Over 150,000 Flutter applications have so far been launched into the Google Play Store. The open-source app development framework has been widely accepted by the developer community. No surprises thus that Flutter 2.0 was a much awaited launch. Is it just hype with no substance? Or will Flutter 2.0 change application development? Let’s dig in.
For starters, Flutter 2.0 is now a complete UI toolkit with a clear potential to build apps for any platform -the mobile, the desktop, the web, or even the emerging form factors such as foldable devices.
How did Flutter 1.0 fare?
Flutter 1.0 supported only Android and iOS apps while it still could run on mobile devices, desktop, and embedded systems. Google eventually added more features, so it could run on the web as well. Flutter 1.0 offered 2Dimensions while due to Dart 2.1, it enjoyed a smaller code size, faster type checks etc and great speed. It had powerful compositing capabilities and had a full set of widgets offering pixel-perfect experiences. Overall, it was enough to build apps for Android and iOS - the two operating systems with the largest number of apps worldwide.
Enter Flutter 2.0?
Flutter 2.0 can now support web apps, Windows, MacOS, Linux, and embedded devices. This makes the apps built on it more powerful i.e., they can run on a wide variety of different platforms.
Flutter for the web
The most important change in Flutter 2.0 was that the web development is now part of the stable channel officially while desktop support is in the offing. Flutterweb appdevelopment has richer platform APIs and Flutter supports several web-specific features and widgets such as hyperlink widget, proper PWA (progressive web app), custom URL strategies, web-app deep linking, text auto-fill, etc.
Flutter for Mobile
With the onset of “foldable phones” and foldable displays, Flutter’s feature of accommodating foldable displays is a huge advantage.
Flutter for desktop
Flutter for Desktop is now Stable and enjoys support for keyboard shortcuts that give it a feel of a native app on MacOS, or Windows or Linux. This means the web experience of an application built on Flutter will remain consistent on a mobile phone or a laptop or what the shape or size of the browser window is.
Flutte’s latest version has an interactive scrollbar and keyboard shortcuts and an increased default content density in desktop modes. It can be embedded in cars, smart TVs or smart home appliances, thus opening up new avenues in Application development.
Ubuntu and Flutter 2.0
Canonical - the creator of Ubuntu had been contributing to Flutter. The Ubuntu installer was converted to Flutter.
Toyota announced a partnership with Flutter specifically for building the infotainment systems of its cars.
Popular apps using FlutterWeChat | Grab | Yandex Go | Nubonk | Sonos | Realtor.com | Betterment |
Community support
Flutter has received more stars on GitHub than frameworks like React Native. Flutter’s community has been steadily growing and with partnerships with Ubuntu and Toyota, is bound to grow exponentially.
In a Nutshell
Flutter 2.0 will further go on to accommodate more technologies into the web application developmentas more use cases emerge. If you are focused on delighting your customers through intuitive business apps, you must adapt this new technology in app development and should choose the bestcustom web application development services.
