

Working side-by-side with Java on Android, you can add Kotlin code to your existing projects, and can call Java code from Kotlin and vice versa. However, Kotlin is a truly modern and powerful language with a much cleaner syntax, and helps to solve common headaches such as source code verbosity and runtime exceptions. Both are object-oriented and statically typed, and Kotlin has been designed to solve similar problems to the ones that Java solves. Kotlin is 100-percent interoperable with Java, and the two languages have a lot of similarities in their structures. Google has been careful to note that Kotlin is an additional language, not a replacement for its existing Java (and C++) support.

Well, this certainly isn’t true for the moment. There is a lot of buzz and excitement about Kotlin, and with so much talk and anticipation, entrepreneurs with apps for Android written in Java may think that Java is being phased out. But now, with Google’s official support for this nascent language – Kotlin tools are included with Android Studio 3.0 by default – Android mobile app owners have lots of reasons to be excited, because many new enhancements are being introduced and opportunities are opening up.

Kotlin has been widely regarded as the primary alternative to Java (the default language for Android development) for a while. Kotlin is built by JetBrains, who (it is worth noting) is also responsible for developing the JetBrains IntelliJ Java IDE, which Google’s own Android Studio is based on. In May 2017, the Android team at Google announced first-class support for Kotlin, a statically typed programming language that runs on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM).
