A Guide to Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile

Enterprises constantly seek efficient, cost-effective solutions to build high-quality mobile applications. KMM emerges as a promising framework designed to streamline mobile development by allowing code sharing across multiple platforms.

As an enterprise looking to develop mobile applications, you understand the significance of balancing time-to-market, maintainability, and delivering a seamless user experience. KMM aims to address these challenges by leveraging the power of Kotlin, a universal programming language, and providing a shared codebase that enables cross-platform development.

This article will delve into the key features, benefits, and considerations associated with KMM, empowering you to make an informed decision for your mobile project.

Let’s start!

What is Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile?

Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile (KMM) is a framework developed by JetBrains, the creators of the Kotlin programming language. It allows developers to write shared code using Kotlin and deploy it on multiple platforms, such as Android and iOS. KMM enables code sharing between platforms while providing the flexibility to create platform-specific user interfaces and leverage platform-specific APIs.

With KMM, developers can write business logic, data models, networking code, and other shared components in Kotlin, avoiding duplicating efforts across different platforms. This shared codebase can be used across Android and iOS projects, reducing development time, improving code maintainability, and promoting code reuse.

KMM provides seamless integration with existing Android and iOS projects, allowing developers to adopt the framework and share code incrementally gradually. It leverages platform-specific optimizations to ensure efficient performance on each platform while still providing the flexibility to utilize platform-specific UI frameworks, such as SwiftUI for iOS and Jetpack Compose for Android.

What skills are required to develop an app using KMM?

To develop an app using Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile (KMM) and hire certified Kotlin developers, the following skills are typically required:

1. Kotlin: Strong proficiency in the Kotlin programming language is essential since KMM is built on Kotlin. Developers should be familiar with Kotlin’s syntax, features, null safety, coroutines, and its interoperability with Java.

2. Mobile Development: Knowledge and experience in mobile app development for Android and/or iOS platforms are crucial. Understanding the platform-specific APIs, UI frameworks (such as SwiftUI and Jetpack Compose), and development patterns is necessary to create platform-specific components within a KMM project.

3. Cross-platform Development: Familiarity with the principles and practices of cross-platform development is important. Developers should understand how to architect and structure code to allow maximum code sharing while accommodating platform-specific requirements when necessary.

4. Software Architecture: Proficiency in software architecture principles and patterns is beneficial for designing a scalable and maintainable codebase. Developers should be able to apply architectural patterns such as MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel) or MVI (Model-View-Intent) in the context of KMM projects.

5. Debugging and Testing: Competence in debugging and testing mobile applications is vital. Developers should be able to troubleshoot issues, write unit tests, and conduct UI testing using tools and frameworks specific to Android and iOS platforms.

6. Integrated Development Environments (IDEs): Experience with IDEs such as Android Studio and Xcode is necessary for developing KMM applications. Knowledge of the debugging, profiling, and building tools provided by these IDEs will aid in efficient development and troubleshooting.

7. Version Control: Proficiency in using version control systems, such as Git, is important for collaborative development and codebase management.

8. Problem-Solving and Troubleshooting: Strong problem-solving skills are crucial for identifying and resolving issues that may arise during development. The ability to troubleshoot errors, optimize performance, and address compatibility challenges is valuable.

When hiring Kotlin developers for KMM projects, looking for individuals with experience in mobile app development, preferably with proficiency in Kotlin and a strong understanding of cross-platform development concepts, is recommended. Certifications or formal training in Kotlin or mobile development can also provide additional validation of their skills.

What are the advantages of developing an app with KMM?

Developing an app with Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile (KMM) offers several advantages:

1. Code Sharing: KMM enables code sharing between platforms like Android and iOS. This significantly reduces duplication of effort, as developers can write shared business logic, data models, and utility functions in Kotlin and use them across platforms. Code sharing improves development efficiency, reduces maintenance efforts, and promotes code reuse.

2. Time and Cost Savings: KMM helps streamline the development process by leveraging code sharing. Developers can write and maintain a single codebase, eliminating the need to develop and maintain separate codebases for each platform. This leads to significant time and cost savings as development efforts are consolidated, and updates can be implemented more efficiently.

3. Faster Time-to-Market: With KMM, developers can simultaneously leverage shared code to build apps for multiple platforms. This allows for faster mobile app development and deployment cycles, reducing the time-to-market for your app. Businesses can use KMM’s efficiency to quickly launch their app on different platforms and gain a competitive edge.

4. Consistency and Maintainability: KMM promotes platform consistency by sharing core components and business logic. This helps ensure a consistent user experience and reduces the chances of platform-specific bugs or inconsistencies. Maintaining a single codebase simplifies future updates, bug fixes, and feature additions, as changes only need to be made in one place.

