Java is one of the most widely used languages worldwide and, until recently, was the language of choice for Android development. Java, in all its greatness, still has some issues. Over the years, we've seen the evolution of a number of JVM languages that have tried to fix the issues that come with Java. A quite recent one is Kotlin. Kotlin is a new programming language developed by JetBrains, a software development company that produces software developer tools (one of their products is IntelliJ IDEA, which Android Studio is based on).

In this chapter, we'll take a look at:

• What makes Kotlin great for Android development
• What you need to be ready for Android development