If you're a mobile app developer, Java is probably your go-to language for building Android apps. But there are new languages popping up all over the place that might challenge Java's dominance in the Android world. One of them is Kotlin, a relatively new programming language, which has been already announced by Google as a “first-class” language supported on Android.

The app development process involves countless decisions, though few are as important as the language you choose to bring your project to life. Two of the most popular and powerful programming languages in use today are Python and Java.

Used by millions of developers all over the globe, Java has remained one of the most popular programming languages for the last 22 years. Still, JavaScript holds the title of the most widely deployed language in the world, and its surrounding environments such as a runtime like Node.js are gaining traction as well.

In May 2017, the Android team at Google announced first-class support for Kotlin, a statically typed programming language that runs on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). Kotlin is built by JetBrains, who (it is worth noting) is also responsible for developing the JetBrains IntelliJ Java IDE, which Google’s own Android Studio is based on.