Get Started With Kotlin

KOTLIN VS JAVA

While Java is almost ruling enterprise world, Kotlin is emerging as most loved programming language among Android developers. Certainly, there should be several reasons behind its popularity over Java.

Certainly, Kotlin’s widespread usage in no time indicates its ability to replace Java, but Java’s ecosystem is quite large and Kotlin is influenced by Java to a greater extent. As of now, it seems unfeasible considering Java’s grown-up community.

Let’s search a little deeper:

One of  the reasons why organizations today are adopting Kotlin for their Android app development requirements is because it is an officially supported language to write Android apps.  Kotlin code is more safer and more concise than Java code, and that Kotlin and Java files can coexist in Android apps, so that Kotlin is not only useful for new apps, but also for expanding existing Java apps.

This language is seamlessly integrated with Android Studio and this makes it fast.

A Kotlin project can be set up to function in less than 10 minutes, even for a first timer. Kotlin offers many advanced programming features than Java.

                                                                                                          Let’s take a look at the comparison of features

USEFUL FEATURE AND BENEFITS OF KOTLIN

Ever since Google made Kotlin as the official language for Android, there is one question we’ve been asked at least one-hundred times!

“Should we move from Java to Kotlin?”

To answer this question we all need to know the benefits of Kotlin. Knowing all the benefits in detail automatically answer the former question. Let’s see some of the useful feature and key benefits of Kotlin which actually made it superior to Java

EASY CODING

Kotlin is not a difficult language that is born in academia. Any programmer from OOP domain is familiar with its syntax. It can be understood easily by beginners as well as experienced programmers. It is somewhat different from Java, as there are some reworked constructors or variable declarations.

Kotlin needs 20% less coding compared to Java. Java is a bit outdated, which means every new launch has to support features included in the previous version. This eventually increases the code to write, resulting in absence of layer to layer architecture. If you compare the coding of Java class and Kotlin class, you will find that the one written in Kotlin will be much more compact than the one written in Java.

Here is the example of coding which describe clear difference between length of code of Java vs. Kotlin

ANDROID STUDIO SUPPORT

As said above, Kotlin is developed by JetBrains and it is no surprise that Android Studio has excellent support for Kotlin. Android Studio makes it easier to configure Kotlin in your project, just like opening a few menus. Your IDE will have no problem understanding, compiling and running Kotlin Code, once you have set up Kotlin for Android Studio. After configuring Kotlin for Android Studio, you can convert the entire Java source file into Kotlin file.

MASS ADOPTION

While Kotlin was in development since 2011, but its adoption rate skyrocketed after Google’s 2017 I/O event. Kotlin is an open-source and free programming language created by JetBrains.

In fact, according to JetBrains, the adoption rate of Kotlin has become so high that they predict Kotlin will overtake Java for Android App Development this year.

ENHANCED USER EXPERIENCE

Kotlin is not just concise, but it also makes the Android app development process a lot more stable by reducing app crashes and removing bugs. That means, when your Android app is missing these common issues, the user experience automatically gets better.

RELIABLE

One of the reasons why Kotlin came into existence is because its parent company JetBrains had some specific requirements from a programming language that they were going to use themselves. It also offers practical value for its parent company which uses it for its own line of products. This also makes them interested in further developing it. With Google support, two innovative companies are working together towards its development.

EXAMPLE OF APP IN KOTLIN

Kotlin has not only put in major efforts in the initial conceptualization of the language as its history suggests, but it is also making significant alterations to it for its future success. Features like the Kotlin Android Extensions, libraries like Anko, continuous library size optimizations, and build times, all of these suggest JetBrains’ commitment towards the further development of Kotlin for Android app development.

Here are the 4 Famous Startups’ Android Apps That Were Either Made Using Kotlin or Migrated from Java to Kotlin

Pinterest

The famous photo-sharing social service decided to use Kotlin and move away from Java in their Android app. They presented the pros and cons of using Kotlin in production at Droidcon NYC 2016. What might seem a little shocking is that Kotlin was used in such a popular app with its massive user base even before Google announced the first-class support for this language.

100,000,000+ downloads from Google Play, average rating 4.6 from 3,922,994 reviews.

Coursera

Coursera is an educational company providing open online courses conducted by remarkable universities and institutes such as Stanford and Yale. Coursera doesn’t have separate Android and iOS organizations. They only have the concept of mobile and that’s why they decided to start using Kotlin. Kotlin is similar to Swift, a relatively new programming language for iOS development. This results in easier knowledge sharing between engineers, better communication, and more efficient overall development.

5,000,000+ downloads from Google Play, average rating of 4.4 from 88,196 reviews.

Trello

Trello is a well-known project-management application, currently owned by Atlassian. For their Android app, the new code is written in Kotlin. However, they’re not going to do a full code conversion of the old codebase. Working with Java and Kotlin at the same time is possible thanks to the great interoperability between the two languages.

5,000,000+ downloads from Google Play, average rating of 4.5 from 68,749 reviews.

Evernote

Evernote is an app designed for note-taking, organizing, task lists, and archiving. Evernote integrated Kotlin into their Android client. A little more about the technical details of their adventures with Kotlin integration can be found on Evernote’s blog.

100,000,000+ downloads from Google Play, average rating of 4.6 from 1,480,514 reviews.

WRAPPING IT UP

We are living in the world where change is the only constant. The platform, technology, programming language, everything is changing rapidly in the mobile app development world. Besides, the benefits stated above, it is easy to work on it along with Java and C++ on Android. Kotlin will continue to be developed by JetBrains. It may target other platforms such as iOS and Mac, and compile to JavaScript for web development. If you want a concise way to code for Android, then Kotlin is the best option.

If you have questions or are experiencing challenges with time-to-market, efficiency, quality, or cost regarding your app development we’d love to work with you to pinpoint how you can get best app development with efficiency and quality. Get in touch with us. Click Here for more.