Unfortunately, you have to set the minimum SDK to Android 24 to use all of Java 8’s features, which isn’t an option for many developers. Java 8 solved some language issues and even more were corrected with Java 9 and 10. Although its usage is widespread, Java comes with a lot of historical baggage. For example, Nokia’s Symbian had Java ME apps. Java was the programming language that the most advanced phones were using to run their native apps on their proprietary operating systems. Since Android took the world by storm, developers have had few alternatives to Java for app development.

For this tutorial, you need Android Studio 3.3 or later. If you’re new to the Android world or have big questions about the starter project, please review other Android tutorials. Note: This tutorial assumes you’re experienced in Android development with Java.

What makes Kotlin so exciting as a new language.

How to work with Java and Kotlin in the same project.

In this Kotlin for Android tutorial, you’ll learn:

Kotlin is flexible and has some cool features! It can also be compiled to JavaScript source code and to native executables. Kotlin is a statically-typed, modern programming language that runs on a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) by compiling Kotlin code into Java byte-code. For this to happen, the 3.0 release of Android Studio (AS) integrated Kotlin support out of the box! The following three minor releases of AS continued to improve the Kotlin support and the tools available. Thanks to all the early adopters for this great moment!Īt Google I/O 2017, Google announced that Android will support Kotlin as a first-class programming language from now on. When important changes in the language happened, developers had to change their codebase. Though Kotlin was production ready, the language wasn’t stable. In 2011, the company introduced the Kotlin language, but few Android developers started using it. JetBrains developed IntelliJ IDEA, which is the basis for Android Studio.

Java 6 was introduced in 2006, two years before the release of Android devices. Joe Howard made the previous update, and Eunice Obugyei wrote the original tutorial.īefore 2017, Android app developers almost exclusively used the Java 6 programming language, with support following for later additions. Update Note: Matei Suica updated to this tutorial to Android Studio 3.3.

Kotlin android studio