As a team of developers we had a hard time starting from 0 with Android development, so now we would like to give you a simple guide to show you the ways you can start to develop in the most famous programming language for Android: Kotlin
Kotlin is a modern and concise programming language that runs on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and can be used to develop Android apps. Kotlin was officially supported by Google as a first-class language for Android development in 2017, and since then, it has gained popularity and adoption among Android developers. According to the latest JetBrains survey, Kotlin is used by 77% of Android developers in 20211. In 2023, we can expect to see more features and improvements in Kotlin that will make Android development easier and more enjoyable. Here are some of the key trends and benefits of using Kotlin for Android development in 2023:
- Kotlin Multiplatform: Kotlin Multiplatform is a feature of Kotlin that allows developers to share code across different platforms, such as Android, iOS, web, desktop, and embedded systems. Kotlin Multiplatform enables developers to write common logic in Kotlin and reuse it on multiple platforms, while still using native libraries and frameworks for each platform. This reduces code duplication, improves code quality, and saves development time and cost. Kotlin Multiplatform is still in alpha stage, but it has shown great potential and success in some projects, such as the official app of the KotlinConf conference2, the KMM Production Checklist app3, and the Jetpack Compose Playground app. In 2023, we can expect to see more stability and maturity in Kotlin Multiplatform, as well as more tools and libraries that support it.
- Jetpack Compose: Jetpack Compose is a modern UI toolkit for Android that simplifies UI development by using declarative and reactive programming. Jetpack Compose allows developers to write UI components in Kotlin code, without using XML layouts or view binding. Jetpack Compose also supports state management, animations, navigation, testing, accessibility, and more. Jetpack Compose was released in stable version in July 2021, and since then, it has become the preferred way of creating UIs for Android apps. Jetpack Compose is fully compatible with Kotlin, and it leverages some of its features, such as coroutines, lambdas, extension functions, and DSLs. In 2023, we can expect to see more adoption and innovation in Jetpack Compose, as well as more integration with other Jetpack libraries and components.
- Coroutines: Coroutines are a feature of Kotlin that allows developers to write asynchronous and concurrent code in a simple and concise way. Coroutines are lightweight threads that can be suspended and resumed without blocking the main thread. Coroutines can be used to perform tasks that involve network calls, database operations, file I/O, or any other long-running or blocking operations. Coroutines are supported by many libraries and frameworks for Android development, such as Retrofit, Room, WorkManager, and Jetpack Compose. Coroutines are also integrated with the new Flows API, which is a way of handling streams of data in a reactive manner. In 2023, we can expect to see more improvements and best practices in using coroutines for Android development.
- Ktor: Ktor is a framework for building asynchronous servers and clients in Kotlin. Ktor can be used to create backend services for Android apps, such as REST APIs, web sockets, chatbots, or microservices. Ktor supports various features and technologies, such as HTTP/2, SSL/TLS, authentication, authorization, logging, testing, serialization, compression, caching, and more. Ktor also supports Kotlin Multiplatform, which means that it can run on different platforms and environments, such as JVM, Native, JavaScript, or Docker. Ktor is still in beta stage, but it has been used by some companies and projects for production purposes. In 2023, we can expect to see more stability and popularity in Ktor as a backend framework for Android apps.
Kotlin is a powerful and expressive language that makes Android development fun and productive. With its features and advantages over Java, such as null safety, data classes, extension functions, higher-order functions, DSLs, coroutines, and more.
As you must already know, we develop applications in Kotlin and Java, so if you want to see the apps and try them, we leave you the link to the Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/search?q=pub%3ASyntagma%20Inc.&c=apps
We would like to thank everyone who is supporting us using our free apps for letting us learn about mobile development, Kotlin has become the preferred choice for many Android developers. In 2023, we can expect to see more growth and innovation in Kotlin for Android development. If you want to learn how to develop Android apps with Kotlin in 2023, you can check out some of these resources:
https://kotlinlang.org/
https://developer.android.com/studio
https://codelabs.developers.google.com/
https://www.udacity.com/courses
https://www.coursera.org/
In the near future we are going to have a discussion on the following controversial topic: Which language is better, Java or Kotlin?
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