Is Kotlin The Future of Mobile Apps?

In a time when cross-platform app development is the new norm for developers and they have some spectacular framework options to choose from, considering Kotlin, which has historically been tied to the Android platform, as the future of mobile app development might sound irrelevant to you.

Kotlin is an official language for Android app development supported by Google. It is a general-purpose programming language created by JetBrains that is used to build modern, secure, and scalable applications. While it offers many benefits over Java as a standalone language, it also works well together with older languages.

The popularity of Kotlin has been rising since its release. Kotlin has been used by various organizations for a long time and that too with well-known names like Pinterest, Square, Trello, Tinder, and Netflix. And as Google – one of the biggest players in the technology world – supports it, we can expect to see much more popularity and innovation on the way.

Let’s consider the latest chart released by Jetbrains. According to Jetbrains, the number of Kotlin users is expected to reach up to 5 Million by the end of 2021.

So, if you are more into Java and Kotlin, looking to develop a cross-platform application for your business, we’ve got jaw-dropping news for you.

With Kotlin, you can now develop applications for both Android and iOS.

Kotlin, with its latest initiative that is Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile(KMM), has entered the cross-platform app development market. Designed to simplify development on multiple platforms, KMM allows the developers to distribute code, data, and business logic between iOS, the Web, Linux, macOS, Android, and Java Virtual Machine (JVM) in a clean, clear way.

One of Kotlin’s key benefits is its support for multiplatform programming. While retaining native attributes such as flexibility and performance, it reduces the effort involved in writing and maintaining the same code for multiple platforms.

What makes Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile Increasingly Popular for Mobile App Development?

1. 1. 1. No need for a Communication Bridge Between Native and Non-native code

      While Xamarin, Flutter, or React Native are separate ecosystems that are dependent on their libraries and tools, Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile has no such boundary. Kotlin gives you the flexibility to choose from all the existing libraries of Android and iOS along with its own libraries. This liberates you from developing the communication bridge between the native and non-native code, thereby saving your time and money.

   2. 2. Empowers you to Code and Share Platform-Specific Business Logic across Platforms

      Business logic is the most important and sensitive part of an application. It determines how all the features of the application will function. The business logic must therefore be carefully handled. When using other cross-platform app development frameworks, you have to code the business logic in their respective languages, which increases the likelihood that the code will be error-prone. The more times you code the logic, the higher are the chances of error in the future.

      With Kotlin, however, you need not write the business code multiple times. This not only future proofs the application for the later releases but also saves your time and resources. Kotlin Multiplatform allows you to code the platform-specific business logic, with direct communication with the native platform, with no need to wait for libraries or implement hacks or workarounds.

   3. 3. No Restriction on Application User Interface

      Kotlin places shared code and libraries below the UI layer, which makes interfacing with the native environment effortless, thereby imposing no restrictions on creating the UI of the app.

      A developer does not have to use UI components in a predefined manner. As the shared code contains only the business logic, UI developers can focus on making the application look and perform natively. You can use the expect/actual pattern for integrating platform-specific features effortlessly if you need to solve a task that cannot be solved within the shared code.

Source: Kotlin

• 4. Shorter learning curve

  More than 60% of professional Android developers use Kotlin, a modern statically typed programming language that helps boost productivity, developer satisfaction, and code quality.

  Being similar to languages like Java, Swift, Scala, Groovy, etc, it becomes easier for the developers to learn this language easily and begin developing multi-platform applications. Moreover, unlike React Native, Flutter, and Xamarine, Kotlin itself can be used to create applications without the need for learning additional programming languages.

  Read more

  • Flutter vs React Native- An Uphill Battle
  • Xamarin vs React Native: Which is Better?
  • Flutter 2.2: How has the framework evolved?

• 5. Allows you to Develop Truly Native Application

  With Xamarin and React Native, you need to use a virtual machine to execute the non-native code of your cross-platform application as the ecosystems of the native code and non-native code are completely different. In fact, Flutter also puts you in the non-native ecosystem, requiring you to manage another platform, create bridges, and do more platform-specific coding.

  Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile, on the other hand, liberates you from this. KMM doesn’t require a VM to execute the native code, instead, it already compiles to a native library for iOS or Android. Hence, allows to development of a truly native application.

Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile is the New Player In Cross-Platform Development

Kotlin is an awesome language and Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile takes it to the next level. Allowing you to create scalable and maintainable apps using a single codebase, Kotlin has successfully registered its name in the cross-platform app development list.

We hope this article has given you some insight into the rise in popularity of Kotlin and the future of mobile apps. This is an exciting time in the app development world. Kotlin is quickly growing to be one of the most popular languages, and for good reason. If you’re looking to develop a Kotlin based application and get into the Kotlin game, or just want to know more, be sure to contact us anytime.

Being one of the top mobile app development companies, we provide spectacular end-to-end android app development services. So, whether it’s app development or migration, or upgrade,  we are always happy to help!