Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP): The New Era of Mobile App Development
For many years, the industry of mobile development has been discussing which one is better: native or cross-platform development. While native apps ensure excellent performance, they need separate coding for iOS and Android platforms. Cross-platform frameworks, such as Flutter or React Native, make coding easier since it uses a single code base. However, they usually do not perform very well natively and may look a little bit odd on different platforms. Nowadays, a new technology changes this paradigm: it is Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP).
What is Kotlin Multiplatform?
Kotlin Multiplatform is a technology that was introduced by JetBrains to the Kotlin programming language. It is worth noting that unlike cross-platform frameworks, KMP does not compel to code the whole app using a particular framework. It lets you share the business logic of the application (networking, databases, data parsing and validation), while the user interface is 100% native.
The core business logic gets implemented once in Kotlin and compiled into a shared library. Then the UI gets created by developers using native tools like SwiftUI for iOS and Jetpack Compose for Android.
Key advantages of Kotlin Multiplatform
Native Performance of UI Layer: Since KMP-based applications use official UI frameworks of iOS and Android, there will be no performance issues, custom rendering engine, or web-view layer here. The application works like a native one since on the UI layer it actually is a native application.
Unified Non-UI Code Base: As much as 70% of the code of the mobile application is made up of non-UI parts (communication with API and storing information locally). Sharing the code means that all updates and features will be done once.
Lower Dependency on the Platform: In case of Flutter or React Native, you depend on their ecosystems. If some framework becomes outdated, it will be difficult to migrate. Here you have a native UI, which means you have full freedom when it comes to design guidelines of platforms.
Kotlin Multiplatform: when to choose it
The KMP technology is best for businesses which do not settle for anything less than native UI performance and platform-specific features, but at the same time, wish to cut costs and speed up development process. It is now being adopted by tech giants such as Netflix, Philips, and McDonald’s.
Conclusion
Here at dotsServices, we create mobile applications that utilize state-of-the-art technologies such as Kotlin Multiplatform. If you need either native apps with common logic or cross-platform applications, our mobile app developers can assist you in making your idea come true.