Ever since Android came into existence, Java has been the official language for developing android apps. Java doubtlessly has worked well for most of the developers. For android apps development, the official language, without any doubt has proved to be a robust one.

However, a fact that can’t be denied is that –Java was never the best rather it was the only language existing for Android projects. Java had its own flaws and shortfalls which led to a number of challenges to the developers ranging from verbose syntax, Null pointer Exception to the never-ending concept of try-catch blocks. For the longest possible time, Java has been used for endless Android projects but the developers now need to know that ‘Kotlin’ has arrived in the market already and it’s high time for them to switch to Kotlin for their android projects. In the Google I/O conference, Google made a much-required announcement; the announcement that Android developers will finally get to work on a better platform called ‘Kotlin’. This language completely supports Android Studio.

Kotlin is a programming language which runs on Java Virtual Machine and is an alternative of Java. Now, the question arises why to drop Java and switch to Kotlin?

Here is why each and every developer must switch to Kotlin:

• Simple Set up.
  The set-up of Kotlin is very simple and easy. A mere click on ‘Allow Kotlin support’ lets a developer switch to Kotlin.
• Interoperability.
  Kotlin is fully interoperable and compatible with Java which is one of the biggest advantages. Basically, a developer gets to use both Java and Kotlin on an ongoing project. In addition to that, Kotlin allows using existing Java frameworks and Java features also. Interoperability can in fact be considered as the basis for the increasing popularity of Kotlin.
• Minimal boiler plate code.
  Java is quite infamous for being too verbose. There is so much of unnecessary coding required to write even the not so complex programs. On the other hand, Kotlin is configured in such a way that the developer is saved from excessive-needless programming. Kotlin requires approximately 8 times less coding than Java. This is achieved by lessening the volume of boilerplate code.
• No more Null Pointer Exceptions.
  One of the major issues with Java was Null Pointer Exception which led to the crashing of a number of Android Apps. Every developer must have faced this problem. This exception is avoidable in Kotlin and is absolutely null safe. This feature alone is gigantic enough for the developers to switch to Kotlin as soon as possible.
• Easy to learn.
  For any developer, to understand and learn Kotlin is almost effortless. One can have a good grasp on this language by studying for just 1 day. The design and syntax of Kotlin is very simple to comprehend.
• Automatic conversion.
  A developer can switch to Kotlin without putting much effort or spending much time. This is because Kotlin is an open source language. To use Kotlin, one can simply use Java – to – Kotlin converter tool developed by Jetbrain. This tool saves lot of developer’s time.
• Extensions.
  Kotlin has many extensions which can be used by the developer. These extensions basically make the development process easier. One such extension is ‘Synthetic’ Extension.
• Semicolon free.
  Often, while coding in Java, the programmers tend to miss putting semicolon at the end of lines. Kotlin is free from the usage of semicolons. The developers using Kotlin will no longer need to check for missing semi-colons.
• Reliability
  Kotlin is far more safe and reliable than Java. Kotlin is better prevented from bugs and probability of errors is less as well. Even if errors occur in Kotlin, they are detected during compile time itself which improves the reliability of apps.
• Decent support
  Even if Kotlin has recently grown in the field of Android Apps development, it has been there in the market and has been exploited by many programmers since a long time. So, it isn’t a new language for which support won’t be available. There are a lot of communities to help you with Kotlin’s functionality.

These features are more than enough for an android apps developer to switch to Kotlin without even giving it a second thought.

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