Kotlin is a modern programming language that makes developers use it with ease. It is developed by JetBrains & Open-source Contributors.

Mobile Cross Platform

Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile allows you to use a single codebase for the business logic of iOS and Android apps. You only need to write platform-specific code where it’s necessary, for example to implement a native UI or when working with platform-specific APIs.

Native

Kotlin/Native is a technology for compiling Kotlin code to native binaries, which can run without a virtual machine. It is an LLVM based backend for the Kotlin compiler and native implementation of the Kotlin standard library. Kotlin/Native is primarily designed to allow compilation for platforms where virtual machines are not desirable or possible, for example, embedded devices or iOS. It solves the situations when a developer needs to produce a self-contained program that does not require an additional runtime or virtual machine.

Kotlin/Native supports the following platforms:

• iOS (arm32, arm64, simulator x86_64)
• macOS (x86_64)
• watchOS (arm32, arm64, x86)
• tvOS (arm64, x86_64)
• Android (arm32, arm64, x86, x86_64)
• Windows (mingw x86_64, x86)
• Linux (x86_64, arm32, arm64, MIPS, MIPS little endian)
• WebAssembly (wasm32)

Data Science

From building data pipelines to productionizing machine learning models, Kotlin can be a great choice for working with data:

• Kotlin is concise, readable and easy to learn.
• Static typing and null safety help create reliable, maintainable code that is easy to troubleshoot.
• Being a JVM language, Kotlin gives you great performance and an ability to leverage an entire ecosystem of tried and true Java libraries.

Server side

Kotlin is a great fit for developing server-side applications. You can write concise and expressive code while maintaining full compatibility with Java.

Ktor is a framework to easily build connected applications – web applications, HTTP services, mobile and browser applications. Modern connected applications need to be asynchronous to provide the best experience to users, and Kotlin coroutines provide awesome facilities to do it in an easy and straightforward way.

While not yet entirely there, the goal of Ktor is to provide an end-to-end multiplatform application framework for connected applications. Currently, JVM client and server scenarios are supported, as well as JavaScript, iOS and Android clients, and we are working on bringing server facilities to native environments, and client facilities to other native targets.

Web Development

Kotlin/JS provides the ability to transpile your Kotlin code, the Kotlin standard library, and any compatible dependencies to JavaScript. The current implementation of Kotlin/JS targets ES5.

The recommended way to use Kotlin/JS is via the kotlin.js and kotlin.multiplatform Gradle plugins. They provide a central and convenient way to set up and control Kotlin projects targeting JavaScript. This includes essential functionality such as controlling the bundling of your application, adding JavaScript dependencies directly from npm, and more. To get an overview of the available options, check out the Kotlin/JS project setup documentation.

Android

Android mobile development has been Kotlin-first since Google I/O in 2019.

Using Kotlin for Android development, you can benefit from:

• Less code combined with greater readability. Spend less time writing your code and working to understand the code of others.
• Mature language and environment. Since its creation in 2011, Kotlin has developed continuously, not only as a language but as a whole ecosystem with robust tooling. Now it’s seamlessly integrated in Android Studio and is actively used by many companies for developing Android applications.
• Kotlin support in Android Jetpack and other libraries. KTX extensions add Kotlin language features, such as coroutines, extension functions, lambdas, and named parameters, to existing Android libraries.
• Interoperability with Java. You can use Kotlin along with the Java programming language in your applications without needing to migrate all your code to Kotlin.
• Support for multiplatform development. You can use Kotlin for developing not only Android but also iOS, backend, and web applications. Enjoy the benefits of sharing the common code among the platforms.
• Code safety. Less code and better readability lead to fewer errors. The Kotlin compiler detects these remaining errors, making the code safe.
• Easy learning. Kotlin is very easy to learn, especially for Java developers.
• Big community. Kotlin has great support and many contributions from the community, which is growing all over the world. According to Google, over 60% of the top 1000 apps on the Play Store use Kotlin.