NOTE: All the views presented in this document are the author’s view over this topic. So kindly consider this fact before taking any business decision solely on the basis of this document.
To find the best suitable language for Android Application Development by comparing the existing languages used for Android application development.
This document will be helpful for new developers who want to dive into Android application development. Also, for business stakeholders who want to get an idea of which programming language to choose for Android application development.
Android is a mobile operating system based on a modified version of Linux kernel and other open source software, designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets . It is free and open source software.
Android application development is the process of creating applications that can run on the Android operating system. Android applications can be developed using various languages such as Java, Kotlin, C++, C#, Python and so on. These different languages that can be used for Android app development have their own pros and cons which makes one more suitable than the other for the Android app development. Among all these languages the two most sought after languages for Android application development are Java and Kotlin.
Android and Java have a long history. Android was developed during the time when Java was the most popular language among developers. Since Android platform is designed keeping in mind that all the apps in Android should be able to run in a large number of mobile devices. So all these features point towards Java as the most favorable language for Android application development. So Android apps are starting to be developed in Java due to its platform independent feature and popularity.
Java is a general purpose, statically typed, object oriented language developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems in 1995. Java, initially named Oak and was originally developed for cable television.
Advantages :
Disadvantages :
So due to the following drawbacks Android now only has partial support for Java 8 features instead of having Java 12 around.
Kotlin is a general purpose , open source , statically typed language developed by JetBrains. Kotlin has both object oriented and functional programming features in it. So one can choose from one of them or can use a mix of both.
Advantages :
Disadvantages :
TIOBE programming community index is a measure of popularity of programming languages, created and maintained by the TIOBE Company based in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. The index is calculated from the number of search engine results for queries containing the name of the language.The index covers searches in Google, Google Blogs, MSN, Yahoo!, Baidu, Wikipedia and YouTube.The index is updated once a month.
So according to the TIOBE index Java has captured the second spot whereas Kotlin is at 40th position.
TIOBE index reference: https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/
NOTE: TIOBE index is used here to get an idea of how many times topics related to a particular language are queried by people. The more queries about a particular language means the more the language is being used and the more popular it is.
As per the current trends in Android application development, we can say that in the near future Kotlin will be heavily used because of its rich feature set, which overcomes many shortcomings of Java. Since Google has already announced at Google I/O 2017 that Android is moving toward a Kotlin-first approach, the future looks strong for Kotlin.
So we can conclude from the above discussion that Kotlin has gained momentum in terms of popularity due to its new generation feature set.
https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2022/#technology
So now which language to choose for Android application development should we choose Kotlin for its new and fresh approach or should we go for Java which has a huge community support and resources online. So according to me if a developer is new to Android application development and he has never used Java then he should choose Kotlin which is concise and easy to learn. But if a developer knows Java and wants to dive into Android application development then he should choose Java to learn all the basic concepts of Android application development and after learning all the concepts of Android application development he can switch to Kotlin since it is not much different then Java.
The TIOBE Index is a measure of the popularity of programming languages, updated monthly. As of the latest update, Java typically ranks among the top three languages due to its widespread use and mature ecosystem, while Kotlin, growing in popularity especially for Android development, generally ranks within the top 30, reflecting its increasing adoption and strong community support.
The future of Android application development is promising, with a strong focus on Kotlin, Jetpack Compose for modern UI development, and advancements in AI and machine learning integration. Enhanced tools and frameworks, such as Android Studio and Flutter, are simplifying development processes, while the adoption of 5G and IoT is expanding the possibilities for innovative and high-performance applications.
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