Will Kotlin Overtake Java as Android’s Dominant Language by 2018?

Realm, known for its real‑time mobile database, surveyed roughly 100,000 active developers and found that before Google I/O in May, about 20% of Android apps originally written in Java were being rewritten in Kotlin.

Based on this data, Realm predicts that by the end of 2018 Kotlin will overtake Java to become the primary language for Android development.

The company published these findings on its website, continuing its quarterly survey tradition.

While the data may not represent the entire Java developer community—Oracle estimates that community at 12 million—it clearly indicates a fast‑changing Android ecosystem.

Kotlin is an open‑source language targeting the JVM, Android, JavaScript, and native platforms. Launched by JetBrains in 2011, it reached version 1.0 last year, and Google announced this year that Kotlin is officially supported for Android.

JetBrains claims Kotlin is more concise, requiring roughly 40% fewer lines of code than Java, offers better type safety, and supports functional programming.

Realm’s data shows that in September 2016 Kotlin accounted for 5.1% of Android development while Java held 94.9%; a year later Kotlin rose to 14.3% and Java fell to 85.7%.

Realm’s VP of Marketing, Paul Kopacki, told The Register that since Google’s May I/O announcement, Kotlin usage has exploded and he expects Kotlin to surpass Java by the end of next year. He attributes the rapid growth to Kotlin’s modernity, readability, higher abstraction, and mobile‑first design.

Kopacki also noted strong interest from Realm database users in converting Java code to Kotlin, with the highest popularity in Germany, Japan, and India, and the United States ranking fourth.

The Register contacted Stack Overflow, which confirmed that Kotlin’s popularity is rising but it remains a niche language compared with others.

Source: Open Source China