8 Reasons to Pick Kotlin Over Java for Android Development

• By Amara works
• 13-09-2022
• Technology

Kotlin vs Java! Should you choose Kotlin or Java for Android? What’s better for Android development? You might see these questions a lot. In fact, for new Android app developers & enterprises, this makes perfect sense that there would be confusion and questions about which programming language to use for Android applications.

On one side, Java’s experience and language understanding are worldly popular. Developers find it easy to learn and pursue a career in Android development. From the entrepreneur's front, Java has been a great help in making an entry into the Android app development market.

While on the other hand, Kotlin, a recently launched open-source programming language has become the ‘eye candy’ of Android app development that completely changed the dynamics for not just app developers but also businesses.

In this blog, we are going to know more about Kotlin and the reasons to choose Kotlin over Java for Android development. Additionally, we will also have a detailed analysis of Kotlin vs Java. So, without any further delay, let’s dive right into it.

Kotlin: Briefly Defined
Kotlin is a modern programming language to create empowering apps that run faster and is more compatible with the Java ecosystem in comparison to other android development languages. Developers can simply use their favourite JVM frameworks and libraries to build a native alike Android application.

The cross-platform layer for native applications allows developers to share app logistics between mobile, web, and desktop platforms while giving an enticing user experience altogether. Businesses after switching to Kotlin have saved time and also captured unlimited access to features specific to these platforms.

When Google I/O officially announced the launch of Kotlin in 2017, the news of it spread almost immediately. And there was no reason to not use the language, from having great support to taking assistance from contributors in its fast-growing global community, Kotlin has everything that makes developers nothing but happier. Apart from its rich ecosystem, it has also helped developers in expanding their skillset and driving excellence to projects seamlessly.

While entrepreneurs end, they are constantly making an effort to understand how Kotlin for Android app development would help scale up their business.

To put it simply, although Kotlin’s demand in the market has recently been recognized, its adoption rate is surprisingly more than other programming languages. A rate that was mainly been drawn by giants like Evernote, Postmates, and other popular Kotlin-induced applications, who understood the value and benefits of choosing Kotlin over Java mobile app development.

Now that we have assembled a brief overview of what is Kotlin, let’s jump to the benefits of switching to Kotlin to know why established brands and startups are inclined toward Kotlin more rather than Java:

A. Reduced development timeline
B. Better user experience
C. Leaves no room for error which ultimately increases apps productivity
D. Kotlin follows the fail-fast module which immediately reports issues in coding.

These reasons have immensely made a huge impact on companies and android app developers' lives equally. However, we will be discussing briefly this in the below sections. But have the Java framework and libraries lost their limelight in the Android market after Kotlin’s entry?

Let’s find out in the below segment where we have jotted a detailed comparison of Java and Kotlin and how both these leading languages for mobile apps stack up against each other.

Kotlin vs Java: 8 Reasons to Pick Kotlin:

1. Brevity Level
In developing code, Java adheres to the conventional practice of verbosity. However, being a contemporary programming language, Kotlin follows the notion of conciseness.

Because Kotlin is noted for its brevity, we can dramatically minimize the amount of boilerplate code, resulting in fewer lines of code than the Java counterpart. As a result, Kotlin is more legible and less prone to mobile app developers' mistakes.

2. Extension Functions
In Java, you must inherit the class and override the methods. However, Kotlin includes the capability of extension functions, which do not necessitate inheriting the class.

3. Functional Programming
Java is an Object-Oriented Programming language, but Kotlin combines the best of both worlds.

In Kotlin, for example, we may utilize Lambda expressions with inline functions, which is not possible in Java. Kotlin also supports additional dynamically typed elements such as delegates and extension functions.

4. Platform Compatibility
Java compiles to JVM bytecode as well as JavaScript utilizing the Nashorn and Rhino JS Engines. Kotlin, on the other hand, enables not just bytecode and JavaScript but also native code generation.

We may also utilize the Kotlin app development services as a multiplatform framework to extract a single common codebase that is compatible with all platforms.

5. Cost of Adoption
Kotlin is an open-source language. As a result, developers may quickly experiment with the language by simply translating it using the Java-Kotlin converter. Furthermore, because it can interact with building tools like Maven, Ant, Gradle, and others, the entire process is simplified.

However, because Kotlin apps are still relatively new in the market, the developing learning curve is rather steep, which means your team of developers will need to spend more time learning the language.

Because of the learning curve, the point is on Kotlin's side when compared to Java.

When Kotlin and Java are compared, it is likely that you will observe a preference for the creation of Kotlin use cases over Java.

6. Interoperability
The main reason for bringing Kotlin to the mobile app development market was to improve compatibility. The objective of the Kotlin language from the beginning has been to allow developers to easily construct modules in Kotlin that would later operate perfectly even with Java code - all through the usage of a Kotlin compiler.

7. Expectations
Java's checked expectation facility can be a bit tricky. This is when the compiler requires the function caller to catch an exception. As a result, it is extremely difficult for engineers to go through code and find a nonexistent exception.

Kotlin eliminates this totally, reducing verbosity and boosting type safety.

8. Community Support
The fact that Java has been in the Android business for more than two decades offers it far greater community support than Kotlin.

Because Kotlin is still in its early stages, it has yet to reap the benefits of widespread community support. As a result, the former is the victor of the Java vs. Kotlin war in terms of community support.

Over to you
Considering planned Android app development in both Java and Kotlin languages for a range of different app kinds, we feel that hiring a Kotlin developer has a number of advantages over Java. However, it is too early to predict that Kotlin will replace Java because the latter has unrivalled community support.

Instead of concentrating and limiting themselves to a Java or Kotlin Android application development firm, businesses could select an Android app development service that has competence in both Java and Kotlin. These were our take on providing the best reasons why businesses and developers are rigorously switching to Kotlin over Java.

Nevertheless, you must always explore to learn and choose what’s best for your project.