Bottom Line : To resolve the naming inconsistency and acronym confusion that has plagued many Kotlin developers for the past two years, we are deprecating the "Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile" (KMM) product name.
From now on, "Kotlin Multiplatform" (KMP) is the preferred term for Kotlin technologies that share code across platforms, regardless of the target mix .
Kotlin Multiplatform origin
Kotlin Multiplatform was announced at KotlinConf 2017 under the name "Kotlin Multiplatform Projects", initially supporting JVM, Native and JS targets. We quickly attracted a group of early adopters who mostly used the abbreviation "KMP" and to a lesser extent "MPP".
The technology is experimental until 2020, with the team tweaking it based on feedback from early adopters.
In 2020, we shifted our focus to code sharing between iOS and Android, which is the most common use case. We hope to attract more mobile developers to use Kotlin Multiplatform, take advantage of their feedback enhancement technology, and prepare for more improvements, including better support for other goals.
To reflect this focus, we split everything related to code sharing between iOS and Android in Kotlin Multiplatform into a separate product called "Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile", introduced the acronym KMM to it, and announced an Alpha release .
At the same time, we released the Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile plugin for Android Studio .
question
While the alpha version of the new Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile name has attracted attention, it has also created confusion as developers aren't sure what to call the technology that shares code outside of iOS and Android.
Some existing community content and libraries also have "KMP" in their names, further adding to the confusion, resulting in an ecosystem with multiple names – Kotlin Multiplatform and Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile – and the abbreviations KMP, KMM, and MPP. This makes things harder to find and also creates a misconception that Kotlin Multiplatform is primarily for mobile code sharing.
solution
To solve the naming inconsistency and acronym confusion that has plagued many Kotlin developers for the past two years, we are deprecating the "Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile" product name.
From now on, "Kotlin Multiplatform" (KMP) is the preferred term for Kotlin technologies that share code across platforms, regardless of the platform combination.
KMP is great for sharing code across multiple platforms, not just iOS and Android. With it, you can also share code with desktop and server side.
Additionally, we are actively developing Kotlin/Wasm, which aims to facilitate modern web development using the Kotlin Multiplatform.
When used with Compose Multiplatform (now supporting Android, Desktop, iOS (Alpha) and Web (Experimental)), you have even more freedom and the option to share 100% of your codebase entirely in Kotlin.
JetBrains aims to provide further improvements to Kotlin Multiplatform and Compose Multiplatform, making this combination the ultimate choice for sharing code between platforms.
move forward together
We would like to thank every content creator and library author in the Kotlin Multiplatform ecosystem. KMP would not develop and grow without your contribution to building content and libraries.
We recommend that you adopt the name "Kotlin Multiplatform" (KMP) for your existing and future content and libraries. Unifying terminology will simplify the onboarding process for new users and help KMP grow further. We value your efforts and appreciate your continued contributions.