Kotlin 2.0, released in May 2024, marked a major leap forward in the evolution of the language. Central to this release was the introduction of the new compiler front-end, K2, which opened the door to faster innovation and more robust language features.

This talk begins with a quick recap of the highlights from last year: enhancements like guard conditions in when-with-subject, non-local break and continue, and multi-dollar string interpolation—all of which were swift responses to real-world developer pain points.

Next, we’ll explore what's coming in Kotlin 2.2. You'll get an early look at context parameters for boilerplate-free dependency injection, a new 'CheckReturnValue' inspection to help prevent silent errors, and support for nested type aliases to improve code clarity and expressiveness.

We'll wrap up with a peek into Kotlin’s longer-term vision: introducing rich errors—structured, data-carrying error types for clearer and safer failure handling—and name-based destructuring, which lets you unpack objects using property names instead of positions, leading to more readable and maintainable code.

Whether you're a seasoned Kotlin developer or just starting, this talk promises to expand your understanding of the language.