Kotlin vs Java: Why Kotlin Was Created and How It Improves Android Development
Kotlin vs Java: Why Kotlin Was Created and How It Improves Android Development
Published on May 11, 2025
For years, Java was the dominant language for Android development. However, in 2017, Google officially endorsed Kotlin as a first-class language for Android. Since then, Kotlin has rapidly gained popularity. But why was Kotlin created in the first place? And how does it improve upon Java?
🚀 Why Kotlin Was Created
Kotlin was developed by JetBrains, the company behind IntelliJ IDEA, with the goal of addressing long-standing limitations and verbosity in Java. Although Java is powerful and mature, it hasn’t evolved as quickly as modern development practices demand. JetBrains wanted a modern language that was concise, expressive, and fully interoperable with Java — thus, Kotlin was born.
🔍 Key Advantages of Kotlin Over Java
- Null Safety: Kotlin's type system eliminates the notorious NullPointerException by making nullability explicit in the type system.
- Concise Syntax: Kotlin significantly reduces boilerplate code. Data classes, lambdas, extension functions, and smart casts make the language more elegant and readable.
- Interoperability: Kotlin is 100% interoperable with Java. You can call Java code from Kotlin and vice versa without issue.
- Coroutines for Asynchronous Programming: Kotlin’s coroutines provide a cleaner, safer, and more lightweight alternative to Java’s callbacks or RxJava.
- Tooling and IDE Support: Since JetBrains develops both Kotlin and IntelliJ, the integration is seamless and robust, including great Android Studio support.
📘 Practical Example: Networking with Coroutines
Let’s compare a simple example: fetching data from a network in Java vs Kotlin.
Java (using AsyncTask – outdated but illustrative):
new AsyncTask<Void, Void, String>() {
@Override
protected String doInBackground(Void... voids) {
// simulate network request
return fetchData();
}
@Override
protected void onPostExecute(String result) {
textView.setText(result);
}
}.execute();
Kotlin (with Coroutines):
lifecycleScope.launch {
val result = withContext(Dispatchers.IO) {
fetchData()
}
textView.text = result
}
The Kotlin version is shorter, easier to read, and doesn’t require creating a separate class. It also leverages structured concurrency, which avoids memory leaks and callback hell.
📈 Kotlin in the Real World
Since its adoption by Google, Kotlin has become the preferred language for Android developers. Over 70% of the top 1,000 Android apps use Kotlin. Big names like Pinterest, Netflix, and Trello all use Kotlin to build modern, maintainable mobile apps.
🤔 Should You Learn Kotlin?
If you're an Android developer or interested in modern JVM development, the answer is a resounding yes. Kotlin offers all the power of Java with added simplicity and safety. And because it's interoperable with Java, you can migrate gradually instead of rewriting everything.
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