A beginner-friendly introduction to the official Swift SDK for Android

1. Introduction

For most of its life, Swift was known as the language for iPhone, iPad and Mac apps. That changed with Swift 6.3, which shipped the first official Swift SDK for Android. You can now compile Swift code for Android devices using official tools published on swift.org, instead of relying on unofficial community toolchains.

This tutorial walks you through the whole path from zero: what the pieces are, how to install them, how to build your first Swift program for Android, and how Swift fits into a real Android app. No previous Android experience is needed, but basic familiarity with Swift and the terminal will help.

What you will learn

What the Swift SDK for Android is, and what it is not

How to install the toolchain, the SDK and the Android NDK

How to cross-compile and run a "Hello, world" program on an emulator or device

How to share Swift code between an iOS app and an Android app

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