Kotlin is a language developed by JetBrains for the JVM, Java Virtual Machine and can be used in all those places where Java is being used today (virtually everywhere). This includes Android, web, client, and server development.
What makes Kotlin stand in the crowd and giving tough competition to Java is its powerful features and clean language design. Its goal is to bring together all those features of programming language which have been proven beneficial for the large-scale projects.
Because it is Awesome.
Kotlin is a language mainly for experienced Java developers for Android app development. It is also appealing to all programmers using garbage collected runtime, including Scale, Go, Ruby, JavaScript, and Python programmers.
In addition to that, more than 15% of the projects in the Android Studio 3.0 are using Kotlin language. From small startups to the biggest Fortune 500 companies, developers have already adopted Kotlin to develop their apps.
Though Kotlin is new in the market, it has started to give tough competition to Java as the language of choice for Android app development. All the big companies are adopting Kotlin in some way. Let’s have a look at some of the big players.
Pinterest, used by more than 150M, has successfully introduced Kotlin language into their app.
Android app of one of the biggest education-focused platforms, Coursera, is partially written in Kotlin.
Uber, global taxi technology company, is using Kotlin to build internal tools, improve code quality, and for speedy work deliverables.
Evernote, cross-platform app for note taking, has integrated Kotlin in their Android client.
As a language, Kotlin is similar to Java in structure as it is also object-oriented and statically typed. However, Kotlin has a lot of cool new features, well-designed ideas, clearer syntax, and other enhancements over Java.
Kotlin is fully interoperable with Java, enabling developers to use Kotlin code with Java and vice-versa. It is crucial for migrating large software projects built in Java to Kotlin in small steps and allow developers to access the Java libraries from Kotlin smoothly.
Kotlin is more concise than Java language, it solves the same problem with comparatively fewer lines of code. It improves code readability and maintainability, means developers can read, write, and change the code efficiently and more effectively.
Kotlin is safer than Java because it prevents common mistakes done by developers, resulting in fewer app crashes and system failures. Unlike Java, Kotlin explicitly suggests that developers figure out the potential problems that can occur with their code, ensuring more robust code at first go.
Kotlin offers an immense number of handy features that can help developers to facilitate development tasks. These include extension functions, object declaration, default parameter values, and many more. All these features help developers speed up development time and keep the codebase maintainable simultaneously.
Kotlin compiler goes for fail-fast whenever possible. It facilitates searching for errors and even tries to prevent them. Kotlin compiler performs checks, avoids runtime errors, and helps in reducing effort and cost of error fixes.
Kotlin has reduced the technical debt to some extent.
“Technical debt” or code debt is a concept in a development process that reflects the cost of additional work caused by preferring an easy solution rather than a better approach that would delay meeting the deadline. It reduces productivity and slows down future development.
Developers can minimize it with Kotlin as maintaining codebase is easier due to its reduced size. With Kotlin, developers are able to minimize lines of code by 25-30%.
It is easy for the existing Java developers to learn Kotlin without investing much time in it. Initially, Kotlin developers thought that the code same as Java code, but after working with it they understood why Kotlin is safer and more concise, and why it is worth the time to invest in this upcoming language.
Kotlin can be used to create a server-side application in a more concise and expressive way. Developers can deploy Kotlin apps on all those hosts that support Java web apps.
Kotlin developers can transpile Kotlin code to Javascript and build apps with server/client-side architecture. It can be used to create DOM elements, make graphical elements, and work in the server-side technologies.
Kotlin/Native allows Kotlin code compilation into native binaries. It targets those platforms where the virtual machine is not necessary or required. Developers can also build iOS apps with Kotlin as Kotlin/native fully supports interoperability with Objective-C.
Google’s announcement of making Kotlin an official language for Android was the tipping point for Kotlin as a replacement of Java for Android app development. Since there has been a growing demand for Kotlin developers for Android.
Developers are also excited and more satisfied with this new language. Even though, 7 out of every 10 developers prefer Kotlin over Java, hiring dedicated Kotlin app developers for Android can be a challenge. Below are some stats that may give you an insight on why Kotlin developers are in great demand:
1. Since Aug 2015, the number of apps built with Kotlin language has increased by 120%
2. More than 20% of Kotlin apps today were earlier developed with Java
In addition, the number of Android apps developed with Java has decreased to 6% in the last four months. As per a survey, by Dec 2018, Kotlin will leave Java behind for Android app development in the same way Swift overtook Objective-C for iOS app development
It is clear that Kotlin is here to stay, not just a phase to pass away.
