Meet the new Swift Android SDK with Joannis Orlandos

In this episode of Swift Academy Season 2, Walid sits down with Joannis Orlandos — member of the Swift.org Android Work Group and CTO, to discuss one of the most exciting announcements in the Swift ecosystem: The release of the new Swift Android SDK. We dive into: • Why Swift on Android matters today • How the Android Work Group was formed • What it means for Swift to gain official cross-platform recognition • Achieving real progress: 25% package compilation already working • Technical challenges: JNI, CMake, interoperability & build tooling • How Swift can co-exist (and even compete) with Kotlin • The future vision for cross-platform Swift apps If you’ve ever dreamed of writing mobile apps in Swift and shipping them to both iOS and Android, this episode will change the way you see the Swift ecosystem. Chapters 00:00 — Introduction 01:28 — The Formation of the Android Work Group 04:39 — Swift.org Official Recognition 08:16 — Achieving 25% Package Compilation 10:07 — Technical Challenges 12:30 — Understanding JNI & Swift Integration 16:35 — Future of Swift on Android 20:14 — Community Collaboration & Governance 23:56 — Roadmap Priorities 26:44 — Opportunities & Challenges 29:18 — Performance: Swift vs Kotlin 35:17 — Closing Thoughts 🔗 Links & Resources Swift Android Work Group → https://www.swift.org/android-workgroup/ Joannis on GitHub → https://github.com/joannis Joannis on Li kedin →   / joannisorlandos   ❤️ If you enjoyed this episode: Like • Subscribe • Share with your team • Drop your questions in the comments #android #swift #podcast