facebook, and Uber are all reportedly considering deeper investments in Swift, the programming language developed by Apple. For its part, Google is said to be considering making Swift a "first-class" language for Android, putting it alongside Java. However, Swift wouldn't be replacing Java, at least not yet.
From The Next Web:
Google's Android operating system currently supports Java as its first-class language, and sources say Swift is not meant to replace Java, at least initially. While the ongoing litigation with Oracle is likely cause for concern, sources say Google considers Swift to have a broader "upside" than Java.
There would need to be substantial work involved in making Swift a first-class language for Android. For one, Android's standard library would need to be made Swift-compatible, and Android would need a Swift runtime.
As for Facebook, Swift may make it easier for the company to write service APIs. Additionally, Facebook has already started some development with Swift internally, though it's unknown right now how they're using the language.
And work may have already begun. A Github pull request in the Swift repository named 'Port to Android' was made by a Facebook employee. It's not clear if his work was official Facebook business or not, though we have confirmed Facebook is already working with Swift internally — it's just not known how thoroughly.
While Uber is also said to be considering a more central role for Swift, any details on those plans are scarce at this time.
Swift was first unveiled by Apple at WWDC 2014 as a lightweight, flexible language meant to build everything from scripts to operating systems. The language went open source late last year under the Apache 2.0 license.
