Main Announcements of KotlinConf 2024: The Future of the Language

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KotlinConf 2024: main announcements that will change development

Another annual KotlinConf conference, organized by JetBrains, has concluded in Copenhagen, gathering thousands of developers from around the world. This year, the language team focused on multiplatform capabilities, performance, and integration with modern technologies. We have collected the main announcements that every Kotlin developer should take note of right now.

Kotlin Multiplatform reaches a new level

The most anticipated announcement is stable support for Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP) for iOS. Previously, the technology was in beta status, but now JetBrains guarantees backward compatibility and full support. Key improvements:

Direct integration with Xcode — now you can build Kotlin code directly in Xcode without additional scripts.
Compilation speedup — building for iOS has become 2 times faster thanks to the new backend.
Wrapper libraries — official Kotlin mappings have appeared for popular iOS frameworks (UIKit, CoreData).

This means that now common business logic for Android and iOS is written in Kotlin without compromising performance.

K2 Compiler: stable version

The long-awaited K2 compiler, built on a new architecture, has finally exited the experimental stage. Key changes:

Compilation speed — on average 30-40% faster for large projects.
Improved incremental compilation — rebuilds now take seconds.
New code analyzer — IDE hints have become more accurate, and autocomplete smarter.

To switch to K2, simply update the Kotlin plugin in IntelliJ IDEA or Android Studio to version 2.0+.

Compose Multiplatform becomes universal

JetBrains announced that Compose Multiplatform now supports not only Android, iOS, and Desktop, but also Web (via Kotlin/Wasm). Main innovations:

Unified UI code — one interface for all platforms with minimal platform adaptations.
Native widgets — support for SwiftUI components via a bridge has been added for iOS.
Performance — rendering has become 20% faster thanks to the new Skia engine.

This is especially important for web development: now you can write interfaces in Kotlin instead of HTML/CSS/JS.

JetBrains AI: built-in assistant for Kotlin

In addition to technical innovations, JetBrains introduced a built-in AI assistant for Kotlin. It works directly in the IDE and offers:

Automatic code generation from comments (e.g., "create a REST client").
Explanation of complex code sections.
Automatic refactoring considering best practices.

The assistant is available in early access for JetBrains IDE subscribers.

What does this mean for developers?

The conference showed: Kotlin is no longer just a "language for Android only." Now it is a full-fledged ecosystem for cross-platform development, where one code works everywhere — from mobile devices to servers and