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The current trend provides a clear picture: companies are switching from Java to Kotlin. Among them are companies such as Uber, Pinterest, Evernote, Trello, Square, Coursera and Google, which have migrated their Android apps from Java to Kotlin. The most common reasons for switching include better stability, better performance and better code, and some companies say they can design a generally better user experience with Kotlin.

Kotlin is a cross-platform, statically typed programming language that translates into bytecode for the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), but can also be converted into JavaScript source code. The language is syntactically incompatible with Java, but is designed to interoperate with Java code. Kotlin can also be used to develop Android and iOS apps. Google has officially supported Android app development in Kotlin since 2017, and it has been the preferred language for this purpose since May 2019.

  • Google declared Kotlin to be the preferred programming language for Android at the I/O 2019 developer conference
  • Meta Platforms says it uses more than 10 million lines of code written in Kotlin in its Android codebase as of October 2022

Mainly, the language was developed by JetBrains programmers, who were based in Saint Petersburg at the time. That’s where the name comes from: Kotlin is an island off St. Petersburg. After a year of development, JetBrains introduced the Kotlin project to the public in July 2011 as a new language for the JVM. In February 2012, JetBrains released the source code under an Apache 2 license. On February 15, 2016, version 1.0 of Kotlin was released. This version is considered the first official stable release.

Lead developer Dmitry Yemerov explained that most languages did not show the features they were looking for, with the exception of Scala. This, however, had a slow compiler. Therefore, one of the stated goals for Kotlin was high compile speed, as seen in Java.

According to the Kotlin website, both small and large projects use the language:

  • Pinterest uses 150 million users a month
  • Gradle uses Kotlin for installation scripts
  • Evernote uses Kotlin for its Android client
  • Uber uses Kotlin for internal tools
  • Corda, an open source software developed entirely in Kotlin, is used by several major banks
  • Coursera develops Android apps in part using Kotlin
  • Atlassian uses Kotlin for the Trello tool on Android