Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile SDK nears the finish line

JetBrains has moved its Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile SDK, for sharing the logic of iOS and Android apps, to a beta stage, more than two years after the alpha version arrived.

On track to becoming stable, the Kotlin mobile SDK combines the benefits of cross-platform and native development, JetBrains said. Developers can maintain a shared codebase for networking, data storage, and analytics, along with other logic for Android and iOS apps. Native APIs can be implemented for iOS and Android devices, and platform-specific code written when needed. Graduation to the beta stage, which JetBrains announced October 9, means the technology is almost finished and is safe to use in projects.

Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile leverages the multiplatform capabilities of Kotlin and provides tools for cross-platform mobile development in the Android Studio IDE, with a plugin available for the IDE. Instructions for getting started with Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile can be found at kotlinlang.org. During the technology’s experimental phase, the Kotlin team attempted various approaches to libraries, project configuration, and memory management in an effort to provide the best development experience. Early adopters included companies such as VMware, Netflix, and Philips.