Let’s learn how to use Kotlin for your cross-platform mobile project and streamline your development process. In this article we discover the benefits of using Kotlin for building mobile apps that can run on both Android and iOS platforms.
Reading time: 12 min.
Businesses and developers are being faced with a common issue: how to develop solid-quality applications for both iOS and Android without having to duplicate their dedication to this endeavor. Traditional cross-platform solutions would typically come with trade-offs in terms of the impact they had on performance or native capabilities inputting the teams in search of a better alternative.
Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP) offers an effective solution by allowing code sharing across platforms while keeping fully-native performance and flexibility there. KMP promotes the idea of sharing business logic, networking, and data access, so that developers can handle their writing once and run anywhere while preserving platform-specific UI experiences.
This blog post will explore how Kotlin Multiplatform can transform app product development, its benefits, practical ways you can implement it, and best practices for scalable and maintainable application creation. Regardless of whether you are looking to release quicker or are looking to minimize costs, KMP might just be the transformation your team sorely needs.
Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP) is an innovative offering of JetBrains, a tool that allows developers to create cross-platform applications by sharing code across various platforms, such as iOS, Android, web, and desktop. This is useful as it lets us remodel resources, business logic, and core components while preserving the native user interface/experience on each platform.
Actually, KMP has been gaining in popularity lately; JetBrains’ “State of Developer Ecosystem” report, more than 10% of Kotlin developers were utilizing KMP for mobile multiplatform development as of 2021, with this number continuing to grow. By 2023, the popularity of Compose Multiplatform, a declarative UI framework within the KMP ecosystem, had grown, with 22% of Kotlin developers using it to share UIs across multiple platforms.
Several prominent companies have adopted Kotlin Multiplatform in their development processes:
The growing adoption of Kotlin Multiplatform among these industry leaders underscores its effectiveness in facilitating efficient and maintainable cross-platform development.
Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP) is designed to enable code sharing across different platforms while maintaining native performance and flexibility. Unlike traditional cross-platform frameworks that enforce a single UI layer, KMP allows developers to write shared business logic while keeping platform-specific code where needed.
KMP divides an application into two parts:
Kotlin Multiplatform compiles code differently based on the platform:
KMP introduces the expect/actual mechanism, allowing developers to define an API in shared code (expect) and provide platform-specific implementations (actual). This ensures that each platform gets native behavior while maintaining a common structure.
The KMP is very flexible, so it can be inoculated into existing Android or iOS projects gradually. iOS developers can use the shared Kotlin code as a CocoaPods dependency, while Android developers can use it as a regular Kotlin module.
For more technical details, refer to the official documentation: Kotlin Multiplatform Docs.
Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP) is increasingly being seen as a nimble cross-platform solution for sharing business logic between iOS, Android, web, and desktop apps, all ensuring native user experiences. Of course, every technology offers advantages and challenges.
KMP makes it possible to share most of your code base, especially business logic, networking, and data handling across multiple platforms, thereby reducing redundancy while improving maintainability and keeping things consistent between the Android Kotlin multiplatform and iOS apps.
Unlike traditional cross-platform frameworks, which would involve JavaScript bridges (e.g., React Native) or web views (e.g., Flutter’s WebView mode), KMP compiles directly to native code. This approach gives almost-native performance entirely while then allowing access to platform-specific APIs or features.
Kotlin is straightforward, nimble, and also a very expressive modern programming language nurtured by formidable type and null safety. Language features have led to a great boon for Android Kotlin multiplatform developers looking to develop something of a worthwhile alternative to Kotlin Multiplatform.
Core logic sharing among platforms will greatly reduce the time spent on redundant work, hence reducing the cost of Kotlin app development and faster release cycles, which can do wonders for a startup or any other enterprise aiming to maximize efficiency.
Although a promising technology, Kotlin Multiplatform is nowhere near established, even Flutter or React Native. The ecosystem and third-party libraries are considerably less than comparable cross-platform solutions for web or mobile. Essentially, developers might find themselves implementing such functions themselves or benefiting from community-driven solutions.
KMP works well with Android, thanks to Kotlin being more of a JVM-based language; however, Kotlin for iOS, the interaction has some extra setting up; creating apps like handling derivatives for Objective-C headers might prove less intuitive than working with Swift language directly. Lack of compatibility of Objective-C code might increase the friction for KMP adoption by iOS teams.
It’s a big disadvantage to debug shared Kotlin code, particularly when fixing iOS-specific bugs in the code, compared to the relatively easy debugging job performed in purely-native applications. Support for SwiftUI/Native code debugging in Xcode is growing but trails behind Native Android and iOS development environments in a near flawless debugging experience.
This makes Kotlin Multiplatform a compelling choice for its easy adoption, particularly by teams, which are already using Kotlin largely and are particularly sensitive to not sacrificing user experience. Nevertheless, businesses with major emphasis on iOS native development may have to weigh the benefits of Kotlin Multiplatform against possible integration roadblocks.
