Google has recently announced Kotlin as one of the official language for Android during the I/O 2017 developer conference. The adoption of Kotlin has greatly increased in recent years since it’s expressive, concise, extensible and a fun for reading and writing.
Android will now support Kotlin as an official language along with C++ and Java. Kotlin is a new programming language developed by JetBrains which develops JetBrains IDE along with Android Studio which is the official Android development tool. This is the first time a new programming language is added to Android to make it more productive.
As the language is compatible with Java and C++ you can continue using your existing code and other Android libraries and add Kotlin code to your existing code. This language runs on JVM (Java Virtual Machine) and hence can be utilized with other JVM-based languages for Android development. On compiling the Kotlin-based code a java byte code is produced which adds to the compatibility. Kotlin’s interoperability with Java has made it popular among the developers.
Kotlin is an open source programming language under Apache 2.0 license which makes Android development faster. It is an objected oriented language and shares similarities with Java. Also, the language offers more enhancements over Java programming language. The Android developers can download the plugin in Android Studio 3.0 and start coding.
However, the language will be developed and supported by JetBrains and the company is collaborating with Google to establish a nonprofit Kotlin foundation. There are many other languages that support Android development like Go language, Scala, and C++ but they are not officially supported by Google.
By providing support to Kotlin Google is expanding its investments into the existing languages for instance while developing Android, the company had added additional Java 8 libraries. Therefore, this language can serve as the great addition to Android development family and to learn more you can visit the page Get Started with Kotlin on Android.