Meta’s making the move.

Whether you’re a Developer or business owner, the debate surrounding which programming language is best will always exist. The initial challenge is choosing a language that is both practical and cost-effective for you, but as time goes on and languages evolve – the challenge of whether you stick or twist continues

The multinational tech conglomerate, Meta, owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp to name a few, has decided to twist – and the journey from Java to Kotlin has begun. 

More than 10 million lines of code are being moved, but will it be worth it? Let’s start at the beginning. Let’s start with the why. 

Java is in the top three programming languages, it can work on any device, server, or operating system, and the security measures in place make it hard to corrupt. So, what attracts Meta to Kotlin if Java is so great? 

Kotlin may not be as popular as Java but it’s been around for 6 years and is currently 17th globally, not bad for a newbie. Since 2017 job postings have increased by 1400% and this shows no sign of slowing down with some of the world’s biggest businesses adopting the language. Netflix, Pinterest, and Google are loving it name a few. 

The number of Developers learning Kotlin is also increasing, whether this is as a second language or as their first experience in the coding world. The syntax makes it easy to learn for beginners, but it also appeals to experienced coders with its sophisticated and powerful features.

The code is more concise and on average code length is 20% shorter than Java. So far, Meta has seen an 11% reduction in its codebase, and Google reported a 33% reduction in its app's codebase size when migrating. 

Whether you work on a PC or a Mac, Kotlin can run on almost any device. This means that anyone can work with any platform, on any device, on any operating system. Any previous barriers faced by businesses or people are eliminated and code can easily be worked on and changed by anyone; it’s no longer reliant on one person using one type of device.

Seems like businesses moving to Kotlin is a business no-brainer really. The impact that Kotlin is having on the IT world in recent years is unparalleled, and with global businesses adopting the language it’s proof that its future is only going in one direction. But, whether Kotlin will become the language of the future is still to be decided. 

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