Deciding on a cross-platform framework is very important to balance the factors of performance, flexibility, and development efficiency. Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP) is probably the only one of its kind to offer a unique code-sharing approach. How does it compare to the popular Flutter, React Native, and Xamarin? Let’s break it down.
One of the key distinctions between Kotlin Multiplatform and other cross-platform frameworks is how they handle code execution and UI rendering.
| Framework | Code Sharing Approach | UI Implementation | Native Performance |
| Kotlin Multiplatform | Shared business logic, native UI | Uses platform-native UI components | Full native performance |
| Flutter | Single codebase for UI + logic | Uses a custom rendering engine (Skia) | Fast, but relies on a bridge |
| React Native | Single codebase for UI + logic | Uses JavaScript bridge to interact with native components | Good, but JS bridge adds overhead |
| Xamarin | Shared C# code, native UI | Uses Xamarin.Forms or native UI bindings | Native, but heavier runtime |
Kotlin Multiplatform is perfect for business logic sharing while restricting the UI to full native, thereby yielding an enhanced platform adaptation.
Performance is a critical factor when choosing a framework, as it directly impacts app responsiveness, animations, and battery efficiency.
| Framework | Startup Time | UI Performance | Memory Usage | Battery Efficiency |
| Kotlin Multiplatform | Fast (native compilation) | Native smoothness | Optimized | High (no extra runtime overhead) |
| Flutter | Moderate (heavy framework) | Very smooth (Skia rendering) | High (custom engine) | Moderate (can be resource-intensive) |
| React Native | Slow (JS bridge overhead) | Good, but can lag on animations | Moderate | Moderate |
| Xamarin | Slow (runtime overhead) | Smooth (native UI) | High (uses Mono runtime) | Moderate |
Key Takeaways:
Kotlin Multiplatform stands out for teams that want a balance between code sharing and native performance. While Flutter and React Native focus on single-codebase UI solutions, KMP’s approach ensures that apps retain their native feel and speed. For teams already working with Kotlin and needing business logic sharing without compromising UI, KMP is a strong contender against traditional cross-platform frameworks.
Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP) offers a unique approach to cross-platform development by enabling code sharing across platforms while preserving native user experiences. However, it’s essential to assess when KMP aligns with your project’s goals and when it might not be the optimal choice.
KMP shines when the core business logic, data handling, talking to servers, or algorithms, is to be shared among iOS, Android, web, and desktop. Such Kotlin development practice ensures that the code is written once, meaning no code duplication, and is consistent.
For incremental code sharing with KP while retaining existing native codebases, native applications that are already built may opt for KMP.
Companies that are already fluent in the development of Kotlin and are concentrated on Android studio Kotlin multiplatform development will see KMP as an extension that allows their development teams to do cross-platform development.
The cross-platform development approach of KMP thus contributes to streamlining the development processes, including the natural extent of such organizations that already had UI design working in line with the Kotlin language’s strong adoption, particularly in those inclined towards Android.
Applications traditionally created using Native KMP often have developers working on business logic which does not care about UI logic; any use of platform-specific native UIs will do the opposite. The developer still has the liberty to decide how the UI should behave in its native platform in terms of looks, to see Leia guidelines.
Contrary to a project requiring uniform UI/UX across all platforms, anything with KMP might not be most appropriate. Although switching the base business logic from Kotlin to shared fashion is definitely an edge, the UI code is specific to the platform and causes the potential for inconsistency.
Introducing KMP into teams without knowledge of Kotlin could cause steep learning curves and slow down work and quality of coding. In such cases, going for a fitting alternative framework may be more favorable.
Implementing KMP in projects with stringent timelines can be challenging, particularly for a team new to the technology. There is a delay in the initial setup and learning curve.
KMP does support a few significant platforms such as iOS, Android, and web. However, it may not completely support other platforms like Windows and Linux, thereby setting constraints on such projects.
Applications that rely heavily on platform-specific features or sophisticated native integrations might see KMP as less beneficial. The need for so much platform-specific coding will outweigh the benefits of the shared code.
Kotlin Multiplatform is a powerful and versatile tool for projects intended to share business logic across various platforms, while still being capable of maintaining an enhanced user experience and good performance. However, it is best to examine one’s project’s individual needs, team expertise, and platform requirements to see if KMP is a good fit.
Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP) is a promising development reality for modern mobile development in a way that maintains a perfect balance between code reusability and native performance. It does this by allowing code sharing across business functional specifics across iOS, Android, web, and just about anything else without detriment to platform-native user interfaces.
Its sheer flexibility, high efficiency, and native integrations with the target existent projects make such a tool the most synergetic for many companies attempting to streamline the workflow of development. However, being an umbrella framework, KMP has some concrete drawbacks for the project. If a project requires a UI shared in totality or an acute tight deadline it may not stand as the definitive winner and instead setting up another framework, e.g., React Native, Xamarin, Flutter, or some such, for these.
Ultimately, it is entirely appropriate to use Kotlin Multiplatform in projects where native UI, full code reuse, and high performance remain the foremost priority. Employing KMP is economically astute and a step toward future-proofing the mobile development strategy, particularly given that it will keep growing owing to the matured ecosystem.
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