Why Uber and 13 Other Famous Apps Switched from Java to Kotlin

Since the day Google announced Kotlin as an official Android app development language, one question remained prevailing in the market, “Should apps switch from Java to Kotlin?”

Both startups and well-established companies looked into Kotlin vs Java comparison and explored the potential of the new Android development language to determine what will be the right choice for a profitable future. Likewise, developers began to look into ways to adopt Kotlin and eventually migrate from Java to Kotlin for their Android app needs – something clearly described by the infographics shared below.

In the midst of this, various famous apps including Uber switched from Java to Kotlin and shared their story with the world – highlighting how moving to Kotlin helped them in becoming the top leaders in Android market and making better profits.

Taking the same into consideration, today, we will have a look into 14 apps that recreated their Android market presence with Kotlin in this article. Later, we will discover what are the benefits of Kotlin for Android developers and what factors they watch out for making the right decision.

So, let’s begin with list of apps that rewrote their Android app with Kotlin.

Brands That Migrated from Java to Kotlin (& Why)

Uber

The foremost brand that embraced Kotlin for its influence in Android mobile app market is Uber.

This location-based, On-demand taxi service mobile app relies on Kotlin Android language to enjoy better internal tool and model management, along with error-free and faster performance.

Pinterest

Pinterest, one of the popular social media platforms founded in 2010, migrated from Java to Kotlin in 2016. And the prime reason behind is the kind of robustness that Kotlin offers.

Trello

While Trello has not completely rewritten its Android codes with Kotlin, it has started writing all the codes now in this programming language. And the reason behind is that Kotlin offers far concise APIs, exceptional versatility, and interoperability with Java.

Kickstarter

Kickstart endorsed Kotlin for their mobile application development needs because the language offered the app with higher scalability and performance which made it far more popular in the marketplace.

Evernote

Evernote, the renowned note-taking application, picked Kotlin over Java for their future due to the fact that former avails higher stability and better performance.

Gradle

Gradle is basically a custom APK building mobile app. It introduced Kotlin into its development environment to write better scripts, provide exclusive logic and handle dependencies, enjoy full IDE support for refactoring autocompletion, and more.

Basecamp 3

With the help of Kotlin language, this mobile application has found newer ways to deliver exemplary user experience to its audience.

Shadowsocks

Shadowsocks, a reputed proxy service provider, has introduced Kotlin to its environment for providing its audience with a scalable, secure, efficient, and private Internet surfing experience.

Square

Since the day Square replaced Java with Kotlin, the payment platform has become an evangelist of the Android programming language – especially when it comes to a secure experience.

Coursera

Another application that entered into the world of Kotlin is Coursera. The popular MOOC depends partially on this Android application development language for delivering highly dynamic features and seamless experience to their audience.

Twidere from Twitter

Twidere, the open-source client app of Twitter, has also been able to clock over 100,000+ downloads with features such as customizing theme, handling unlimited accounts, and more – all because of Kotlin Android app development programming language.

Postmates

This On-demand food delivery application also rewrote their Android mobile app with Kotlin to enjoy characteristics like higher scalability and fail-fast mechanism.

Spring by Pivotal

Spring, which is itself a framework that provides an infrastructure for developing Java-based Enterprise apps, turned towards Kotlin to provide developers with better APIs.

Simple Calendar

Last but not least, Simple Calendar is also one of the mobile apps that recreated their market impact by migrating from Java to Kotlin. This open-source, ad-free calendar app switched to Kotlin to enjoy better compatibility with Android Studio and deliver a higher convenient experience in terms of planning and event management.

With this, we have covered the 14 famous apps that switched from Java to Kotlin and the perks they received. So, let’s move towards exploring what Kotlin means for a startup/established brands like yours.

In short, what are the benefits of choosing Kotlin for Android app development.

8 Advantages of Consider Kotlin for Android App Development

Concise Coding

The very first advantage of using Kotlin for designing Android app is that it empowers you to write comparatively less lines of codes for accessing any functionality in the application. This eventually  enhances the readability and quality of your Android codes.

Mature Development Environment

Kotlin, introduced back in 2011, has undergone various Alpha and Beta stages before officially launched in the market. Besides, every recently released language is compatible with its predecessors. This proves it to be a mature language for developing Android mobile apps.

