How Kotlin Changed Android App Development

Android app development revenue reached $20.1 billion in the year 2017. This indicates 35% of revenue growth as compared to the year 2016. China saw 270% hike in app store consumer spend in the year 2017.On an average, every user spends 3 hours a day in mobile applications. 

According to Gartner, over 268 billion mobile downloads will generate an income of $77 billion in 2017. 
43% of mobile app time is spent on games, 26% social networking apps like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and 10% on entertainment.

All these statistics indicate the skyrocket speed of app usage and downloads around the globe. Since the usage and downloads have been increased, the number of mobile app development companies has also increased. According to a survey, software development as a career is very popular among youth.

What makes app usage so popular and trendy?

The apps are the future as well as the present. It is not just a piece of information or a medium of direct marketing. App development has come up with tremendous innovations. Technology is doing great and we cannot even predict what future has! In such scenarios, mobile app developers are using various technologies to enhance the features of their apps. Few of the technologies are Artificial Intelligence, Internet Of Things, Augmented reality, Virtual Reality, Chatbots, etc. 

Android being the leader of the app market has the highest share of mobile applications followed by Apple’s iOS and Windows. Since the policies and terms and conditions of Android are easy to understand as well as easy to follow, developers prefer choosing Android. Also, it is cost effective! The cost of Android app developed in Java 6 or Java 7 or the latest one Java 8, are more costly as compared to Kotlin.

Need for Kotlin

Java is the most widely used programming language for Android around the globe. In previous days, android app developers used to face some challenges such as Java being slow in modernization. It is said to be a verbose language. As the technology is going ahead with great speed, developers cannot afford using old Java 6 and Java 7 versions. Compatibility matters when you are planning to develop an Android mobile application. Hence, Android introduced Kotlin. 

What is Kotlin?

Kotlin is an open source and fully supported programming language for Android which is directly integrated into Android studio 3.0. It is very versatile for front and backend development since it is compiled with JavaScript. 

Kotlin is said to be the fastest growing language of the year 2018. Kotlin is a statically typed programming language by JetBrains. It runs on Java Virtual Machine and is completely interoperable with Java. 

It does not have its own build system scenes with other open source tools like Gradle and Maven already have their own. Because of the fact that more than half of Android devices still support 6 bytecode, kotlin supports Java 6 bytecode. Developers can call java code from kotlin because of interoperability with Java. This means developers can use kotlin in existing applications. Also, the null pointer exception is the common reason for crashes in applications. Kotlin reduces this complication.

The best part about Kotlin is that it has gone through many testings and does not consist of any error. Android app development has become much easier because of Kotlin. Other languages used to develop Android mobile apps are too heavy and complicated to use. Besides, the compilation time along with tools are far better in Kotlin. At present, Kotlin is considered as the most useful and efficient app programming language for Android.

Another benefit is that: since it is an open source language, it requires less coding as compared to Java. earlier, programmers had to write boilerplate codes which were time and effort to consume. This boilerplate coding is eliminated in Kotlin. Since it is seamlessly integrated with Android 3.0, a developer who has no knowledge of Kotlin can easily start coding and even set up a project in very less time. Kotlin supports any platform and is not restricted to Android apps only.

Benefits of Kotlin

•  Interoperable with Java
•  Also its IDE plugin works smoothly
•  Kotlin focuses on readable syntax
•  Great tooling support
•  Functional programming support
•  Qasar library 
•  Markdown instead of HTML
•  Better generics
•  Automatic delegation
•  Uses aggressive type interface
•  No need to use a redundant class while defining static objects and functions
•  Easy to use and understand
•  Easy syntax
•  Cost-effective

Conclusion

Kotlin is indeed the most talked about android app development language and has all the solutions for cons of Java. Android app developers around the world are looking forward to working in Kotlin. Many mobile app development companies are conducting sessions to teach Kotlin language. Since it is highly compatible and consist of all features required for today’s technological upgradations, Kotlin has become the 1st choice of Android app developers.

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