Among modern technological solutions, Kotlin has emerged at the front of the peloton, gaining immense popularity among mobile application developers. Its elegant syntax, performance and many other advantages have made developers and representatives of corporations open to digital transformation reach for it more and more boldly. For this reason, I decided to prepare a summary of the 7 most popular current examples of mobile applications realized with Kotlin. In addition, you will learn how this programming language looks against the competition available on the market.
Table of Contents:
Kotlin's coding simplicity and performance
Kotlin was created with the main purpose of eliminating unnecessary code and improving readability, in such a way as to make application development as intuitive as possible for developers. Great attention has been paid to syntax, which is characterized by conciseness and readability. As a result, developers have the ability to pour through their ideas using less code than before. The aforementioned facilitation impacts their productivity and helps keep the code longer.
Smooth integration of Kotlin in mobile and system solutions
This unique programming language exhibits a high degree of independence, which in no way affects the ability to cooperate with the existing programming ecosystem, especially those based on Java. This feature makes Kotlin a very common choice for the creation of projects that use code developed in Java. This language cooperation is used both for mobile solutions and in all kinds of system solutions.
Decreasing errors and improving app reliability
On the list of advantages that set Kotlin apart from other programming languages is the possibility of efficient asynchronous programming. It is possible, thanks to functions called coroutines. This is a very important feature, which is appreciated in currently developed dynamic applications that rely on responsiveness and smooth interaction. In addition, "smart casts", or mechanisms found in Kotlin, make it unnecessary to manually check types. It reduces errors at execution time.
Enhancing Code Management and Development
Moreover, great attention is paid to type safety in the use of this language. This feature allows developers to avoid errors that could occur at the time of program execution. As a result, users can enjoy not only efficient, but above all reliable applications. This has a direct impact on easier code management and, in the long run, on its development when the application requires additional functionality. Implementing Kotlin into the company's tech stack not only translates into the efficiency of design work, but also has a positive impact on costs arising from software maintenance and development.
Top 7 applications written in Kotlin
Of course, more time can be spent listing the benefits of the Kotlin language. However, nothing affects the imagination as much as real-life examples. That's why I decided to list 10 popular applications that use the benefits of the discussed solution.
It's probably hard to be tempted to find a more representative example of an application written in Kotlin than Netflix. The most popular video streaming platform currently amasses more than 214 million subscribers worldwide. However, few of these users know that the current UI player in Netflix's dedicated app for Android devices was fully developed using Kotlin.
Trello
If you like to plan and manage tasks, you've surely heard more than once about the tool Trello. It's a great solution for planning daily chores, but also for delegating team tasks. The Trello application takes advantage of the capabilities offered by Kotlin, making it a serious competitor to similar solutions available on the market.
One of the most popular apps dedicated to travelers is certainly Airbnb. It allows you to temporarily rent rooms, apartments, houses from registered users. It is currently a very popular solution among people deciding to travel abroad for a few days and looking for accommodation. The developers of the application also owe their success to the technology used, as the Android version of Airbnb is supported by the Kotlin programming language.
I assigned the fourth place in my list to the Pinterest app. It is one of the most recognizable social media for sharing, saving and viewing photos. The platform owes its origins to Java, but 2016 saw its official transition to Kotlin. Thanks to its freedom of use and intuitiveness, the mobile app is as popular as the web version. With the ability to integrate Kotlin modules with Java, the application has gained new capabilities not only on the user side, but also in the development layer.
Uber
Uber is an example of an app whose capabilities are constantly expanding. Originally an app for ordering rides, it now serves as a food delivery tool in addition to its base service. In this case, Kotlin has been used to develop the iOS app's internal tools. Besides, the Kotlin source code is accessible to any programmer who wants to use it. Its inclusion in the project is also completely free. In addition, the source code allows you to quickly identify a problem and report it to the language's developers if it occurs.
It's time for another management tool that is supported by Kotlin. We are, of course, talking about Everntote, which allows users to create notes, voice recordings, presentations, as well as communicate with other application owners. These are just some of the wide range of capabilities of this application. In the case of Evernote, Kotlin was tasked with supporting the Lazy Loading feature that allows developers to load only the required initial content of the application, making it easier for decision-makers to prioritize primary resources by storing them in main memory and gradually loading secondary memory resources.
Tinder
Tinder owes its popularity to its ability to quickly establish relationships between registered users. This dating app has been growing in popularity for years. A lot of credit for this is on the side of Kotlin, which is used in a production environment to create a concise and clear code architecture. I wonder how many couples owe it to this unique language to get to know each other?
What translates into Kotlin's success?
The driving force of Kotlin, apart from functionality, is the community. This is what makes this language develop so dynamically. Developers willingly participate in discussions on various social media platforms, forums and discussion groups, where each issue is thoroughly discussed. There are also regular events, such as KotlinConf, which allow for establishing contacts and exchanging observations on the use of this technology.
Kotlin provides not just a simple syntax, but also a plethora of tools and packages that greatly simplify the program development process. Kotlin Playground is a popular tool that allows you to explore the language without installing a local environment. A plethora of libraries, such as Ktor for server building and Anko for user interfaces, help to speed up application development. Working with Kotlin is not only productive but also motivating for developers due to the community's support and a wealth of tutorials and documentation.
Summary
As you can see, Kotlin is a programming language that can translate into successful applications. It is a modern solution that more and more companies are reaching for when selecting a tech stack for application development. At Railwaymen, too, we realize what value the right choice of tools has for projects. That's why we are eager to take advantage of Kotlin's capabilities when executing orders from our customers. If you would like to see the results of these efforts, we encourage you to visit our Case Studies section, where we describe our application implementations in detail.
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