Compatibility with Java

Another key feature why businesses and developers favor Kotlin for Android application development is its 100% interoperability with Java. That implies, you can use Java code into your Kotlin app development environment anytime, instead of rewriting the same codes in the latter.

Enhanced User Experience

Kotlin, being a mature development language, helps to create an app that crashes less, deliver better productivity, goes smoothly with the advanced technologies and tools, and more. This, in the long run, helps businesses and mobile app development companies in providing an enhanced user experience to their audience.

Faster and Secured Development

Since Kotlin avails clear and concise codebase, it reduces the chances of errors and crashes in the development process, which eventually makes Kotlin win over Java in terms of security – something that remained a barrier for Android in iPhone vs Android war to be startups’ first choice.

Exceptional Tool Support

As shared earlier, Kotlin comes with support for a complete set of tools including Android Studio, which leaves developers with no reason to overlook this language.

Backed by Google

Another benefit of considering Kotlin for reaping higher benefits in Android world is that it supported by Google. The tech giant has not only announced Kotlin as an official Android app development language, but is continuously making updates around the use of Kotlin.

Availability of Fail-Fast Compiler

Last but not least, Kotlin’s compiler works with fail-fast approach which highlights issues in coding itself that might result in app failure. It reports an issue and prevent developers from going further without resolving the issue.

This, in the long run, helps Kotlin app developers in reducing errors in their codes and thus, gain higher momentum in the market.

So, these were some of the benefits of choosing Kotlin over Java, which undoubtedly encourages everyone to start their Android journey with the former language.

But, is Kotlin really better than Java? Will it completely overtake Java?

Though it showcases various plus points over Java, the future of Kotlin is still not a threat to the latter. And a prime reason behind this is that Kotlin itself has various shortcomings, such as:-

Varied Compilation Speed

One of the prevalent limitations of Kotlin is that it does not offer faster compilation speed all the time. While it is faster than Java in some cases, it can be significant slow in other cases.

Still not Java

Though Kotlin is 100% interoperable with Java, the two are not alike. They are different at the core level, which makes it difficult for an Android app development company to easily migrate an Android app from Java to Kotlin, and vice-versa.

Limited Kotlin Experts

Above all, there are still higher number of developers embracing Java as compared to Kotlin app developers. This is again a challenge for someone who wish to get their Android mobile app designed with Kotlin.

Now, while these pros and cons of Kotlin will act as a weapon in planning Java to Kotlin migration, there are various other things to consider while switching profitably. So, let’s wrap up this article considering those factors that one should pay attention to while planning to join the bandwagon of these apps switched from Java to Kotlin.

Is Your Existing App’s Architecture Not Perfect?

When planning to be one of the aforementioned 14 apps that switched from Java to Kotlin, the very first thing you need to check is the type of architecture your app has. This implies, looking into if the existing mobile app architecture is loosely packed or well-maintained.

An idea of this helps to determine how much your app would suffer if some class or function gets deleted, overruled, or created while migrating from Java to Kotlin.

What You Expect from Kotlin App Development?

Another thing to consider while taking a step is to look into why migrating from Java to Kotlin is beneficial to your business and how. That implies, determining what benefits you will get when picking Kotlin as your Android development language and at what scale – rather than just following the market trend.

Does Your Team Has Comprehensive Knowledge of Switching App?

Moving from one development programming language to another brings a steep learning curve – something beyond simply referring to a Java to Kotlin guide. So, it is necessary to determine if your app development team is ready to welcome the changes and support you in this journey.

How to Hire the Right Android App Developers?

In case your team refuses or fail to assist you in this move, you need to hire a reputed Android app development. In other words, the last thing to consider while switching from Java to Kotlin is to look into factors to consider for hiring an app developer and the way interaction between you two occurs for reaping better outcomes.
Now, once you have ensured that all these pointers are in place, you can jump into the world of these apps that switched from Java to Kotlin for gaining the limelight in the market.

Anand Prakash

Co-founder

One of the Co-founders at Appventurez, Anand specializes in sales and business development as its VP - Sales and Presales. He supervises the pre-sales process by upscaling on establishing client relationships. He skillfully deploys instruments such as cloud computing, automation, data centers, information storage, and analytics to evaluate clients’ business activities.