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Kotlin has been one of the most popular programming languages in the last couple of years since Google announced it as an official Android programming language during its I/O developer conference in 2017. The technology giant recently announced that Kotlin is now supported by Android Studio 3.0, the official IDE for app development on Android. There are many reasons why you should consider using Kotlin for your next Android app, especially if you’re tired of Java’s verbosity and slow compilation times, just to name a few. Here are five good reasons why you should choose Kotlin for your next Android app development company.
1) Consistent Development
Just like Java, Kotlin is a statically typed language with class-based object-oriented programming capabilities. But, that’s where similarities end. Kotlin makes it easier and faster to build quality applications by providing a concise and elegant way of coding. Moreover, its compatibility with existing Java code will help you cut your development time in half! The comprehensive integration between Java and Kotlin makes it simple for developers to use either when necessary, all without sacrificing performance or productivity.
What does that mean in practice? Well, if you’re already a Java developer, you will find it easier and faster to learn Kotlin. And if you are new to programming, but familiar with Java syntax, it will only take you a short time before becoming proficient in coding with Kotlin. On top of that, you’ll also be able to use your favorite IDEs and build tools because they are either fully compatible or offer integration support.
2) Open Source
Google open-sourced Kotlin in 2011, which means that other developers have had ample time to play around with it and find its weaknesses. As an open source language, it’s community-driven – meaning there are lots of people who are constantly working on making it even better.
The open source nature of Kotlin also means you can modify it as you wish. This can be useful if your needs are specific, as it means you’ll have access to a coding language specifically tailored to your project.
3) Android Studio Support
Official support for Kotlin is available in Android Studio 3.0 Canary 14 and above. If you’re still using an older version of Studio, you can install a plugin called Kotlin Plugin (version 0.6.50 or higher) from JetBrains Tools Repository .
Once you have a stable version of Studio installed, go ahead and create a new project. A dialog will appear when you try to select your app’s build tools. Select Kotlin from that list. Then, simply continue with creating your project as usual.
4) Community Support
The Kotlin programming language was open-sourced in 2011 and has been backed by JetBrains, a software development company based in Prague. The platform has amassed nearly 90 contributors from across 25 countries. Its community has been described as overwhelmingly positive with its users claiming that it improves on Java—the most popular programming language used for developing Android apps.
With Google’s official support for Kotlin and announcements of other technology giants such as Pinterest, Uber, and Atlassian planning to use it in upcoming projects, it appears that Kotlin will not be losing momentum anytime soon. This can only be a good thing if you plan on using Kotlin to build your next Android app.
5) Interoperability
With other JVM-based languages like Java, Scala, and Groovy (and with some limitations even with JavaScript) at your disposal, Kotlin allows you to easily transfer code across different platforms. This opens up a whole new world of possibilities when it comes to outsourcing work or collaborating with developers of other languages.
The Kotlin team has clearly made interoperability with Java a high priority. In fact, in order to achieve 100% API compatibility, they rewrote some of their language elements from scratch in order to eliminate any potential clashes with Java’s own methods and classes.
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