Brad Cox and Tom Love created Objective-C in the early 1980s.
Objective-C extended the C programming language with Smalltalk-style object-oriented messaging. Cox developed the language at Productivity Products International, while Love worked with him on its development and promotion.
The language became strongly associated with NeXT computers after NeXT licensed it in the late 1980s. When Apple acquired NeXT in 1997, Objective-C became a major language for Apple's software platforms, including macOS and later iPhone development.
Objective-C is often confused with Swift because both were used to build Apple applications. Swift was introduced by Apple in 2014 as a newer language, but Objective-C remained important for legacy code and interoperability. Its message-passing syntax is distinct from the method-call syntax used by many C-derived languages.