

Since then, Kotlin’s adoption has been on a steady rise. Kotlin finally entered the public eye in 2017 after Google announced its support. Kotlin’s Lead Language Designer Andrey Breslav said the team decided to name the language after an island, just like Java (even though Java was actually named after Java coffee from the Indonesian island of the same name). If you enjoy fun trivia, here’s one interesting fact: the name Kotlin comes from Kotlin Island, near St. However, as Jemerov pointed out, Scala too had its deficiencies, such as its very slow compilation. It was created by JetBrains.ĭmitry Jemerov, JetBrains’ Development Lead, explained how Kotlin was made because none of the existing JVM languages, except Scala, had the right features. Kotlin first appeared in 2011, but it didn’t get much attention in the first five years. Kotlin is an open source programming language with cross-platform and statically typed inference. In fact, the official app of KotlinConf 2017 was built in Kotlin and it was supported on both desktop (via the web app) and both major mobile platforms (iOS and Android).īut let’s take a closer look at Kotlin and the reasons behind its growing popularity. Two years earlier, the company announced their first-class support for Kotlin, which overthrew Java as the favorite android development language - off its throne.Īlthough it is primarily focused on Android, Kotlin aims to be the go-to programming language for multiple platforms - iOS included.

Google’s announcement was not unexpected. The main benefit of Kotlin stated in the announcement lies in its conciseness: indeed, Kotlin requires less code - both in terms of typing, testing, and maintaining. In May 2019, Google announced that Kotlin is now the preferred programming language for Android app developers. One of the more recent significant shifts refers to the surge in Kotlin development. This shouldn’t come as a surprise given the fact that technology is constantly evolving, just like the expectations and needs of end customers. In the world of mobile development, things are always changing. What is Kotlin and Why Do Mobile App Developers Love It?
