Google may make Apple's Swift a 'first class' language on Android

Google is reportedly considering making Swift, the object-oriented language developed by Apple, a "first-class" language for Android. Swift, which Apple made open source late last year, would apparently not be meant to replace the current first-class language, Java, at least not in the short term.

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.

As noted by The Next Web, 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.

Google is also reportedly considering another language, Kotlin, as a first-class language. However, there are said to be concerns that Kotlin compiles too slowly.