Businesses, big or small, seek superior cross-platform app development due to the booming mobile industry. Smartphones are ubiquitous, prompting companies to seize opportunities for product marketing and instant customer services. In this blog, we’ll delve into Kotlin Multi-platform Mobile (KMM).

Introduction:

In the ever-evolving landscape of Android development, there’s a growing trend towards multi-platform development frameworks that allow developers to write code once and deploy it across multiple platforms. This shift towards multi-platform development offers numerous benefits, including code re-usability, reduced development time, and increased consistency across platforms.

What is Multi-platform Development?

Multi-platform development involves creating code that operates across various platforms with minimal adjustments. Previously, developers needed separate code bases for each platform like Android, iOS, and web. Yet, Kotlin Multi-platform (KMP) has revolutionised this process, empowering developers to craft top-notch, cross-platform apps effortlessly.

Why Choose KMM?

KMM enables the sharing of core business logic (such as retrieving data from back-end servers or local databases) between iOS and Android platforms while allowing separate development of presentation logic for each. This approach significantly cuts down on code redundancy by over 65-70% compared to solely native development, all while maintaining performance and native component control. UI development remains native, utilising Jetpack Compose for Android and Swift UI for iOS. Let’s dive into KMM now.

The Rise of Kotlin Multi-platform:

One of the most prominent multi-platform development frameworks for Android is Kotlin Multi-platform. Kotlin Multi-platform is an open-source framework developed by Jet Brains that allows developers to write shared Kotlin code that can be compiled to run on Android, iOS, and other platforms.

Getting Started with Kotlin Multi-platform:
To get started with Kotlin Multi-platform development for Android, you’ll need to set up a new Kotlin Multi-platform project in Android Studio. Here’s a basic example of how to create a Kotlin Multi-platform library that can be used in both Android and iOS projects:

• Create a new Kotlin Multi-platform project in Android Studio.
• Define your shared Kotlin code in a common module, such as commonMain.
• Add platform-specific code for Android in an Android-specific module, such as androidMain.
• Add platform-specific code for iOS in an iOS-specific module, such as iosMain.

Here’s an example of a simple shared Kotlin function that calculates the sum of two numbers:

// commonMain module
fun add(a: Int, b: Int): Int {
    return a + b
}

Here’s how you can use this shared Kotlin function in an Android project:

// androidMain module
import com.example.shared.add

val result = add(1, 2)
println("Result: $result")

// iOS project
import shared

let result = add(1, 2)
print("Result: \(result)")

Benefits of Kotlin Multi-platform:

Code Re-usability: With Kotlin Multi-platform, you can write shared code once and use it across multiple platforms, reducing code duplication and improving maintainability.
Reduced Development Time: By leveraging a single code base for multiple platforms, developers can save time on development, testing, and maintenance tasks.
Increased Consistency: Kotlin Multi-platform promotes consistency across platforms by allowing developers to use the same language, libraries, and development tools for Android, iOS, and other platforms.

Performance:

KMM stands out for its adept performance metrics. The platform is engineered to allow seamless code sharing across iOS, Android, and other platforms. This not only curtails development time but also ensures that performance isn’t compromised.

Conclusion:

The emergence of multiplatform development for Android, as demonstrated by frameworks like Kotlin Multiplatform, signifies a fundamental change in mobile app development practices. These frameworks facilitate code reuse, streamline development timelines, and enhance consistency across different platforms. With multi-platform development frameworks, developers can create superior mobile apps more efficiently than previously possible.