Google Announces Kotlin Support for Android

Google announced first-class support for Kotlin on Android at I/O in May 2017. Kotlin, created by JetBrains, ran on the Java Virtual Machine and could interoperate directly with existing Java classes and Android APIs.

The language addressed several pain points in Java development. Nullable and non-nullable types reduced common NullPointerException mistakes, data classes removed repetitive boilerplate, extension functions allowed cleaner APIs, and concise lambda syntax worked well with modern asynchronous code.

Interoperability was the key to adoption. Developers could add one Kotlin file to an existing Java application without rewriting the project. Google later made Kotlin its preferred language for Android development, and Jetpack Compose was designed with Kotlin as the natural programming model.