Why Kotlin is Preferred for Android App Development

This article explains why Kotlin is the preferred programming language for Android app development. It lists its advantages over Java and C++ and describes Kotlin's key features like concise syntax, null safety, and coroutines, emphasizing its efficiency, ease of use, and strong support from Google and the Android ecosystem.

Alexander S. Ricciardi

February 14, 2025

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When developing an Android app, one of the first decisions a developer needs to make is choosing a programming language.  Kotlin, a relatively new language, has quickly become the preferred choice for many. Kotlin has been endorsed by Google since 2017, meaning that it is the official programming language for Android application development (Samojło, 2024).  Google’s parent company, Alphabet, owns Android, and Google manages it as a subsidiary. Additionally, over 95% of the top 100 Android apps use Kotlin (Kotlin, n.d.). This article explores the advantages of developing Android applications using Kotlin over other programming languages.

Kotlin is described as the most succinct language, therefore making the least error-prone (Horton, 2019). While Android SDK is largely written in Java, Kotlin is fully interoperable with Java, meaning that Java libraries and frameworks can be integrated into Kotlin, and Java projects can be migrated to Kotlin. Additionally, Kotlin has the following features:   

• It is an Object-Oriented Programming language (OOP).

• It includes null safety, preventing null pointers.

• It allows function extensions, that is adding functionality to existing classes without modifying their source code.

• It allows data classes which are classes primarily used to hold data.

• It can implement coroutines, making asynchronous programming much easier such as handling network requests.

When compared to C++ and Java, Koltin has significant advantages for Android development, the table below lists some of these advantages.

Table 1

Kotlin’s advantages over C++ and Java

Note: The table lists several advantages that Kotlin has over C++ and Java. From several sources (Kotlin n.d.; Horton, 2019; Samojło, 2024; Ramos, 2023, Rkumaraj, 2023, Developers, n.d.; Berga et al, 2019; Lotarev, 2024; Zaręba et al., 2024)

In conclusion, Kotlin has several advantages for Android development over other OOP languages such as more concise syntax, null safety, coroutines support, interoperability with Java, Jetpack Compose support, and function extensions; moreover, it is endorsed by Google as the official programming language for Android application development. Overall Kotlin provides a more modern, safer, and more productive approach to developing Android applications than other programming languages.

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References:

Berga, M., Figueiredo, R., & Franco, T. (2019, Aprill 19). Kotlin vs Java: the 12 differences you should know. Imaginary Cloud. https://www.imaginarycloud.com/blog/kotlin-vs-java

Developers (n.d.). Android’s Kotlin-first approach. Developers. https://developer.android.com/kotlin/first

Horton, J. (2019). Android programming with Kotlin for beginners. Packt Publishing. ISBN: 9781789615401

Kotlin (n.d.). Kotlin for Android. Kotin overview. Kotlin. https://kotlinlang.org/docs/android-overview.html

Long, M. (2023, June 28). Can C++ be used for Android app development? Groove Technology. https://groovetechnology.com/blog/software-development/can-c-be-used-for-android-app-development/

Lotarev, I. (2024, January 16). Kotlin vs Java: Which is better for Android app development? Adapty. https://adapty.io/blog/kotlin-vs-java/

Ramos, M. (2023, September 18). Kotlin vs Java for mobile and Web development. Kinsta. https://kinsta.com/blog/kotlin-vs-java/

Rkumaraj. (2023, May 8). Why Kotlin is the best choice for Developing Android Apps. Medium. https://medium.com/@rkumaraj5694/why-kotlin-is-the-best-choice-for-developing-android-apps-7ce306fcc6ec

Samojło, G. (2024, November 26). Pros and Cons of Kotlin for Android App Development. Netguru. https://www.netguru.com/blog/kotlin-pros-and-cons

Zaręba, G., Zarębski, M., & Smołka, J. (2024). C++ and Kotlin performance on Android – a comparative analysis. Journal of Computer Sciences Institute, 30, p. 21–25. https://doi.org/10.35784/jcsi.5299