Richard Kenneth Eng, Used Fortran, Tandem TAL, C/C++, C#, Obj-C, Java, Smalltalk, Python, Go
Answered May 28

Swift is only popular in the Apple ecosystem. Outside of Apple, it’s essentially a nonstarter. So, ultimately, Kotlin may become much more popular than Swift, just as Java has always been much more popular than Objective-C.
Swift cannot compete with the JVM and its ecosystem. That’s why Java rules and why Kotlin will rule with Java.

Matthew Rhodes, Website Developer
Answered May 27

In my opinion it will be way more popular than swift. For many reasons but for starters it compiles into JVM Bytecode and even better is it works with existing Java libraries meaning that it already supports THOUSANDS of exsist APIs and libraries. On top of this the language is a direct replacement for Java, so much so that they have a built in converting program. Kotlin is the future of Android and Java development as we know it.
Edit: I forgot to mention that it's learning curve is extremely easy and any current Java developer can easily switch. And I also forgot to mention that Java and kotlin can be in the same project **together **that means that current projects can make the switch right now and not change the original codebase very much.

Nikolay Igotti, Kotlin/Native Tech Lead at JetBrains (2016-present)
Answered Jun 12

Our team (Kotlin/Native) is working hard on pushing Kotlin way beyond JVM ecosystem, including Apple software stack, so I could be somewhat biased. However, several points:

• Kotlin and Swift are comparable in language features (guess, Swift borrowed some from Kotlin)
• Kotlin is better in tooling support (JetBrains is the maker of the most popular IDE on the planet, after all)
• Swift is likely better with Apple platforms integration
• Kotlin can run on wider variety of stacks (JVM, JS in browser or NodeJS, Native - wherever LLVM port exists)
• Kotlin’s lead language designer haven’t left, unlike Swift’s

Sneha Tiwari, Co-founder, Blogger, Developer, Designer at Hyphenible
Answered Sep 6

Yes, sure it can happen.
Kotlin has 10 powerful reasons:

Easy to setup
Lessens Boilerplates
Readable
Interoperability
No semicolon
You can choose your structure
Getters and setters method implementation
Synthetic Extension
Standard library is small
Riddance of Null Pointer Exceptions

Ebenezer Ojo, Co Founder at TABdigitals
Answered May 27

Kotlin will be more popular than swift in some years to come...