Java may still be the first programming language that springs to mind when you think about Android, but you don’t have to use Java for Android development. In fact, Kotlin is now Google’s ...

This post is an introduction to Kotlin for Android development. Learn how the language differs from Java and the basic syntax and layout.

Google's Android Studio 3.0 dev environment has just become available in the stable channel, with built-in support for Kotlin and Java 8.

Officially released in 2016, Kotlin has attracted a lot of attention in recent years, especially since Google announced its support for Kotlin as an alternative to Java on Android platforms.

Kotlin offers big advantages over Java for JVM and Android development, and plays nicely with Java in the same projects.

The appeal of Kotlin among Android developers is straightforward: It's a statically typed language -- similar to Scala, Gosu, Ceylon and Fantom -- which compiles to both JVM byte code and JavaScript.