This is a key milestone in the development of the platform and ecosystem
JetBrains has officially launched the stable release of Kotlin Multiplatform. This innovative technology empowers developers to efficiently share code across an array of platforms, including iOS, Android, desktop, web, server-side, and many others. Kotlin Multiplatform has already gained traction among elite development teams at major corporations, such as Netflix, VMware, Cash App, McDonald’s, Electrolux, and Phillips. This groundbreaking release is poised to revolutionize the way we approach cross-platform development.
The framework offers a fully stabilized API, streamlined project configuration, enhanced interoperability with Objective-C and Swift, along with notable improvements in build times and
overall performance.
“Where other technologies abstract away or completely replace platform-specific app development, Kotlin Multiplatform is complementary to existing platform-specific technologies and is geared toward replacing platform-agnostic business logic. It’s a new tool in the toolbox as opposed to replacing the toolbox,” said David Henry and Mel Yahya, Developers at Netflix.
The foremost advantage of Kotlin Multiplatform lies in its flexibility. Developers have the liberty to selectively share a portion of their application’s logic, allowing them to craft native code when the need arises to interface with platform-specific APIs or construct native user interfaces. What’s even more enticing is the synergy achieved by combining Kotlin Multiplatform with Compose Multiplatform, a declarative framework designed for seamless UI sharing across diverse platforms.
“Now that Kotlin Multiplatform is stable, developers can feel much more confident about adopting it for their production projects, as JetBrains will be evolving Kotlin Multiplatform according to the strictest backward compatibility rules. Now is a great time to start using Kotlin Multiplatform for sharing code and to explore Compose Multiplatform’s capabilities for sharing UIs. We will continue improving the core technology, the libraries, and the tooling to provide the best multiplatform development experience to all,” said Ekaterina Petrova, Product Marketing Manager of Kotlin Multiplatform at JetBrains.
This synergy empowers developers with unparalleled creative freedom, enabling them to share as much as 100% of their codebase, all within the Kotlin ecosystem. While Compose Multiplatform stands as a stable solution for Android and desktop, it is being explored experimentally for web applications and is currently in its Alpha stage for iOS.
In addition to Kotlin’s enhanced cross-platform tools, future updates will improve the iOS developer experience by providing direct interoperability between Kotlin and Swift and support for SwiftPM.