If you are wondering why Google is supporting Kotlin and made it an official language for Android app development when we already have a pure, old, and competent language, Java, here are a few differences between Kotlin and Java that may clear your doubts.
Among the major pitfalls in the programming languages including Java, null reference exception is the most common one. In Java, it is equivalent to NPE, NullPointerException. Kotlin system is aimed to remove NullPointerException from code.
Before generics was introduced, raw types were used frequently. Raw types allow backward compatibility but they throw CastClassException too. And this occurs during execution rather than compiling stage. Kotlin doesn’t allow raw types, results in more type-safe code.
The checked exception occurs when compiler asks the caller of the function to catch an exception. Java supports it. But the fact is checked exceptions are unnecessary and often cause empty catch blocks. As a solution, Kotlin has completely removed them.
Programming language designers and makers have always argued over the necessity of classes. In Java, a data class contains a large amount of boilerplate code that developers need to skip to find out the actual use of that class. But in Kotlin, developers can write the same logic in much simpler manner and comparatively lesser lines.
While working with an API, developers have to deal with the collections. In Kotlin, there is a collection filtering feature, which makes it easy for the developers to see what their resulting list should contain. Filtering collection by built-in Kotlin is similar to other languages such as Java 8 streams or Swift collection.
Extensions in Kotlin allow developers to add more methods to the class without making any changes to the source code. In Kotlin, developers can add methods on the per-user basis.
Don’t have enough experience to build an Android app in Kotlin? Mobisoft Infotech can help you relieve the burden of building and maintaining an in-house Kotlin app development team. You can hire our talented Kotlin app developers for any duration you want. Our developers are updated with latest trends and frameworks, and will assist you with your project timelines, and bring expertise and experience to your team.
Mobisoft Infotech is a global technology services company with presence in Houston, Texas and Pune, India, specialized in custom mobile app development, offering a full range of product lifecycle services to businesses in emerging technology segments including Mobility, Web, Cloud, Open Source, IoT, DevOps, Analytics, and UX. Through global presence, 12+ years of experience, 400+ solutions, 225+ team, and a rapid-response delivery model, Mobisoft Infotech offers a range of engagement models such as turnkey projects, extended-teams, IP development, IT staffing, and offshore engagements.
1. Average experience of around 3-6 years of implementing Android and tablet applications
2. Optimal use of Android SDK and coding practices
3. Experience with various development tooling (e.g. Composer, NPM, Jenkins, JIRA, GitLab)
4. Analytical, accurate, and result driven
5. Good communication skills (written and oral) in English
6. Experience with and enjoy working within an international agile development environment
7. Ready to travel and work onsite
8. Hire Kotlin consultants as they are continuously trained for new skills, features, and latest updates
Mobisoft offers several benefits to the companies to improve their operational efficiencies, cost structures, and help them remain technologically competitive. Those benefits include:
Mobisoft is more cost effective as compared to the costs required to maintain internal Kotlin developers. We also support offshore Kotlin development from our India office to provide continuous development with cost benefit.
Mobisoft lets you hire Kotlin experts from India, helping you bring a wealth of Kotlin expertise for any project. Our experts have the specific skill sets needed to accomplish your latest objective along with the knowledge of latest technology.
By using our IT Staff augmentation services, you can reduce some of the burden related to IT management and maintain control over the final product and every single step of the way.
You can instruct our resources on your processes and report methodologies and the same would be followed.
All intellectual copyrights of the work done by such resources would remain with the client.
Our analyst team will scrutinize your business requirements and understand your resource needs for your project.
We will search and shortlist a perfect team just for you comprising of expert Kotlin developers for hire to fit your needs for skills, work experience, profile, and work culture.
We'll forward the best applicants and schedule final interviews, so you can assess them accordingly to check whether they are well-suited within your project criteria or not.
Upon resource finalization, we set up a communication, reporting, governance protocol, and execute the service of retainer developers engagement when you hire Kotlin developers from India.
We provide the flexibility of choosing the best-suited engagement model to all our clients.
Billed on monthly basis
Suitable for large and long-term projects
Billed only for actual time spent by the consultant
Suitable for small sized or short-term projects