Learn what Java is used for in 6 minutes ☕ ⌨️

You're probably a Java user but don't know it.

Do you watch movies and TV shows on streaming services? Do you use Android apps on your cell phone? Are you a Minecraft player or do you like video games?

📣 Then you're using Java! Many of the software applications you use each day are built with Java. Understanding what Java is used for will help you decide if it's the right coding program for you to learn.

Java is one of the most famous programming languages in the world. It's the preferred language to create many of the websites and applications we use every day.

Practical examples of the Java include:

✅ Android apps:

• 46.2% of Android apps use Java. It's used by Android Studio — the official integrated development environment (IDE) to develop Android apps.

✅ Video games:

• Java is great for developing graphics and games from scratch. You can find frameworks and libraries such as LibGDX and OpenGL that use Java.

✅ The Internet of Things (IoT):

• Java is adaptable and mobile.Most developers prefer Java because of its ability to run on any kind of platform. The integration of different technologies is easier with Java.

✅ Big Data:

• Most programmers in Big Data tech prefer Java over many other languages. The reasons: popular Big Data tools such as Hadoop and Deeplearning4j use Java, and Java's support community in Big Data tech is great.

Java is not only part of Java developers' lives — it's almost everywhere.

These popular platforms and projects work with Java:

✅ Netflix:

• The movie and TV show streaming service uses Java in most of its applications along with C++ and Android.

✅ Pinterest:

• The social media platform uses Java for application and data processing.

✅ NASA:

• NASA'sWorld Wind program serves to monitor weather patterns, track planes, and visualize cities among other functionalities. World Wind uses Java to create a 3D models of the globe visualizing geographic data.

✅ Spotify:

• Spotify's web application uses Java for data transfer and to log and stabilize functionalities. Spotify's Android application is also developed with Java.

➕ Many other popular companies also work with Java. Some of them are Airbnb, Uber, Amazon, and Google.

There are more than 9 million Java developers in the world.

There's more than "magic" in what makes Java such a popular choice:

✅ Object-oriented programming (OOP):

• Java is an OOP language. This helps the code in Java to be reusable and easy to test, and to have a clean, elegant, and organized design.

✅ Cross-platform:

• Java is "platform-independent", so it runs on all kinds of platforms. This means that Java can work regardless of the platform.

✅ Easy to learn:

• Java's learning curve is smoother compared to learning other programming languages.

✅ Secure and robust:

• Java allows developers to create virus-free programs thanks to its several layers of security. Java also helps users achieve error-free programming.

➕ Java is also known for being:

• easy to maintain because it can run on any system. There's no need to invest in specialized environments to execute Java programs.

• multi-threading,which means that Java allows the execution of multiple threads at the same time to maximize resources.

• scalable,which means that the software built with Java can support the physical growth of a system (i.e. increasing the memory of a system).

After what you've learned about Java, do you have a good idea of how Java is used? Are you even considering learning more about Java and starting to write Java yourself?

⚡ Test Your Knowledge!

Meet Selena. She's interested in learning to code. She's researching the most popular programming languages but she's unsure about what language to learn first. Java can be a great option for Selena because:

A. Java is used across multiple platforms and devices.

B. It's a good way to learn about Object Oriented Programming (OOP).

C. There's a big Java community.

D. It helps you to specialize in web development.

Drop your first code lines in Java!