Major updates to the Flutter ecosystem have already occurred in the first months of 2022. Flutter 2.10 is one of the notable technological updates. It’s exciting to see Flutter grow across platforms and mature as a framework with useful features and fixes. Aside from the technical, these announcements revealed some interesting information about the state of the Flutter ecosystem. As the Flutter ecosystem expands, more businesses are incorporating Flutter into existing apps or creating entirely new experiences with Flutter. Some people are embedding Flutter on devices other than mobile, desktop and web.
But what does Flutter hold for us- especially in 2022? Before we actually begin, we’ll briefly understand what Flutter is along with a short history of it, then proceed with the intricacies.
What is Flutter?
Google’s Flutter is an open-source UI software development kit. It is used to create cross-platform applications from a single codebase for Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, Windows, and the web. Flutter’s first version, dubbed “Sky,” ran on the Android operating system. It was first revealed at the Dart developer summit in 2015. Flutter 1.0, the first stable version of the framework, was released on December 4th of that year at the Flutter Live event. The most recent stable release of Flutter, version 2.10, took place on March 2, 2022.
Reasons, why Flutter is ideal for your future application programs, are mentioned below
- Flutter’s code is the same across platforms. Whether it’s iOS, Android, or any other Linux kernel-based operating system
- Flutter includes a hot reload feature, which allows designers and developers to see changes immediately and make necessary changes
- The documentation for Flutter is clear, simple and easy to understand
- Flutter provides impressive and out-of-the-box widgets
- It has a large global community because it is an open-source SDK supported by Google
- Flutter’s compatibility with various operating systems is excellent
- It speeds up the development and problem-solving processes
Why is Flutter Ideal as a Hybrid App Development Platform?
Here are a few reasons that explain why Flutter is a perfect platform when it comes to building hybrid apps
Rapid advancement
One of Flutter’s key advantages is its “Hot Reload” feature, which allows developers and designers to see changes immediately. This contributes to faster development. In contrast, to React Native, Flutter supports widget-based UI design and thus allows for the rapid development of cross-platform apps. Abin Baby, the co-founder of the KlasterMe social networking app, said he liked developing in Flutter because of the readily available widgets and the hot reload feature.
Google’s instant run and support
Flutter was used to create Pairing, a social matchmaking app. According to its co-founder Rabinovici, one of the key reasons they chose Flutter and how it improved their app development process was the instant run feature. Another advantage he mentioned was Google’s support and ready-made SDKs for various other Google products.
Ready-made packages
PostMuse, an Instagram photo editing app, was created in a short amount of time by a single developer who used Flutter. To avoid slow reloads and long compiling times, they switched from Kotlin to Flutter. He suggests taking a look at the plethora of third-party widgets that are readily available in Dart Pub. These ready-to-use widgets can be integrated into your Flutter development process and customized to your specifications.
Single codebase
The primary reason why the co-founders of in10, an event app, chose Flutter over React Native is the single codebase. They can write code once and it works flawlessly on both Android and iOS, resulting in a 50% increase in app development speed. Initially, they assumed that the complex parts of the app would have to be developed in the native language due to implementation risks. ETA, one of their app’s main features, was built entirely in Flutter, despite the fact that it was originally planned to be built in the native language.
Animation
Unlike React Native, Flutter comes with a plethora of built-in animations that app designers can easily incorporate into their apps. Victor Bonnet, the creator of the Top-Goals football app, stated that he enjoyed learning and developing in Flutter. He was taken aback by witnessing Flutter’s performance and the animations it delivered for a football app.
Cost-effective
Ishaan Bahal is the co-founder of the Meeve app, which allows users to connect with people in their immediate vicinity. He claims that developing their app with Flutter is simple. Because flutter uses a single codebase in both Android and iOS, it allows them to cut development time and costs in half.
Security
Flutter employs the Dart programming language, which easily compiles into native code. As a result, flutter outperforms other cross-platform apps in terms of performance. Ardiansyah Putra, the developer of the Cryptomaniac Pro app, claims that flutter provides the best in class security among cross-platform toolkits because it compiles into native code.
Performance
One of the main advantages of Flutter, according to many developers, is the unrivaled performance and speed of the apps on both Android and iOS. According to David DeRemer, a well-known flutter expert, Flutter is the first and only cross-platform framework that matches the performance of native apps.
