Flutter is one of the most well-known platforms used by developers for cross-platform development. For example, creating an app for Android and iOS both. Today, it has become an ecosystem consisting of developers, businesses willing to use this platform, and other stakeholders who take part in the success of this platform. This platform was originally introduced by Google and it launches updates in a few months every year to offer new, exciting features for mobile app developments.
This year, with the release of Flutter 2.2, we received many valuable features. This post will go through these features of Flutter app development and discuss updates one by one.
What is Flutter?
Before we jump to Flutter 2.2, let’s trace a map and understand what it is and how it became so important to the mobile app development industry.
Flutter is a mobile SDK that programmers can utilize to create native apps, including iOS and Android, with the same code base. This open-source platform has been helping in hybrid mobile app development for more than half a decade. Google initially introduced Flutter in 2015, but it remained in the beta version till the end of 2018. After that, we have only observed Flutter grow stronger.
You may have come across many Flutter-based applications over the internet. For example, the Xianyu app, developed by the Alibaba group and used by more than 50 million people.
Why it is Better for Hybrid App Development?
Flutter is not like other cross-platform frameworks, it has some advanced features that make it better for hybrid mobile app development.
Same Business Logic
Through the Flutter app development framework, you can use the same code base for all the cross-platform apps. This means for both Android and iOS, you can write one code and use it in the target OS without change details or making it look different. The same business logic applies in all places.
Decreased Code Development Time
If you look at it, then an Android app can take less than one minute to ship to the test device, but sometimes, we end up spending days on a minor visual aspect of the layout. Of course, you may think that Android Studio offers you a layout preview, but there are exceptions to the functionality.
Flutter, on the other hand, has a Hot Reload option, using which we can make changes and observe them almost instantly.
This is achieved without losing the current state of the code.
For this reason, Flutter reduces mobile app development time.
Better Time-To-Market
Since we are making code faster and deploying it quickly, you can take your apps to the market in much less time. When you don’t need to write platform-based code for each app, you are able to launch the app to the market quickly than usual.
Comparable Native Performance
Flutter platform doesn’t make you go through the hassle of intermediate code interpretations. This means it doesn’t work like other cross-platform frameworks, and it builds the app in the machine code only. Hence, you don’t have to go through any performance bugs in-built in the interpretation processes.
You get better performance with Flutter when compared to other cross-platform frameworks. This performance is almost equivalent to native development.
Simple Logic
Many apps today use features like GPS coordinates, sensor data, Bluetooth communication, permission handling, etc. You don’t need to separately create a function for these in Flutter. The platform has many ready-to-use functions or plugins to use these features in your apps.
It is possible that you may need to implement a feature that is not in the plugin yet. You can implement this using Dart and other features of the platform.
Reusability of Code
Undoubtedly, the best feature of Flutter is its ability to offer us code reusability. This means, unlike many native platforms, we can use the same code for many apps and features. You can hire developers to create cross-platform apps and functions that depict the brand value. We can use this code again and again in other apps.
This means if you are creating one app for two platforms, you can use the same code for both the apps or any other app in making. This helps you save a lot of time.
Understanding About Flutter Octopus
During Flutter Interact last year, Google launched its Flutter Octopus. It is a type of Visual Studio Code debug that allows developers to debug and run the app on various devices at one time. When the change was displayed during the event, they connected seven devices to one computer and made a change.
After using Hot Reload for this change, the modifications are reflected in every device connected to the computer.
It is also possible for the Flutter app development team to use a breakpoint in the relevant Dart code and check the status of code debugging on different devices.
When Flutter 2.0 Was Originally Introduced?
In March, this year, Google again arranged an event to release the all-new Flutter 2.0, which was named Flutter Engage. During Flutter Engage, the team released some powerful and valuable improvements in Flutter. Here’s a look at all these functions and features:
- In an effort to become extremely portable, Flutter offered Flutter web, Windows, macOS, Linus, iOS, and Android stability with this release. Earlier, Flutter Web was not this good, but Flutter Engage released a stable version. For the year, the team worked on canvas Kit. It was using WebAssembly-based with the same graphics engine to power both Chrome and Android.
- Google moved GPay to Flutter finally.
- They have introduced Flutter support for foldable phones as well. Therefore, you can now create apps for high-end foldable phones as well.
- Microsoft has started working with Google to provide support for Windows to Flutter.
- Flutter 2.0 also started supporting embedded systems with this new release. Toyota even made an app for cars using Flutter.
- In this release, Flutter also launched the beta version of Flutter Ads that operates with AdManager products and Google AdMob.
More About Flutter 2.2
Recently, a few weeks back, when Google came back with a new event, it launched a series of Flutter features. With it, came Flutter 2.2 that has so many exciting benefits. We have discussed these features below, read on:
Material YOU
In the latest release, the Material Design and Flutter teams of Google worked together to bring to you Material YOU. When developers use Material YOU to create an application, they receive the ability to personalize deeply. This means that the Flutter app development experts can use old and new widgets of Flutter in Material YOU in a new way. This will be first launched in the beta version, but you will be able to use it in your existing Flutter applications.
It would be great for new Flutter app development programmers to start using Material YOU first, as it is easier to develop an application this way and you can offer a better user experience.
Integrating Payments
For so many years, developers have asked nothing but payment modes for Flutter. Finally, Google has introduced payment modes, including Apple Pay, Google Pay, and in-app purchases.
Now, as a developer, you can use these simple codebases for implementing payment modules in your application.
Flutter Flow
For hybrid mobile app development programmers, Flutter Flow brings the feature of working in the browser directly. Through this implementation, developers can improve the speed of app development, write less code, and improve the productivity of mobile app development.
Flutter Flow uses the Firebase database and Firebase authentication to store data in a secure and hassle-free manner.
Flutter Ads
When you want to monetize your application, you can use Flutter Ads SDK, which is still in the beta phase. Flutter made changes to it by migrating GMA SDK, improving Null Safety, allowing seamless exception handling, and supporting iOS GMA SDK.
Flutter Ads also allow responsive Ads via Adaptive Banner. It helps improve and maximize the performance of the entire app.
Flutter UWP
Flutter has offered support for Windows UWP (Universal Windows Platform). This means your developers can initiate Flutter app development for the Windows Platform. Simply put, we can create apps for different Windows apps, like HoloLens, Xbox, Windows 10, etc. You don’t need to create separate code for different apps, just one code base will help you make a unified app for different Windows platforms.
Null Safety
Null Safety is used to handle exceptions in mobile app development. With the help of Null Safety, developers can handle exceptions with ease. We know that Dart is a language that depends on variables that we declare, but it didn’t have the ability to define the null variable. A drawback that led to a number of exceptions.
To eliminate the issue, Flutter now uses Null Safety by default. This means:
- Unless you specify a null variable, it is not nullable.
- There are non-null safe and null safe products in one project.
- You can rely on null safety, and once you start using it, you will observe fewer bugs.
Conclusion
Flutter 2.2 helps improve the speed and efficiency of hybrid mobile app development. You just need to find the right mobile app development company to assist you in creating a robust, scalable, and agile hybrid application.
AIMDek is a mobile app development company with experience and skills in a range of industries. Through our subject matter expertise and industry knowledge, we are able to help businesses use Flutter app development in the right way.
Get a quote today! Connect with our team now!
