8 Best Programming Languages for Mobile Apps in 2020

Mobility has become one of the key elements of success both for individuals and businesses over the past few years. In this article, we will review the world’s best languages for mobile app development and the types of applications they are used for.

According to Statista, the number of unique mobile users reached 6.8 billion people worldwide in 2019. By the year 2023, this number will grow to 7.33 billion globally. Moreover, an average smartphone user in the US spends about 3 hours with their mobile phone daily. Without a doubt, mobile users have become a target audience that every company strives to reach. This is when application development comes to the aid. With the wide variety of options for mobile app development, businesses are wondering how these solutions differ and what is the best choice for them.

Four Types of Mobile Apps

People use different types of devices that run on different operating systems. And before getting to the development part, we should know what type of application we are going to work on.

When the type of a future application is identified, it’s time to pick one of the mobile programming languages to use for its development.

Android Application Programming Languages

By the end of 2019, Android’s share in the global market of mobile operating systems exceeded 74% making it the world’s most popular platform. Let’s have a look at the mobile app development languages used for this OS.

Java

Originally, one of the most popular mobile app development languages was just a simple internal project developed by the Sun Microsystems team back in 1990. Now, Java remains the most common language used in native Android application development. From the coder’s perspective, Java is easy to learn and implement. It utilizes a great variety of libraries and JVM (Java Virtual Machine) that ensure smooth performance across all apps.

Kotlin

Kotlin is a relatively young language used for mobile app development that was first introduced by JetBrains in 2011 as an alternative to Java. In essence, Kotlin is a neat version of good old Java that is now getting more popular among the coding community since it’s specifically focused on mobile development. Since 2017, this programming language has been officially supported by Google.

iOS App Development Languages

Together with Android, iOS occupies 99% of the world’s market for all mobile operating systems. Even though globally its share exceeds a bit more than 22%, iOS remains a permanent leader in the US market with more than 51% in share. Here are the languages that iOS developers use to design their applications.

Objective-C

Objective-C has become the first language adopted by Apple for iOS and macOS development back in 1996. It’s an object-oriented language that gets its flow control statements and syntax from the C programming language. It could have stayed the one and only leader if it wasn't for the new Apple release taking over the market in 2014.

Swift

Swift is the reason why Objective-C is no longer the most popular coding language for apps running on iOS. Compared to its opponent, Swift is more powerful, easy-to-use, and includes a great variety of features that haven’t been introduced before and can be also applied in tvOS and watchOS development.

Cross-Platform Mobile Application Development Languages

If you want your application to run on several platforms simultaneously, cross-platform technology is what you need. Here are the languages that can be used to design a single application running on different operating systems instead of building apps for each platform separately.

C#

Also known as C Sharp, C# was developed for general purposes by one of the biggest multinational enterprises, Microsoft, in 2000. It is widely used by coders across the globe for creating a great variety of apps. C# has been changed with the introduction of Xamarin, a framework used specifically for cross-platform development. Thanks to Xamarin’s features, developers can create applications that look and function just like native ones.

JavaScript

One of the most popular frameworks in mobile development, React Native, runs on JavaScript and enables a simple coding process. React Native helps to create native-like apps faster than other frameworks and is easy to learn and use.

Mobile Web App Programming Languages

If you don’t need your application to be present in app stores but you’re still willing to provide your audience with a simple and intuitive user interface, mobile web applications will be the right choice. Let’s see what web technologies we can use.

HTML5

When it comes to web technologies, HTML5 will likely be the first thing to come to mind. This is one of the languages used to run Apache Cordova, an app development framework for creating web-based solutions for various operating systems. HTML5 is known as a very flexible and high-responsive language that helps to create well-functioning web-frontend applications.

Python

According to the PYPL index, Python became the most searched programming language in April 2020 with over 30% in share. Over the past few years, its popularity has grown significantly. Its distinguishing features allow creating smooth-running apps that deliver great user experience and overall performance. Besides that, it’s one of the easiest coding languages to learn.

If you are looking for a dedicated team to develop mobile applications for your company,  get in touch with us today. Qulix Systems specialists will be happy to answer any of your questions and work out a perfect solution tailored to your needs.