It is never a bad thing to learn a new programming language. Seeing different paradigms and thinking about code in different ways can help you out even if you don't end up using that language in your career. Personally I believe Kotlin is going to be the Android language going forward. More and more companies are adopting it quickly and developers love it. Server development is traditionally more resistant to change but Kotlin has a lot of neat features that would really help out server development so I hope it finds more adoption there too. Answer from TeaSerenity on reddit.com
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/kotlin › is kotlin worth the time?
r/Kotlin on Reddit: Is Kotlin worth the time?
August 29, 2018 -

I'll be blunt. I want to know if I'll be able to land a mobile-dev. job (and perhaps +server-side skill) in 1-2 years from now if I become proeficient with this. Where is this language going? If I learn this, will there be enough job openings to make this worth my time?

Don't missunderstand me; I love the fact that it is becoming more practical than Java for Android development, and it's possibilities on Server Side are growing exponentially (I would rather learn this than Android for the mobile dev. side of things, but I got to be practical and I want to take employment-wise decisions here).

I see a great future for this and one article has granted me the confirmation I required, but I'd love additional advice from the pros at Kotlin in Reddit.

Thanks.

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/learnprogramming › is kotlin really worth it to learn /use for android development instead of java?
r/learnprogramming on Reddit: Is Kotlin really worth it to learn /use for Android development instead of Java?
October 15, 2024 -

Hello! I am looking forward learning some android development but I have some doubts about how to start.

I alredy know more programming languages. But what do you guys think I should learn, Kotlin or Java for Android development?

Is it Kotlin really worth it to learn/use instead of learning/using Java?

What do you guys recommend me?

What are the benefits of using Java for android development if kotlin is 'better' and more modern? And the other way around

Sorry if this is an stupid question

Thanks!

Top answer
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One really important thing to understand is that Java and Kotlin are interoperable and they both use the same Java Virtual Machine. When you learn Android APIs, calling them from Java or Kotlin is basically identical. Kotlin is more concise. You can do more stuff with less Kotlin code, compared to Java, and without really compromising anything. That's it. There are other differences, but that's the main reason why people prefer Kotlin. Imagine you spend the next 12 months learning to build Android apps using Kotlin. Here's how I'd break down what you'll actually learn in that year: 40% how to program 20% general programming syntax 10% Kotlin-specific syntax 30% Android APIs and tools, how to build Android apps Let's say you decide to switch from Kotlin to Java. You only have to relearn 10% of what you just learned over the past year. If you do it the other way around and learn Java first, it'd be the same. Switching to Kotlin would only be relearning 10%. Even if you switched to something really different, like building web apps, more than half of what you learned would still apply. These are made-up numbers, but the point is just to illustrate that whether you pick Kotlin or Java that's just a tiny piece of what you'll be learning. So just pick one, they're both fine.
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Two things about Kotlin: It's the preferred language for Android dev according to Google itself. It's a cleaner and better language than Java. So I'd say it's absolutely worth it.
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/learnprogramming › is learning kotlin worth it?
Is learning Kotlin worth it? : r/learnprogramming
December 21, 2022 - I can technically qualify as a "pro" (Android dev) and Kotlin was absolutely worth learning (I started with Java, and followed guidance from some experienced developers to pivot) . Kotlin works well with spring boot / ktor on the backend as well as being great for Android.
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/kotlin › is it worth learning kotlin (for non-android backend dev?)
r/Kotlin on Reddit: Is it worth learning Kotlin (for non-Android backend dev?)
July 30, 2023 -

I'm thinking of learning Kotlin in order to get into the backend (currently a FE developer). Got a couple of questions?

  1. Is it worth learning Kotlin over Java?

  2. Aside from Android apps, what can be built with it?

  3. How popular is Kotlin these days in tech firms?

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/kotlin › is kotlin worth to learn in 2024?
r/Kotlin on Reddit: Is Kotlin worth to learn in 2024?
February 26, 2024 -

I am a UI/UX designer and i want to start coding so that I can create few apps of my own instead of just designing them. I want to keep this transition slow, steady and meaningful.

I wanted to learn kotlin and JetPack Compose to make Android apps. The question is, is it okay to learn kotlin in 2024 or are there any better alternatives? If yes, kindly provide a roadmap that I can follow.

