Hi everyone! It’s been a busy few weeks since my last roundup: the Shipaton 2026 winners are in, and three Kotlin Multiplatform apps took the Ship Kotlin Everywhere Award. In other news, Kotlin 2.5.0 is taking shape with its second Beta, KotlinConf 2027 is officially heading to Kraków with the call for speakers open, and the new State of Kotlin in 2026 report shows where the language stands after 15 years. Here’s what stood out to me most:

Kodee-approved spotlight

Ship Kotlin Everywhere winners at RevenueCat Shipaton 2026

Out of 3,985 Shipaton submissions, three standout projects took home JetBrains’ Ship Kotlin Everywhere awards. What caught my eye is that the same Kotlin Multiplatform and Compose Multiplatform toolkit yielded three completely different results.

🥇 BoatBrawl by Rehaan Cubes and Ashwin K M
🥈 AfterFade by Kanon Fujita
🥉 Lumeo by Piotr Prus

A huge congratulations to the winners, and to everyone who shipped an app. I’m off to start a new project of my own!

Meet the Shipaton 2026 winners

Start your next KMP app with Kotlin Toolchain 0.13

Kotlin Toolchain 0.13 brings `kotlin new` for interactive project creation, smoother iOS setup, SwiftPM dependency support, and faster Kotlin/Native rebuilds. We recommend it for most new KMP projects. Give it a try!

See what’s new in Toolchain 0.13

The State of Kotlin in 2026 report

Kotlin turned 15 this year, and the new report offers a fascinating look at how the ecosystem has grown. More than half of Kotlin developers report working on backend projects. Among surveyed Kotlin developers, 93% use at least one AI coding tool, and 81% say AI-generated Kotlin code is fully correct or requires only minor fixes. What surprised you most?

Read the State of Kotlin 2026 report

KotlinConf 2027 is coming to Kraków

Save the dates! KotlinConf 2027 is heading to Kraków, Poland, April 21–23. April 21 is workshop day, followed by two conference days. Have an experience, tool, or Kotlin lesson worth sharing? The call for speakers is open, with submissions due November 27. I’d love to see you on stage or somewhere in the audience!

Explore KotlinConf 2027

The Kotlin Multiplatform Contest is open: Win a trip to KotlinConf

Students and recent graduates, turn your idea into a cross-platform project with Kotlin Multiplatform!
The authors of the top three projects will each win a trip to KotlinConf 2027 in Kraków, Poland. Authors of all other valid entries will receive Kotlin souvenirs. Submissions are open until December 7, 2026.

Check out

Kotlin 2.5.0-Beta2 and Kotlin 2.4.21

Kotlin 2.5.0-Beta2 landed on October 21. It brings stable name-based destructuring in only-syntax mode, an unused return value checker, Java 28 support, and Swift export in Beta with a new DSL. Kotlin/Native incremental compilation is also now enabled by default on Apple targets. Prefer a maintenance release? Kotlin 2.4.21 arrived in October with bug fixes.

Try Kotlin 2.5.0-Beta2

The Kotlin compiler will require JDK 17 or newer

The minimum JDK version required to run the Kotlin compiler is changing. In Kotlin 2.5.0-Beta1, running the compiler on a JDK older than 17 triggers a warning. In Kotlin 2.5.0-Beta2 and 2.5.0, it triggers an error, with a flag to temporarily continue using an older JDK. Starting with Kotlin 2.5.20-Beta1, JDK 17 or newer is required. If your machines or CI still use an older JDK, now is a good time to upgrade.

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KMP library spotlight

Looking for the right libraries for your next multiplatform app? On Klibs.io, you can compare Voyager, Decompose, and Circuit for Compose Multiplatform navigation. Or try Ktorfit to describe HTTP APIs with a familiar Retrofit-style interface while using Ktor under the hood. You can also let your AI agent do the checking – the Klibs.io MCP server gives it direct access to the multiplatform library catalog.

Discover libraries on Klibs.io