Skip to main content

Swift on Android

Running Swift code on Android

The biggest issue here is going to be a missing SwiftCore library. Right now Apple is shipping one for iOS, OS X and Watch OS. But that's it - and obviously they don't ship an Android version.

However, not all Swift code requires the SwiftCore library, just like not all C++ code requires the STL. So as long as we use the subset of Swift that doesn't hit SwiftCore, we should be ok.

Romain Goyet

How to Use Apple Swift to Make an Android App
Our best course of action to get something working quickly was to take Swift code and compile it into Java source code ā€” and then take it into the Android development environment to finish building it into an installable app. So we started in Xcode, where we wrote the Swift code. Then we tested it, including running it on an iPhone or in the iPhone Simulator, and ran a custom compiler that parsed the Swift code and output Java source code (adjusting any necessary syntax, and substituting appropriate Android calls for any iOS native ones). Then we moved it into Android Studio to finish the build process and produced the Android APK.

ArcTouch

Is it possible to make Android apps with Swift?
The big questions are:

1) Should Swift compiles to Dalvik? This probably require making a LLVM backend to Dalvik. This will be the opposite of a RoboVM approach, and there are been some tentatives to do LLVM to Bytecode, so, it might work.

2) Should Swift compiles to NDK output (Android native). This would probably be a more conventional approach for the LLVM architecture. The trick is that the NDK get a very raw API for building UI, so the developers will have to reimplement the UI component set. 

3) Should Swift be just wrapper to the "Dalvik" UI Component set, and Swift developers will have to learn the Android way of building UI, but with Swift. This will work good with #1.

4) Should Swift try to mimick the iOS MVC model and UI component as much as possible. This will probably be better with #2.


My sense is that the lowest hanging fruit (which still require quite a bit of work) is Swift compile to Dalvik bytecode (#1) with full Dalvik component/library access and be a wrapper on Android UI component and constructs (#2). Now, the question is will this be worth all of the effort.

Quora

Silver - Swift, now also on .NET, Java and Android.
Silver is a free implementation of Apple's Swift programming language.

With Silver, you can use Swift to write code directly against the .NET, Java, Android and Cocoa APIs. And you can also share a lot of non-UI code between platforms.

Built on over ten years of solid compiler knowledge and technology, Silver is a truly native Swift compiler for the .NET CLR, the Java/Android JVM and the Cocoa runtime.

Silver supports three platforms, but is decidedly not cross-platform, focusing on letting you leverage the Swift language natively for each individual platform, rather than encouraging mediocre cross-platform apps. With Silver, you can share your language and tool expertise, and you can share a lot of back-end business logic code ā€“ but you will use it to write apps targeted at each platform individually. Why? Because that's how great apps are made.

Elements

Comments

Most Favorite Posts

Judo App - Server Driven UI out of the box

Judo App Judo brings server-driven UI to your iOS and Android apps. Build user interfaces visually in a fraction of time and publish them instantly without submitting to the app store. Build Experiences - With No Code The Judo app for macOS, available through the App Store, is built for design professionals with common keyboard shortcuts and familiar concepts like canvas, layers and inspector panel. Workflow is streamlined with the ability to drag and drop media files directly into your experiences and manage your own Judo files in Finder. Manage Creative Execution A Judo experience is interactive and can include text, images, video and buttons. An experience may be part of a screen, a single screen, or more typically multiple linked screens. Judo supports screen transitions, carousels, horizontal scrolling and modals. Clients can add custom fonts and define global colors and these are updates applied universally. Effortlessly Deploy Judo Cloud syncs your experiences with your iOS and ...

Server-driven UI (SDUI): Meet Zalandos AppCraft and AirBnB Lona

A short WTF: Joe Birch:  SERVER DRIVEN UI, PART 1: THE CONCEPT Zalando seems to follow the SDUI principle as well - defining a common design language and construct the screens on the backend while displaying them natively on the clients. They even go one step further; they implemented a mighty toolset to enable non-technical stakeholders to define their own native app screens Compass: Web tooling to create screens and bind data Beetroot: Backend service that combines the screen layout definition with the data Lapis/Golem: iOS/Android UI render engines Crazy cool! Good job, guys (when you do an open-source release?) To even move faster a Flutter based UI render engine implementation was great! See also AirBnB Lona SDUI approach Building a Visual Language Why Dropbox sunsetted its universal C++ mobile project and AirBnB its React Native implementation

Dark Theme (Dark Mode) in Android WebViews, WKWebViews and CSS

So your apps just implemented a shiny new dark theme and itā€™s looking šŸ‘Œ There are lots of benefits to having a dark theme in your application, and having it consistent throughout your application allows for a great user experience. But what happens when the the user runs into a WebView in your app? Support: if (WebViewFeature.isFeatureSupported(WebViewFeature.FORCE_DARK)) { ... } Set: WebSettingsCompat.setForceDark(webView.settings, WebSettingsCompat.FORCE_DARK_ON) Current setting: val forceDarkMode = WebSettingsCompat.getForceDark(webView.settings) Joe Birch Assuming your question is asking how to change the colors of the HTML content you are displaying in a WKWebView based on whether light or dark mode is in effect, there is nothing you do in your app's code. All changes need to be in the CSS being used by your HTML content. CSS dark mode via :root variables, explicit colors and @media query: :root {     color-scheme: light dark;      ...

Remote Debugging WebViews with Android 4.4 KitKat

Starting Android 4.4 (KitKat), you can use the DevTools to debug the contents of Android WebViews inside native Android applications. Debugging WebViews requires: An Android device or emulator running Android 4.4 or later, with USB debugging enabled as described in 2. Enable USB debugging on your device . Chrome 30 or later. Enhanced WebView debugging UI is available in Chrome 31 or later. An Android application with a WebView configured for debugging. Android Developer

PeekPop - Pre-iPhone 6S and 6S+

Peek and Pop Let your users preview all kinds of content and even act on it ā€” without having to actually open it. Users can then press a little deeper to Pop into content in your app. Apple 3D Touch PeekPop Peek and Pop is a great new iOS feature introduced with iPhone 6S and 6S+ that allows you to easily preview content using 3D touch. Sadly, almost 80% of iOS users are on older devices. PeekPop is a Swift framework that brings backwards-compatibility to Peek and Pop. GitHub

Android with Kotlin, iOS with Swift, Kotlin Native, flutter.io, React Native, PWA, Xamarin, Hybrid - which way to go?

Currently there are tons of frameworks how to get your business model to the user... and in the app store Full Native Android with Kotlin, iOS with Swift Deepest integration Single way to make sure that you have no lock-in effect with a framework, and you are f**ed, when Apple or Google disallows the usage of a specific technology... Two teams required 2x code PWA (Progressive Web App) Write offline- and push-capable PWA with web-technologies only Some native features might require hybrid native development and bridging (like In-App purchases, AR, ...) In best case: One web team only for website and app Maybe some native specialists for special features Kotlin Native Develop a shared framework with or without UI using Kotlin Native Additional native code will most probably be required Big Android team, small iOS specialists flutter.io (React Native | Xamarin | ... ) One codebase (flutter: Dart, React Native: JavaScript, Xamarin: C#) Additional native code ...