JetBrains Launches Beta Version of Compose Multiplatform UI Framework for Kotlin

JetBrains, the software development toolmaker known for IntelliJ IDEA and the Kotlin programming language, has announced the beta release of its Compose Multiplatform UI framework. The declarative UI framework, unveiled earlier this year, is a major leap in JetBrains' vision of a unified UI development approach for Kotlin.

The Compose Multiplatform framework is built on Google's Jetpack Compose, a toolkit for UI development on Android. The JetBrains framework brings the same declarative approach and APIs used in Android app development to create native-feeling user interfaces for desktop and web apps.

Sebastian Aigner, a developer advocate at JetBrains, announced the beta launch in a blog post. Compose Multiplatform, consisting of Compose for Desktop and Compose for Web, is now even closer to its stable release, which is expected later this year. In preparation for the 1.0 release, JetBrains is stabilizing APIs and marking experimental interfaces explicitly. Aigner also highlighted that this update has resolved compatibility issues by referencing Android artifacts published by Google.

Compose for Desktop has seen significant improvements in this release, such as enhanced stability on problematic hardware and drivers through smart fallback to software rendering, a new mouse pointer API, a new hoverable API, support for transparent windows, and the first preview of accessibility support on macOS.

Meanwhile, Compose for Web now allows developers to use SVGs along with HTML elements in the DOM tree while still leveraging Compose APIs. Nikolay Igotti, who leads the Compose project at JetBrains, commented on the challenge of building a truly multiplatform UI framework and highlighted that with each release, they are implementing new features and compatibility layers to bring the framework closer to production-level development.

According to JetBrains' State of Developer Ecosystem 2021 survey, most developers are creating web and desktop applications, with only 30% focusing on mobile development. Kotlin, being the officially preferred language for Android development, is more stable at runtime than Java due to its statically typed nature, allowing it to check weak points and support features such as variable type interface, closures, extension functions, and mixins. It is also less verbose than Java, enabling developers to write less code with a more readable syntax.

The introduction of Compose Multiplatform UI framework could make it easier for developers working on UI development for various platforms such as desktop, web, and mobile apps. The AppMaster no-code platform, for example, is already enabling customers to build backend, web, and mobile applications through visual design, facilitating cost-effective and fast application development. AppMaster is an ideal solution for developing scalable, high-performing applications for businesses of all sizes.

JetBrains unveiled Kotlin at the 2011 JVM Language Summit and later released it for distribution under the Apache 2 Open-Source License.