Kotlin has support for the web by compiling to JavaScript (i.e., Kotlin/JS with the classic back-end, is declared stable since version 1.3), while the newer Kotlin/JS ( IR-based) is in beta as of version 1.5.30. The Android Kotlin compiler produces Java 8 bytecode by default (which runs in any later JVM), but lets the programmer choose to target Java 9 up to 18, for optimization, or allows for more features has bidirectional record class interoperability support for JVM, introduced in Java 16, considered stable as of Kotlin 1.5.

Since the release of Android Studio 3.0 in October 2017, Kotlin has been included as an alternative to the standard Java compiler. On, Google announced that the Kotlin programming language is now its preferred language for Android app developers. Language development costs are borne by JetBrains, while the Kotlin Foundation protects the Kotlin trademark. Kotlin mainly targets the JVM, but also compiles to JavaScript (e.g., for frontend web applications using React ) or native code via LLVM (e.g., for native iOS apps sharing business logic with Android apps). Kotlin is designed to interoperate fully with Java, and the JVM version of Kotlin's standard library depends on the Java Class Library, īut type inference allows its syntax to be more concise. Kotlin ( / ˈ k ɒ t l ɪ n/) is a cross-platform, statically typed, general-purpose high-level programming language with type inference.

Internal function kotlin