Swift Playgrounds on the iPad is already a fantastic way for kids to get acquainted with code strings and variables, and now Apple is opening it up to even more young minds. Announced alongside the more affordable iPad, the app will now be available in five new languages, expanding it beyond English speakers for the first time.
Via an update in the App Store, Swift Playgrounds will now support Simplified Chinese, Japanese, French, German, and Latin American Spanish, along with English. All aspects of the app have been updated to support for the new languages, and as an added benefit, “all programming lessons are now localized across five additional languages and are optimized to look even better and run faster than ever.”
Swift Playgrounds was launched last summer and offers a step-by-step way to learn the basics of Apple’s Swift language. While it’s geared toward kids, adults can enjoy its gamified lesson plan as well, with “Apple-developed programming lessons, puzzles and challenges that teach core coding concepts, as well as built-in templates to encourage users to express their creativity and create real programs.”
Swift Playgrounds requires an iPad running iOS 10 and is available as a free download in the App Store.
Author: Michael Simon, Executive Editor
Michael Simon has been covering Apple since the iPod was the iWalk. His obsession with technology goes back to his first PC—the IBM Thinkpad with the lift-up keyboard for swapping out the drive. He's still waiting for that to come back in style tbh.