JetBrains has released the stable version of Kotlin Multiplatform, a technology for sharing code among iOS, Android, desktop, web, server-side, and other platforms.

It is just over a year since the Kotlin Multiplatform mobile libraries were released in preview. As we reported at the time it is an SDK for cross-platform mobile development for iOS and Android. Kotlin Multiplatform can be used to build apps for iOS and Android with native UI from a single shared codebase for networking, data storage, and analytics, as well as the other logic of your Android and iOS apps.

The newly stable framework comes with a fully-stabilized API, simplified project configuration, and better interoperability with Objective-C and Swift, as well as faster build times and other performance improvements.

The main benefit of Kotlin Multiplatform is its flexibility. Developers can share only part of their app's logic and write native code if they want to interact with platform-specific APIs or build native UIs. The framework can also be combined with Compose Multiplatform, JetBrains' declarative framework for sharing UIs across multiple platforms. This combination allows developers to share up to 100% of their Kotlin codebase. Compose Multiplatform is currently stable for Android and desktop, experimental for web, and in Alpha for iOS.

JetBrains says developers can Kotlin Multiplatform when starting a new project and implement data, business, and even presentation layers just once. It can also be used to simplify the development of existing projects. Choose a piece of logic (for example, data validation, filtering, or sorting), which changes frequently and usually goes out-of-sync, make it cross-platform, and connect it to your project as a micro-library.

Kotlin Multiplatform is also recommended for library authors. You can create a multiplatform library with common code and its platform-specific implementations for JVM, web, and native platforms. Once published, a multiplatform library can be used as a dependency in other cross-platform projects.

JetBrains says future updates will be better for iOS developers because it will add direct Kotlin-to-Swift interoperability and SwiftPM support. JetBrains plans to add a beta version of Compose Multiplatform for iOS in 2024. JetBrains is also actively developing Kotlin/Wasm to enable modern web development with Kotlin Multiplatform.

• Mike James is the author of Programmers Guide To Kotlin written for Java programmers, Android developers and programmers wanting to discover why Kotlin is a better Java and of Android Programming in Kotlin: Starting With An App.

More Information

Kotlin Multiplatform

Kotlin Home Page

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