5. Native User Interfaces: KMM emphasizes code sharing and allows developers to create platform-specific user interfaces using native UI frameworks, such as SwiftUI for iOS and Jetpack Compose for Android. This ensures that the UI components align with the platform’s design guidelines and perform optimally, providing a native user experience.

6. Access to Platform-Specific APIs: KMM allows developers to access and utilize platform-specific APIs and libraries when necessary. This flexibility enables the integration of platform-specific features or capabilities, ensuring that the app can take full advantage of each platform’s unique offerings.

7. Strong Kotlin Language Support: KMM is built on Kotlin, a modern programming language. Kotlin offers a concise syntax, null safety, coroutines for asynchronous programming, and seamless interoperability with Java. These language features enhance developer productivity, code readability, and maintainability.

What are the disadvantages of developing an app with KMM?

While Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile (KMM) offers numerous advantages, there are also some potential disadvantages to consider when developing an app with KMM:

1. Platform Limitations: While KMM allows for code sharing, there may still be cases where platform-specific code needs to be written. This can be necessary to access certain platform-specific APIs or to implement highly tailored user interfaces. In such cases, writing platform-specific code can reduce the benefits of code sharing.

2. Tooling and Documentation Maturity: As KMM is a relatively new framework, the tooling and documentation may be less extensive and mature than more established frameworks. This can lead to occasional challenges when troubleshooting issues or seeking comprehensive resources.

3. Performance Optimization: Although KMM aims to provide efficient performance, there can be cases where achieving optimal performance across multiple platforms requires additional platform-specific optimizations. Fine-tuning the performance may involve writing platform-specific code or using platform-specific profiling tools.

4. Platform Release Cycles: Android and iOS platforms continuously evolve, introducing new features and updates. Keeping up with platform updates and ensuring compatibility with the latest versions may require timely updates to the KMM framework and additional development efforts.

5. Limited Platform Support: While KMM primarily targets Android and iOS platforms, support for other platforms (such as Windows or the web) may be limited or less mature. If your app requires extensive support across multiple platforms beyond Android and iOS, better choices may exist than KMM.

In which scenarios would you recommend using KMM?

Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile (KMM) can be recommended in the following scenarios:

1. Shared Business Logic: When your app requires significant business logic that can be abstracted and shared across platforms, KMM can be a suitable choice. By leveraging code sharing, you can reduce code duplication and ensure consistency in the core functionality of your app.

2. Prototype or MVP Development: If you are in the early stages of developing a mobile app and want to quickly validate your idea or build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), KMM can be beneficial. It enables faster development and deployment across multiple platforms, allowing you to efficiently reach a broader user base and gather feedback.

3. Codebase Consolidation: If your organization already has separate Android and iOS teams maintaining separate codebases, adopting KMM can help consolidate efforts. By sharing code and leveraging a single codebase, you can reduce development and maintenance costs, improve code consistency, and streamline team collaboration.

4. Cross-platform Utility Libraries: If you have existing Kotlin utility libraries used across different projects or platforms, KMM can facilitate their integration and reuse. By adopting KMM, you can extend the usage of these libraries to iOS platforms, eliminating the need to rewrite them in a different language.

5. UI Customization with Platform-Specific Views: If your app requires extensive user interface customization to adhere to platform-specific design guidelines and provide a native experience, KMM can still be beneficial. While sharing business logic, you can create platform-specific UI components using native UI frameworks like SwiftUI or Jetpack Compose.

6. Resource-Intensive Apps: For apps that require heavy computation or complex data processing, KMM can be advantageous. By leveraging code sharing, you can avoid duplicating resource-intensive operations and optimize performance while still having the flexibility to write platform-specific code when needed.

7. Small-to-Medium-sized Development Teams: KMM can be particularly useful for small-to-medium-sized development teams with limited resources. It allows for efficient development, maintenance, and bug fixing across multiple platforms without the need for extensive platform-specific expertise.

Wrapping Up

Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile (KMM) is a powerful framework that offers numerous advantages for cross-platform app development. By leveraging code sharing, KMM reduces duplication of effort, enhances code reuse, and promotes development efficiency. It enables businesses to save time and costs, achieve faster time-to-market, and maintain code consistency across multiple platforms.

While there are potential challenges, such as platform limitations, learning curve, and evolving tooling, KMM remains a compelling choice for app development in the right scenarios. It is particularly recommended when shared business logic, codebase consolidation, or rapid prototyping is required. KMM also proves beneficial for cross-platform utility libraries and resource-intensive apps.

To leverage KMM effectively, hire certified Kotlin developers with expertise in mobile app development, Kotlin programming, and cross-platform development. If you lack in-house talent, outsourcing Kotlin developers can be a viable option to ensure a smooth and successful adoption of KMM for your app project.

By carefully assessing your project requirements, evaluating the benefits and considerations of KMM, and partnering with skilled Kotlin developers, you can harness the power of KMM to build high-quality, cross-platform mobile apps efficiently and effectively.