Kotlin roadmap

Last modified on	January 2021
Time frame	6 months until June 2021
Next update	April 2021

Welcome to the Kotlin roadmap! Get a sneak peek into the priorities of the Kotlin Team.

Key priorities

The goal of this roadmap is to give you a big picture. Here’s a list of our key priorities – the areas we are investing the most effort into:

Fast turnaround: making the change-test-debug cycle really fast.
New compiler: a rewrite of the Kotlin compiler optimized for speed, parallelism, and unification. Later we will also work on pluggability.
Fast and smooth IDE: improving the stability and performance of the Kotlin IDE.
Kotlin for JVM server-side development: expanding support for server-side use cases across the Kotlin ecosystem.
Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile: improving the user experience and feature set for sharing code on mobile platforms.

Kotlin roadmap by subsystem

To view the biggest projects we're working on, visit the YouTrack board or the Roadmap details table.

If you have any questions or feedback about the roadmap or the items on it, feel free to post them to YouTrack tickets or in the #kotlin-roadmap channel of Kotlin Slack (request an invite ).

YouTrack board

Visit the new roadmap board in our issue tracker YouTrack!

Roadmap details

Subsystem	In focus now	Postponed for later
Language	Support JVM records Support JVM sealed classes Release inline classes as Stable, secure Valhalla compatibility Prototype multiple receivers
Compiler core	Support incremental compilation for the new compiler Work on services for the new compiler to interact with IDE Maintain the current compiler (bug-fixing only)	⏸ Stable Compiler Plugin API ⏸ Scripting improvements
Kotlin/JVM	Make the new JVM IR backend Stable	⏸ Maintain the old JVM backend by fixing critical bugs
Kotlin/JS	Make the new JS IR backend Stable JS IR BE: Prototype lazy initialization for top-level properties like in JVM JS IR BE: Add an ability to generate separate JS files for each module Maintain the old JS backend by fixing critical bugs	⏸ ES6 support ⏸ Improve Dukat support
Kotlin/WASM	Prototype a compiler for Wasm GC proposal	Note: Wasm support in Kotlin/Native (through LLVM) will be deprecated and removed
Kotlin/Native	Provide binary compatibility between incremental releases Improve compilation time Prototype a new garbage collector Improve exporting Kotlin code to Objective-C Support producing binaries that run on Apple Silicon without Rosetta 2	⏸ Support Mac Catalyst ⏸ Development with Kotlin/Native on Apple Silicon without Rosetta 2 ⏸ Direct interoperability with Swift ⏸ Interoperability with C++ ⏸ Support Alpine Linux
Kotlin Multiplatform	Improve frontend and IDE import stability for Multiplatform projects Introduce a complex KMM application sample Improve Kotlin/Native debugging experience Improve UX of using Native libraries in Kotlin	⏸ Improve dependency management for iOS ⏸ Improve Gradle and Compiler error messages ⏸ Sharing code between JVM and Android ⏸ KMM plugin: support for IntelliJ IDEA
IDE	Improve IDE performance Improve debugging experience Improve cross-language support in the Inline Method and Change Signature refactorings Prototype IDE plugin with the new compiler frontend Move the Kotlin plugin to the IntelliJ platform development infrastructure	⏸ Advanced tooling that users have in Java but is missing in Kotlin. ⏸ Quality of less frequently used features, except blocking problems. ⏸ Support for VSCode or other IDEs. Community initiatives in this respect are welcome.
Build tools	Improve incremental compilation performance in Gradle Support the Gradle configuration cache Decrease time for opening Gradle projects	⏸ Improvements in Kotlin Maven support
Libraries	Support java.nio.Path extension in the standard library Make multiplatform kotlin.text API locale-agnostic by default Improve kotlinx-datetime library Improve kotlinx-serialization (release v1.1) Improve kotlinx-serialization (release v1.2) Improve kotlinx-coroutines (release v1.5) Implement unambiguous API for Char conversion Implement multiplatform API for characters	⏸ Improve usability of multi-threaded coroutines library for Kotlin/Native ⏸ `kotlinx-cli` ⏸ `binary-compatibility-validator` ⏸ `kotlinx-io` ⏸ Any new multiplatform libraries
Website	Revamp Kotlin documentation Make the Kotlin website mobile friendly Design a new Kotlin visual style Close try.kotlinlang.org
Ktor	Ktor roadmap

What's changed since October 2020

Completed items

We've completed the following items from the roadmap that we published in October 2020:

✅ Compiler core: Bootstrap the new compiler (make the new Kotlin compiler compile itself)
✅ Kotlin/Native: Runtime performance: improve object allocation times
✅ Multiplatform: KMM plugin: Fix major bugs
✅ Multiplatform: KMM plugin: Run common tests on Android devices (partially)
✅ Libraries: Improve kotlinx-coroutines (release v1.4)

Postponed items

We've decided to postpone the following items from the previous roadmap:

⏸ Kotlin/JVM: Maintain the old JVM backend by fixing critical bugs
⏸ Kotlin/JS: Improve Dukat support
⏸ Multiplatform: Improve dependency management for iOS
⏸ Multiplatform: Improve Gradle and Compiler error messages
⏸ Libraries: Improve usability of multi-threaded coroutines library for Kotlin/Native

New items

We've added the following items to the roadmap:

🆕 Compiler core: Support incremental compilation for the new compiler
🆕 Compiler core: Work on services for the new compiler to interact with IDE
🆕 Kotlin/JS: JS IR BE: Add an ability to generate separate JS files for each module
🆕 Kotlin/JS: JS IR BE: Prototype lazy initialization for top-level properties like in JVM
🆕 Kotlin/Native: Support producing binaries that run on Apple Silicon without Rosetta 2
🆕 Multiplatform: Improve frontend and IDE import stability for Multiplatform projects
🆕 Multiplatform: Introduce a complex KMM application sample
🆕 Multiplatform: Improve Kotlin/Native debugging experience
🆕 Multiplatform: Improve UX of using Native libraries in Kotlin
🆕 IDE: Improve debugging experience
🆕 Libraries: Improve kotlinx-serialization (release v1.2)
🆕 Libraries: Improve kotlinx-coroutines (release v1.5)
🆕 Libraries: Implement unambiguous API for Char conversion
🆕 Libraries: Implement multiplatform API for characters

We've also added a new subsystem, Website, to share our roadmap for kotlinlang.org:

🆕 Website: Revamp Kotlin documentation
🆕 Website: Make the Kotlin website mobile friendly
🆕 Website: Design a new Kotlin visual style
🆕 Website: Close try.kotlinlang.org

Items in progress

All other previously identified roadmap items are in progress. You can check their YouTrack tickets for updates.

Last modified: 04 March 2021