Why is Kotlin the best choice for Android App Development?

Java used to rule the Android Application Development world. It is still in the race, however, ever since Kotlin came into the limelight, the popularity and use of Java has dwindled (similar to the downfall of Objective-C after the release of Swift). Kotlin is now considered to be the official programming language for Android development and thus is the primary choice to create Android apps, thanks to the plethora of benefits it offers.

Java is tagged as an old, verbose, and error-prone language that has also been slow to adapt to modernization. It was great during its heyday, but not today. Some of its features are either no longer useful or do not support the current Android system. Kotlin, on the other hand, caters to modern requirements and is relatively faster and better. The programming language is gaining traction among Android app developers.

Read: Kotlin vs Java

A major flaw associated with Java is the way it handles “null”, resulting in NullPointerException, also known as “The Billion Dollar Mistake”, which is one of the most common reasons for crashes in Android apps.

Keeping the downsides of Java aside, let’s shift our focus to Kotlin. In this blog post, we will brief you about the benefits of Kotlin and explain why it is an ideal choice for Android App Development today.

Kotlin- A Quick Overview

Unveiled in July 2011 by JetBrains, Kotlin is a robust, statically-typed, and cross-platform programming language based on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). Six months later, in Feb 2012, the language was marked Open-source. Google announced Kotlin as Android’s official programming language in May 2019 that led to the major shift from Java to Kotlin for Android app development.

JetBrains has also created two popular IDEs- IntelliJ Idea and Android Studio, the latter was crowned as Standard IDE by Google for Android development. They understood the troubles developers face in day-to-day development workflow and were quick to address those pain points with Kotlin. Besides being open-source, Kotlin offers more flexibility and supports various easy-to-use programming tools.

8 Primary Reasons to Choose Kotlin for Android App Development

The rise in the popularity of Kotlin is evident from the fact that some of the leading brands such as Uber and Pinterest have migrated from Java to Kotlin. Let’s dig deep to understand what persuades Android app developers to use this programming language.

1. Entirely Interoperable with Java

The interoperability of Kotlin with Java is what shifts developers’ focus towards the former. Kotlin is 100% interoperable with Java, which means that the Java code can be called from Kotlin, and vice-versa. To be more specific, developers can start using Kotlin right away in an existing project that has earlier been making use of the Java code, without worrying about disturbing the flow because both generate the same bytecode. It will require some additional tools and frameworks to adjust it in your project. The freedom to use both Java and Kotlin in tandem in a single project is truly a blessing. This is seen as one of the major benefits of using Kotlin for Android app development.

2. Excellent IDE and Tooling Support

Kotlin gets great IDE support, the other JVM languages don’t even come close as far as the IDE support is concerned. All the features of Android Studio’s IDE work excellently in Kotlin. You can merge the Kotlin and Java code in the same project and it would still work perfectly. “Convert Java File to Kotlin” is also another feature that Kotlin brings to Android studio. This helps convert your old Java file into an equivalent Kotlin file within a single click.

3. Less Coding

One of the major benefits of Kotlin over Java is that the former requires comparatively less coding than the latter. Unlike in Java, developers do not have to write lengthy and repetitive code in Kotlin which also tends to reduce the file size because of fewer lines of code. You can convert Java files having different sizes into smaller file sizes in Kotlin by using the Android Studio plugin.

Another good thing about Kotlin is it is not verbose like Java. It’s crisp, concise, and very easy to read once you understand its syntax. Furthermore, it has remarkably reduced the amount of boilerplate code that Android developers write every day, thereby accelerating the implementation process.

4. No more NullPointerExceptions

As we mentioned at the beginning, NullPointerExceptions or NPEs have been one of the most common reasons for crashes in Android apps, and securing your code with null checks and fixing the NPEs is a tedious task. With Kotlin, developers do not need to be concerned about the NPEs as the null safety comes inherent in the Kotlin system which allows them to detect the NPEs at the compile-time instead of during the app crash at runtime.

5. Enterprise language

Kotlin isn’t new, it has been around for a decade now, however, it came into use and gained popularity post-2015. It was created to resolve the practical and real-world development challenges faced by modern-day developers. Kotlin doesn’t possess an academic or research background, unlike other JVM-based languages. It was developed with a keen focus on making it an enterprise language.

With Kotlin, JetBrains didn’t aim to bring a revolutionary change in Android application development but to offer the modern enterprise developers something with which they are familiar and is usable.

6. Easy to set-up

Up until Android Studio 3.0, setting up Kotlin or adding it to your project was a bit of a challenging task as developers were compelled to use a plugin for that matter. However, with the arrival of Android Studio 3,0, back in 2017, Kotlin got easy to set up. The update brought a built-in feature called “Support Kotlin Development” using which the setup became relatively easy. All you need to do is check the “Include Kotlin Support” box at the time of configuring your new project.

7. Open-source and Multi-platform

The announcement of Kotlin as an open-source language opened the door for core product development and endless support from the Kotlin team, which allowed Android developers to create high-quality applications using Kotlin.

One of the great strengths of Kotlin is its multi-platform native development. It runs on JVM and since a lot of devices run on the same, it makes it possible to share code between platforms and hence can be used to build applications on diverse platforms including Server Side, Android, Browser, and Desktop, which helps save time and cost. The language receives the full support of Android, JavaScript, Linux, Windows, and more.

8. Safer and Reliable

Kotlin is safer than Java as far as code safety is concerned. It helps prevent some of the common errors that take place in a code and thus results in better implementation and reduced system failures. It assists developers in writing robust code that is less susceptible to bugs. Well, it ought to be safer than Java as it was developed as an improvement of the latter.

Kotlin is also reliable. There are numerous programming languages out there but Kotlin is the most sophisticated and much more mature among all. Ever since it came into existence, it has gone under several alpha and beta tests before JetBrains officially released its final public version.

The Bottom Line

Many app development companies are adopting Kotlin for Android app development, and as a result, the demand for Kotlin developers is growing at a rapid pace. Kotlin is also easy to learn which is one of the reasons why it is attracting many young individuals towards the programming language.

We hope by now, you have got a fair understanding of Kotlin and why you should choose Kotlin for Android application development instead of Java. It’s time for you to embrace the new opportunities in Android development.