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/kotlin › is it worth learning kotlin just for android development?
r/Kotlin on Reddit: Is it worth learning Kotlin just for Android development?
April 7, 2024 -

Hello everyone, I am very interested in getting into mobile development, but in my country the cost of Apple devices is too high, even second-hand ones. Furthermore, job offers for this area are practically non-existent here, so my only option is remote work. Also, I read something about Google being stricter with new apps and more requirements for developer accounts, sorry, I don't know the full context.

I know that some companies are using Kotlin as backend but I don't think my profile is very striking, especially since I have no experience with the language.

On the other hand, this is my first attempt to return to the tech market after 7 years, in the past I worked as a fullstack "python2/angularjs" but this tools do not motivate me too much.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, I will appreciate your responses.

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/kotlin › is it worth learning kotin for a university project?
r/Kotlin on Reddit: Is it worth learning Kotin for a university project?
November 4, 2022 -

I'm starting development on an android app for a university project. I've got a decent level of Java already but have never used it to develop an android app before. I've heard Kotlin has quite a steep learning curve but is better once you've learnt. The app will be quite simple so the added functionality of Kotlin probably isn't that relevant. Is it worth learning Kotlin?

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/kotlin › should i start from kotlin?
r/Kotlin on Reddit: Should i start from kotlin?
September 27, 2023 -

So i am a complete begginer just did a little bit c now i want to learn the basics of programming along side of development people recommend kotlin( i know it is a good choice over java) but the problem is there are not much resources to learn it as compared to java so what do you recommend and also the books on kotlin are also not very impressive

Find elsewhere
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/kotlin › reasons to start learning kotlin in 2023
r/Kotlin on Reddit: Reasons to Start Learning Kotlin in 2023
July 21, 2023 - You can start writing new code and tests in Kotlin, and go from there. ... Not particularly suitable for developing iOS applications, although it can be adapted. A relatively new language, which means that there may be a shortage of developers who are proficient in it. Approaches visibility modifiers differently than Java and does not support package-private. The newness of the language is offset by the short learning curve, especially for Java engineers.
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/kotlin › is kotlin a safe bet for the future?
r/Kotlin on Reddit: Is Kotlin a safe bet for the future?
August 7, 2025 -

Hello,

I am a teacher at a high school. I discussed with my colleagues that we could switch from Java to Kotlin for beginner courses, because it is a much nicer language.

One of their arguments against Kotlin was, that it is much less used than Java and there is a chance that it will die, when for example Google stops using it.

I think that this is very unlikely because Google pushes KMP. But I also see that there is no programming language index(Tiobe, PyPl..) that shows a big shift towards Kotlin.

How do you see the future of Kotlin and Java? Will Kotlin still be there in 15 years. Will Kotlin be more popular than Java some day? Will Java loose or win popularity in the future?

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/kotlin › is kotlin a good first language to learn?
r/Kotlin on Reddit: Is Kotlin a good first language to learn?
September 10, 2021 -

I'm a senior and high school and I'm in a class where we can basically do whatever we want as long as it's coding related, so right now I'm using the time to teach myself Kotlin. I've taken a computer science class where a learned some basic Java but that's pretty much the only experience I have. My main goal is to develop an android app for my phone in android studio, and AS says that Kotlin is the choice for developers. My question is basically should I learn Kotlin or Java?

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/kotlin › so what are the benefits of learning kotlin over java?
r/Kotlin on Reddit: So what are the benefits of learning Kotlin over Java?
August 3, 2024 -

I am by no means new to programming and have a degree in CS, but I have spent the last 6 years working mostly with data analysis and AI using Python.

For a couple of months, I have been thinking about branching out to something different, which is to make my business a real thing. For this I need to develop an Android app (and eventually one for iOS as well).

I have heard great things about Kotlin and that Google has been more supportive of Kotlin in the past few years, but as far as I can tell Java is (was?) the go to for Android app development for a long time.

I guess what I would like to know is 3-fold:

  1. What benefits are there to Kotlin over Java?

  2. Is support for Kotlin good enough that spending time learning the fundamentals of the language worth it?

  3. How easy is it to port Kotlin code made specifically for Android over to iOS? I've heard it has good interoperability with Swift.

Edit: Thanks to all the friendly and helpful comments, I appreciate it!