5 Best Programming Languages for App Development in 2022

Mobile applications are now becoming a very essential part of our lifestyle. Every single industry in the global market is depending more and more on smartphone applications and nobody wants to be left alone.

With such a huge demand for mobile apps, it’s a golden opportunity for any programmer to dive into the world of mobile app development. If you are an aspiring programmer who’s decided to be an app developer then this is the article for you. In this article, I’ll be mentioning some of the best programming languages you should learn and master to become a mobile app developer.

But, before learning any programming language, you should first decide the operating system you want to work on. Right now, there are two major operating systems ruling the smartphone market: Android and iOS.

Android and iOS both are different OS and support different programming languages, frameworks, and tools for developing apps. It becomes very important for a beginner to make the right choice on whether he/she wants to become an Android developer or an iOS developer. If you have the same doubt, check this article: Android Development vs iOS Development: Which one is Better? before making any decision.

Now without further ado, let’s talk about the best programming languages for developing mobile apps (Android and iOS) and also find out which are better compared to the others.

Programming Languages for Developing Mobile Apps

1. Java

Java is an old but gold programming language for developing mobile apps. You can build both Android and iOS apps using Java programming language. For Android apps, it’s clean and simple programming language but, for iOS, you’ll have to learn and master different frameworks.

Java is the first official language for developing Android apps and it’s still in very huge demand. Many programming languages and frameworks are emerging day by day but Java is still the most preferable and reliable language for Android app development. Android Studio and Eclipse are two of the major IDEs that support Java programming for Android.

For iOS development, you can use Java but it’s not recommended as there are better languages that are solely created for iOS development and supported by Apple developers community.

2. Swift

Swift programming language was developed by Apple in 2014. The main goal of Swift is to develop apps for iOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, Linux and z/OS. It’s a new programming language that was designed for overcoming the problems found in Objective-C. With Swift, writing code for the latest APIs of Apple such as Cocoa Touch and Cocoa becomes absolutely smoother and easier. Swift can effortlessly avert most of the security vulnerabilities associated with the other programming languages.

If you want to become an iOS app developer then you should use swift as your primary programming language. Xcode is one of the most popular ides that supports Swift programming. Swift can also be used as a general-purpose programming language.

3. Kotlin

Kotlin is one of the most trending programming languages at the moment. It made a lot of headlines after Google announced it as an official language for Android app development. Kotlin is also a new programming language that was developed by JetBrains (the same company that developed Android studio) back in 2011. However, it became the official programming language for Android in 2017 after a lot of updates and feedback throughout the years.

Kotlin overcomes the limitations found in the Java programming language for android app development. It complies with both JavaScript and machine code while focusing on its primary environment, the Java Virtual Machine.

Read: Why Kotlin is Better than Java for Android App Development? to compare both programming languages on various technical terms.

4. JavaScript

Java and Javascript both programming languages not only have a similar name but also share a lot of similar applications. The buzzword “Java everywhere” seems to be also true for Javascript nowadays “Javascript everywhere”. A few years ago, Javascript was merely a scripting language used for front-end web development but now it’s one of the most used programming languages for app development and back-end web development (Node.js).

With Javascript, you can build hybrid mobile applications that can run on any device. Be it iOS, Android, Windows, or Linux. There are many frameworks and runtime environments that you can use to build hybrid and cross-platform apps some of them are AngularJS, ReactJS, and Vue. Read: 5 Best JavaScript Frameworks for App Development to know more about these frameworks.

There are a lot of types of apps you can build with Javascript frameworks but there are still a lot of things to be done. You can’t build a full-fledged application for enterprises using Javascript because it has some pretty major flaws including security and stability.

5. Objective C

Objective C was very popular among Apple developers before Swift came into the picture. The fact that Swift is a new programming language, many developers are still using Objective C for iOS development. It has some flaws but not necessarily for every kind of application. The language is still very relevant for OS X and iOS and their respective APIs, Cocoa and Cocoa Touch. The language can also be called an extension to the C programming language.

If you are a C programmer you won’t be having much trouble learning objective C as the syntax and functionality are very similar. But, if you are looking forward to learning a new programming language, you should go for Swift. Read this article for a full comparison between Swift and Objective C