Google adds Kotlin as official Android programming language

I'm a little late with all the stuff from Google I/O last night due to personal issues keeping me from my PC, so let's catch up. There's a ton of interesting stuff, but I think what OSNews readers will be interested in the most is the Android project officially adding support for Kotlin.Today the Android team is excited to announce that we are officially adding support for the Kotlin programming language. Kotlin is a brilliantly designed, mature language that we believe will make Android development faster and more fun. It has already been adopted by several major developers - Expedia, Flipboard, Pinterest, Square, and others - for their production apps. Kotlin also plays well with the Java programming language; the effortless interoperation between the two languages has been a large part of Kotlin's appeal.The Kotlin plug-in is now bundled with Android Studio 3.0 and is available for immediate download. Kotlin was developed by JetBrains, the same people who created IntelliJ, so it is not surprising that the IDE support for Kotlin is outstanding.And the announcement from the Kotlin project itself:For Android developers, Kotlin support is a chance to use a modern and powerful language, helping solve common headaches such as runtime exceptions and source code verbosity. Kotlin is easy to get started with and can be gradually introduced into existing projects, which means that your existing skills and technology investments are preserved.As for user-facing features in Android O, it's definitely a more low-key affair than earlier releases, with most new features fitting neatly in the "huh, neat" category. With a massive low-level project like Treble underway, it makes sense for Android to not rock the boat too much with this year's release. There's Notification Dots, smarter text selection, completely redesigned emoji, and more. There's also Android Go, but I'm saving that for a later item.