When you’re looking to build an app for your business, Android’s Kotlin is one of the many options available to you that could make your job easier—or harder. For this reason, it’s important to understand exactly what it is and how it differs from Java, Swift, and Objective-C before making any decisions. Here are 10 reasons why you should choose Kotlin over other programming languages when building mobile apps.

1) Kotlin is JVM-based

While Kotlin is developed by a team at JetBrains, it isn’t considered a new language in and of itself. It’s just an alternative to Java (which can be used on Android) that compiles with Java 6 or higher. Unlike its parent, however, it is 100 percent interoperable with other JVM-based languages—meaning you can write your code once and have it function across many different platforms. If you currently use Java or another JVM-based language, there are many reasons why switching over to Kotlin could help improve your code quality and reduce development time overall.

2) Type Inference Is Your Friend

Type inference is a huge part of what makes Kotlin so readable. In statically typed languages, it can sometimes be difficult to know what type you’re dealing with because you have to declare your variables. Type inference in Kotlin means that, unless you tell it otherwise, a variable will simply take on whatever type is necessary to complete an expression. So if you need an integer, that’s what it will be—no extra work required.

3) Null Safety

One of Kotlin’s biggest strengths is null safety. In Java, it’s easy to shoot yourself in the foot by forgetting to check whether an object is null before calling a method on it. If that method might throw an exception, you can end up with a NullPointerException at runtime that crashes your app and looks like your fault even though it’s really not. Not only does Kotlin have no concept of null, but its type system allows you to make any variable or parameter non-nullable so you can use them without having to test for null first. This leads naturally into…

4) Interoperability with Java

If you’re coming from a Java background, Kotlin will feel familiar. It has everything you love about Java and it works side-by-side with Java, making it easy to transition your code. More than that, however, is its interoperability with Java code. Because Kotlin compiles into bytecode that runs on the JVM, it can play well with existing Java libraries and frameworks. If you have a library you’ve written in Java but are looking for an easier way to consume it in your new project, then consider creating a Kotlin wrapper around it. Most of what was learned using Java can be applied to working with Kotlin too!

5) Not Just For Android

Android is king when it comes to mobile operating systems, but a new development language named Kotlin is giving Android developers everywhere some serious competition. Built by JetBrains (the team behind Android Studio), Kotlin is an open-source programming language that’s similar in syntax and structure to Java. It runs on JavaScript virtual machines and is widely used on server-side software—but recently Google decided to adopt it for Android apps, too. In fact, you can use Kotlin in your projects today if you know how—and why—to do so. With that in mind, here are 10 reasons why you should use it

6) Powerful Type System

Kotlin is a statically typed language, which means it has a powerful type system that prevents errors at compile time instead of runtime. Since type-safety is such an important part of software development, it’s an advantage that Kotlin provides stronger and more extensive type checking than Java does. Less downtime means quicker iteration cycles, and when it comes to mobile app development you want as many of those as possible. The more reliable your code, the faster you can identify issues and create fixes—ultimately saving you time in every step of development.

7) Extension Functions And Operator Overloading

Extension functions let you add new functionality to existing classes, even if they’re final or don’t inherit from a common parent class. For example, you can add an extension function called equals() that works on lists and maps (even if they don’t have an equals() method written into them) without changing any of their existing behavior. The same applies for operator overloading—you can overload arithmetic operators (+, -, * and /) so that a class can respond in a particular way when those operators are used on it. And whether you’re extending classes with new functionality or overloading operators so that one object can take action when another object uses them, it’s all possible because of extension functions and operator overloading.

8) Nice Syntax From Functional Programming

Kotlin provides a clean syntax that will be familiar to anyone who has used Java. But it’s also a functional programming language, meaning it has features such as higher-order functions and lambda expressions, which allow you to write code that is concise and easy to understand. Because of its foundation in FP, Kotlin also avoids some of Java’s complexity. For example, there are no checked exceptions: If an exception is thrown in your code, it’ll be thrown as an unchecked RuntimeException, not as an Exception or Error.

9) Reflection and Code Generation Are Kind Of Like Serialization

Here’s a simple example of how reflection can work: Create and edit some objects on which we can perform reflection. For our example, we’ll make Kotlin classes to represent superheroes. Superheroes have the fields ids, names, and powers. names are unique, while ids are not (two superheroes can have the same name). In addition, we need a way to maintain objects across different sessions to make them easy to work with.

10) Documentation

Documentation is easy if you choose Kotlin. The language is less verbose than Java and more readable, which makes it easier to understand your codebase even after several months of development. It also features higher-order functions (closures) and infix notation, making it much simpler to read. While these are just two of many ways that Kotlin saves developers time, there are plenty more perks when it comes to using Kotlin versus Java.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Kotlin? 

Kotlin is a statically typed programming language that runs on Java Virtual Machine and also can be compiled into JavaScript source code or uses LLVM compiler infrastructure. Kotlin is a general-purpose, statically typed programming language that runs on JVM (Java Virtual Machine). Kotlin can also be compiled into JavaScript source code or use LLVM compiler infrastructure. 

Recently, Google announced official support for Kotlin as a first-class language in Android app development. One of Kotlin’s biggest advantages is interoperability with Java, meaning developers don’t have to abandon all of their existing Java code if they start working with Kotlin. For example, you can call static methods defined in your Java library from Kotlin and vice versa.

Why is Kotlin popular?

If you ask Google what languages people are most interested in learning, they’ll give you a list ordered by the search volume. While Java is still high on that list, Kotlin is rapidly approaching its popularity. In fact, it appears as if Kotlin may already be more popular than Scala and Go. While functional programming can work well on Android with RxJava, when Java 8 arrives with functional APIs built-in directly to Java itself, that will make functional programming more appealing and less of a headache in general. When developers have a choice between two similar options, they choose Kotlin because of its advantages and benefits over other languages like Swift or Scala.

What are the similarities between Java and Kotlin?

Kotlin is a new programming language. It comes with the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and the Android operating system, but can also be compiled as Kotlin Native or Kotlin/Native. It’s essentially 100% interoperable with Java, which means it has the potential to replace all of your existing Java code.

Conclusion

If you’re developing a mobile app, you’ve probably noticed that there are quite a few options out there. You’ll want to make sure that your app has a long shelf life and can scale with your business. Kotlin’s strong tooling, rapid development capabilities, and modern language features can help you avoid some of the issues that may arise as technology advances further. With these benefits, it’s easy to see why Kotlin is quickly becoming one of the most popular programming languages for app development in 2022.