It’s no surprise that Google’s hope is that over time, all Android developers will switch over to Kotlin. “There is still quite a bit of Java still happening on Android,” Ward said.

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

Android security: First Kotlin-based malware found in Google Play Store Malware researchers have spotted what they think is the first malicious Android app using the Kotlin language.

Kotlin is a super new programming language built by JetBrains, which also coincidentally develops the JetBrains IDE that Android Studio — Google’s official developer tool — is based on.

As it stands today, Android apps are generally coded in Kotlin, but Apple is looking to provide its Swift coding language as an alternative.