Key Advantages That Kotlin Language Offers Over Java

While Java has been the main language for any Android app development company worldwide since 2017, Android developers worldwide have the additional option of building Android apps with a new language called Kotlin. Ever since Google unleashed the Kotlin language in 2017, it quickly rose as a better language option with an array of advantages. 

For many reasons, Kotlin is likely to dominate the Android development scene in the coming years. Here we are going to explain the key advantages of Kotlin over Java before explaining the important Kotlin features. 

Most Important Kotlin Advantages Over Java 

Kotlin offers a bounty of advantages over Java for Android app development. Let us have a quick look at the key advantages of Kotlin language over Java.

What Swift does for iOS, Kotlin does for Android We all know how Swift language is praised by the iOS developers worldwide as a language that offers platform-specific solutions for iOS developers. Well, Kotlin can be regarded as a Swift alternative for Android developers and come with all the features and attributes that the developers of this platform require. It comes as a high-performance coding language with a lot of features. 

Increased safety and data security 

Java can be a vast and extensive language but Kotlin offers everything that Android developers need. One of the major key enhancements that Kotlin comes with is better data security and safety for the app users.  

Write less code 

The greatest advantage of Kotlin is that with this language, developers need to write far less code in comparison to Java. Kotlin also provides developers a very concise and clean code structure besides allowing them to complete the coding quickly. 

Superb tooling

Kotlin appears like an improved alternative to Java for Android development because of its extensive range of tools as well. Kotlin comes loaded with all well-known IDEs and great tooling support. 

Important Kotlin Features that Make It Preferred Language for Android Development  Now that we have explained the key advantages of Kotlin for Android development over Java, let us explain the most important Kotlin features that make it so preferred and appreciated among Android developers worldwide. 

Data classes

For all Java developers creating the model, a class is a common action for getters and setters, and this is the area where Kotlin offers considerable advantages. With Kotlin, you can avoid the complexity just with the addition of data in front of the class that can work as the model class. 

Lazy-Loading

Kotlin, with its lazy loading feature, helps faster and instant loading of the app. 

With the lazy loading feature, most important app contents are given priority for loading while the rest of the app contents load in the background. 

Clean and compact syntax

As far as the coding clarity and syntax are considered, Kotlin remains ahead of Java. As you require fewer lines of code, there will be fewer errors and bugs. Moreover, the code structures are more readable and cleaner with Kotlin. 

Flexible Library Functions

A whole array of Standard Library Functions and extensions that Kotlin comes with help customization and development in too many ways.

Moreover, with Kotlin, you have an array of ready to use code parts that can be utilized for building the app features and functions. Kotlin, as a language, is also highly extensible. 

Versatile API collection

Kotlin offers a robust and versatile collection of APIs that developers can utilize for building the app with custom features. These APIs also help them deal with a lot of programming difficulties. 

Immutability

Immutability is another important feature that prevents developers from changing object and its variations after they are built. In this regard, Kotlin stands at par with Java. The immutability helps developers preventing issues corresponding to concurrency and synchronization. 

Single protocol typing

The developers working with Kotlin language can use a simpler and single typing protocol. Along with that, some great features such as universal guards, null support, type inference, and several others help make the typing protocol perfect and useful. 

Kotlin comes with a supertype that, with a single strike, presents all non-nullable types as any. Now, this supertype represents all types, including the nullable type. It looks much similar to Java in many regards, but the typing protocol of Kotlin offers more simplicity and ease of use for the developers. You also have a subtype representing all types called nothing. Such new concepts are tremendously helpful in getting your development job done without many complexities.

Null Safety

Kotlin offers a highly appreciated security feature called null safety. This feature is great for safekeeping the code from data classes. In comparison, Java developers, when trying to access null references at different junctures, basically require using a null reference exception. Kotlin prevents this complication through a type protocol, not requiring NullPointerException. This, in many ways, improves the consistency of data streaming and accessibility.

Conclusion 

Ever since Kotlin was announced by Google back in 2017, it continued to become popular as a programming language with exceptional ease and versatility that Java lacked. In the years to come, Android developers worldwide will embrace Kotlin as the de-facto language for app development.