Google Android may adopt Apple's Swift programming language: avoiding the Java pitfall?

According to TNW, Apple is considering making Swift, which is open sourced by Apple, a "first-class" programming language for Android. It is reported that around the time when Apple announced that Swift would be open sourced (last December), executives from Google, Facebook and Uber met to discuss: "Google's Android operating system currently still uses Java as its primary language, but sources said that Swift is not intended to replace Java, at least not for now."

However, given the ongoing Oracle lawsuit, sources said Google feels Swift has broader advantages over Java.

As TNW points out, adopting Swift is a big undertaking for Google — after all, it will require building a runtime for Swift and integrating it into its own APIs and SDKs.

Although a lot of code will need to be rewritten, it is a piece of cake for Google. For developers, a Swift-based Android operating system is obviously a very "explosive" news (being able to create native applications for both platforms).

Swift is a programming language that is easy to learn, use and fast. In addition to Google, Facebook and Uber have also expressed their intention to put Swift closer to the center of their business.

Take Facebook, for example, where employees have been playing around with Swift internally for a long time (but it’s unclear how deeply they’ve played with it). Also, at Uber, it’s not clear whether it has already started migrating to Swift, which may be a very long process.