POPULAR APPS BUILD IN FLUTTER
With the increasing popularity of Flutter, here is a list of popular apps built using Flutter
Google Pay
Google Pay, which was built on Flutter, was launched to 100 million monthly active users in the US and India. The development of Google Pay on Flutter cut costs and streamlined engineering resources, allowing it to combine teams. The team of 150 engineers converted and tested the existing app, which is loaded with features. Google Pay is one of the world’s most popular digital payment apps, with over 100 million downloads. The software allows users to pay for goods and services in some of the world’s most remote locations.
My BMW app
With an entirely in-house developed Flutter engineering, the BMW Group is positioning itself as a leading vehicle application developer and supplier. BMW is moving forward with the turn of events and the introduction of My BMW, a Flutter-created app. The public got its first look at this critical link between phones and automobiles in July 2020. A versatile and widespread programming architecture enables the rapid expansion and rollout of the My BMW app’s content. With 300 employees, the BMW Group’s Flutter/Dart development group is one of the world’s largest. My BMW is available for download from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store, and it runs on iOS and Android software.
New York Times
The New York Times created a cross-platform app for their readers using Flutter. As millions of people read it every day, the New York Times was looking for new ways to engage its audience and improve the user experience. The popular KenKen puzzle, created by the New York Times for its Flutter launch, is a great example of Flutter’s cross-platform capabilities. Developers are constantly challenged to provide a consistent experience across platforms. Because of Flutter’s single codebase, the team was able to release KenKen Puzzles for iOS, Android, Windows, macOS and the web all at the same time. The NYT team was able to iterate and test in real-time thanks to Flutter, which saved them time and money.
Watermaniac
Watermaniac is a Flutter-based app that is currently taking advantage of the framework’s popularity. Watermaniac, a lightweight Flutters water monitoring software, assists users in controlling their consumption. Users can keep track of how much water they consume and how much more they need to consume. On the app’s calendar, you can set alerts for each individual, with customizable delivery dates and times. The software has some features that allow it to create reminders at regular intervals and provide a complete monitoring experience.
Sonos
On any Sonos speaker, you can listen to music from popular streaming services such as Spotify, Gaana or Apple Music. To connect their home speakers to streaming services, people use the free Sonos app on their smartphones, tablet, PC or laptop. Sonos began utilizing Flutter for app development in 2020. Their previous app had several flaws, including a perplexing (and buggy) speaker setup wizard.
Flutter improved the Sonos team’s development capabilities. The framework saved hundreds of hours and aided in the rapid launch of a refreshed and intuitive cross-platform app. They resolved all existing issues and added new features that enhanced the user experience. Sonos redesigned the user interface and added assistive features to all platforms.
Betterment
Betterment is an online investment firm that offers financial and investment advice. The Betterment team required a solution to help them manage their mobile codebase more effectively. Betterment used Flutter’s add-to-app feature to connect the new code to its native codebase without affecting the customer experience.
eBay motors
One of the most popular Flutter apps is eBay Motors, an automobile portal. You can use the app to buy and sell vehicles and accessories, discover new listings and connect with other car buyers and sellers. They were able to test functional prototypes quickly thanks to hot reload and automated testing. The development process was smooth, and the apps provided a consistent user experience. The platform-specific integration deployment process was sped up thanks to Flutter’s code-sharing capabilities. To quickly integrate device APIs, the team used readily available Flutter plugins.
Google Stadia
Google Stadia is a cloud-based video game streaming service that allows you to watch games on your smartphone, PC, laptop, or tablet. What is it about this app that has made it so popular among gamers? In 2019, John McDole, Google Stadia’s lead UI engineer, stated that the Stadia mobile app was built with Flutter. The Stadia controller setup was one of the most difficult parts of the mobile app, according to their blog post. However, Flutter made writing and maintaining Stadia’s controller setup easier. According to the official blog, Flutter aided in the development of the controller setup flow. Flutter code writing was faster and nearly doubled the team’s productivity. Flutter also aided Google Stadia in maintaining cross-platform consistency.
Conclusion
To summarize, developing apps with Flutter can significantly benefit your business, as described and demonstrated not only by us but also by many of the world’s largest players. Flutter is quick, productive, and adaptable. It is exactly what is required in today’s world. Choosing Flutter app development services, in our opinion, will not be in vain and is an especially viable option. Flutter introduces you to a diverse and wide range of solutions if you have a limited budget but require high-quality products.
