Technology keeps on evolving in order to meet the current market requirements, business goals and customer’s needs. In the world of mobile app development services also, things are always amending. Amongst the different programming languages, one which is gaining more popularity and recognition in the market of android app development services is Kotlin. The community of Kotlin app development services is constantly growing.
Kotlin was developed by JetBrains, back in May 2017, and was announced as an official Android development language at Google I/O. So, what is Kotlin and what are its benefits. Let’s have a closer look.
What is Kotlin?
Kotlin is an open-source programming language with cross-platform and statically typed inference. It is based on Java Virtual Machine (JVM). It integrates object-oriented and functional programming features. Kotlin is not only meant for Android app development services but also used for desktop applications and servers. Android developers have faced a lot of hurdles while building the apps that’s why Kotlin has been designed as a solution to overcome the problems. The main aims of the Kotlin language are to enable mixed-language projects and to improve the coding experience.
Why is Kotlin a Huge Win For Android Developers?
It is very well known that Java is one of the oldest programming languages in the application field. But being old, it has its own disadvantages and this is where Kotlin stands out. Let’s discuss the key benefits of Kotlin app development services.
- Easy Learning Procedure: In this growing period of mobile app development services, learning a new programming language is very time-taking and difficult. But in the case of Kotlin, it is quite easy to understand and learn as it is a user-friendly programming language in comparison with Java. Kotlin has an intuitive syntax because of which the code written in it can be easily interpreted and reviewed by all who are new to the programming language.
- Less Coding: Kotlin app development services target optimizing the code writing process. It has been created in such a way that it requires minimum coding as compared to Java. According to an estimate, if the data is to be shared in numerical, it is believed to have 20% less coding than Java. The main reason behind this is that it reduces the boilerplate coding which developers used to write in Java. A lot of time was wasted in identifying the errors or bugs led by using boilerplate coding. Kotlin eases a developer’s job making the execution better.
- Safety: Java being the oldest programming language has some limitations and one of them which is faced by developers is a null-point exception. Mobile app development services face application crashing issues in the mid-operation in the Java framework. Kotlin’s system has an inbuilt null safety function. Android depends on null to represent the absence of a value but null can easily destroy an application. Kotlin fixes this problem by incorporating inherent null safety.
- Functional Programming: This feature allows android developers to solve problems more easily in the development process of an application that is not possible with Java. In Kotlin, the class is compact due to which the amount of code to be written in this framework is less. Kotlin includes Lamba expressions, higher-order functions, operator overloading, lazy evaluation whereas java supports the OOPS programming concept. Java is only limited to object-oriented programming.
- Multiplatform Concept: The biggest advantage of Kotlin is its multi-platform development. As Kotlin runs on Java Virtual Machine (JVM) it allows code sharing between different platforms such as Android and iOS. This not only saves the development time but also reduces the efforts and costs involved in providing the Android app development services.
- Not a Costly Affair: Kotlin is an open-source, multiplatform mobile application language so there is no need to spend additional money on this framework. Developers can begin using this high-end language by using the Java-to-Kotlin converter tool in order to convert their existing Java files. This tool allows the conversion of complex codes to a simpler form which saves development time, resources, and energy.
- Coroutines Feature: Kotlin provides working with multithreading apps because of the coroutines tool, so it makes complex tasks easier to manage, unlike the Java framework where multiple threads are created in the background which makes tasks too complex.
- Fewer Errors and Debugging: Kotlin avoids runtime errors by fixing the bugs and removing the errors because the compiler here keeps performing many checks.
Summary: Future of Kotlin
Kotlin, having the back of Android studio, is the developing programming language of this modern era. The updated features are quite unique and efficient from older programming languages like Java which takes android app development to the next level. The amazing characteristics of this framework like an easy learning process, fast running ability, safe and crushing free, interoperable with Java, less costly and low-maintenance, etc. make it way superior to other programming languages. It provides developers a pool of opportunities where they can experiment with modern programming.
Not to forget, Kotlin’s single code base strategy and multi-platform concept make it simpler for the developers to design the applications. Kotlin was developed with the business in mind as it aims at bringing the best out of it by rendering reliable and unique app development solutions. Google has announced Kotlin as the official language of Android app development in 2017, since then, it has seen a rapid increase in demand in both the business and developer community.