Brief history of Kotlin for Android

Submitted Sep 9, 2021

Kotlin was first created as a statically typed programming language for Java Virtual Machine (JVM) by Czech tool Manufacturers, JetBrains in 2011¹. In the decade that has passed, Manufacturers’ estimate that the language has grown from a Java alternative to almost exclusively being used for the development of apps in tablets to mobile phones. JetBrains estimates that about 80 percent of the apps used today are predominantly built using Kotlin^1:1. Since its inception, Kotlin has currently unveiled it’s latest version Kotlin 1.5.0² in 2021.

Since 2017, Kotlin has officially partnered with Android to increase adoption. In addition to this, Kotlin supports multi platform programming³ to enable developers to maintain the previous code and thus increase the shift towards the use of Kotlin in the developer community. In addition to this, tech giants have also begun investing in the adoption of Kotlin, notably AWS introducing Software Development Kits (SDKs) for Swift and Kotlin⁴. Simultaneously, JetBrains have begun promoting their Kotlin Basics program⁵ for free so that software developers can learn and code with the Kotlin easily. They also have a YouTube channel⁶.

JetBrains celebrates 10 years of Kotlin: https://analyticsindiamag.com/ten-years-of-kotlin-programming-language/ ↩︎ ↩︎
Kotlin 1.5.0 – the first big release of 2021: https://blog.jetbrains.com/kotlin/2021/05/kotlin-1-5-0-released/ ↩︎
Multiplatform programming: https://kotlinlang.org/docs/multiplatform.html ↩︎
Amazon Web Services (AWS) introduces software development kits for Swift and Kotlin: https://marketresearchtelecast.com/amazon-web-services-introduces-software-development-kits-for-swift-and-kotlin/143730/ ↩︎
JetBrains Academy launches Kotlin basics: https://sdtimes.com/softwaredev/jetbrains-academy-launches-kotlin-basics/ ↩︎
Jetbrains YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/Kotlin ↩︎

Kotlin will displace Java in the Android ecosystem.

Brief history of Kotlin for Android

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