Flutter, a cross-platform app development toolkit created by Google, has been winning the hearts of developers and businesses across the globe. Flutter SDK can be significantly used for developing the application for native platforms. To add more to the success list of Flutter, many renowned companies like Alibaba & Tencent have adopted it over native development for some of their production apps.
We know that Flutter is easy to learn the framework and is designed in a way to build beautiful native-like applications with lesser code. Now, a few obvious questions arise like: Why it is being preferred over other platforms like say, React Native? What have been the X-factors of Flutter? Is this new Flutter framework here to stay?
There is certainly something effective behind the Flutter framework that is Dart Language. Although Dart is a bit tricky to learn but efficient and agile in nature. There are ample reasons which justify the early-adoption of Flutter SDK and Dart is being one of them.
Let’s get started with an initial phase of Flutter and know the reason behind Flutter being a prudent decision of Mobile app developers.
Flutter was not named Flutter when its first version was launched, it was code-named ‘Sky’ and tested using the Android operating system. Afterwards, many updates were made to make Flutter feature-rich, easy to implement and an agile platform. Apparently, the whole development of Flutter was made open-source and the developer community embraced it quickly. This lead to an extreme adoption of Flutter.Talking about adoption, Flutter was the second-fastest-growing open source project according to Octoverse 2019! This clearly indicates that the future of Flutter is very bright, and it is here to stay.
Because of the traits like an open-source platform and docility, Flutter is continuously growing as an ideal framework for mobile app development. If we talk about the Flutter updates, let’s see what add-ons and updates 2019 have seen:
- Beta version of Flutter Web has been launched by Google
- A new Flutter version named Flutter 1.9 was introduced with more features like added Material widgets, Firebase extension, support for macOS Catalina, Toggle buttons, extended language support, default language option, etc
- Dart language upgraded to Dart 2.5 with improved C code calling support using Foreign Function Interface, code completion with Machine Learning, and more
The number of Android & iOS developers switching to Flutter app development is increasing day by day with the consistent & significant improvements in Flutter framework. However, Flutter is comparatively new in the app industry, bound with some limitations yet reflects a good scope of being updated with newer features in the upcoming time.
Nonetheless, there are still a few uncertainties about the Flutter framework that includes: How will Flutter secure the future of development projects? Will the Flutter community be able to improvise at this speed at all times? How the limitations will be resolved?
Flutter is upheld by Google and used in developing Google’s internal applications Google develops its internal applications using Flutter. This proves that Flutter is an efficient alternative for developing effective applications.
What to Expect From Flutter in 2020?
The increasing rate of adoption of the Flutter framework is telling that more & more mobile developers are switching to Flutter. The continuous efforts of the Flutter community to polish the framework are surely going to put Flutter ahead in the race.
Anytime it can replace existing native Android development. Because the team is also working on new and better packages along with Flutter’s core.
Moreover, Flutter does not come with limitations like native platforms. Flutter supports the integration of native codebase. Although, native code integration with Flutter requires custom codes that have to be written by a developer who is conversant with languages like C and Java. When we consider the Flutter scenario in context to 2020 & beyond, Flutter is going to be more evolved than before.
Why is Flutter estimated to evolve in 2020?
- Flutter for Web Apps
The team behind Flutter is consistently working towards a project named ‘Hummingbird’. If this plan goes well, then a single codebase can be used for building not only iOS & Android apps, but also web apps. After the announcement of the first technical preview of Hummingbird, Flutter has gained the interest of web developers along with mobile developers.
- Flutter for Desktop Apps
Flutter community is putting its efforts into making Flutter beyond mobile apps. After the preview release of Flutter Web, the work is in progress to make Flutter applications compatible with desktop too. This will allow the developers to build Flutter applications for Windows, Linux, and macOS. Although, Flutter applications do not support desktop platforms adequately at present. Therefore, the existing applications require some modifications to support desktop platforms. As of now, desktop builds for macOS are more stable than Windows ones. Windows Desktop extension of Flutter is still in progress.
If we talk about packages, they are written in a way to support all the platforms, but a handful of them supports desktop platforms currently. Given the way Flutter is evolving, we can safely say that Flutter for Desktop is definitely coming in the future.
- Flutter for Embedded
Flutter community is bringing more stable innovations in the framework. What more you need to be excited about when an advanced IoT technology can be embedded with the Flutter platform. To get a glance at this upcoming Flutter innovation, An early look of the project is mentioned by the community at official platforms.
In a Nutshell
Flutter is gaining popularity among developers for onshore & offshore projects. Flutter is less complicated than React Native, and much easier to use, hence becoming the preferred choice of app development. The deployment of Flutter applications on Google Play Store and Apple App Store is on a steady rise. Hence, many Flutter app development companies are arising in the market.
Flutter takes fewer efforts, less time and smaller investments for app development. The dedicated community behind Flutter is working hard to heighten the efficiency of the Flutter framework and is determined to set higher standards of cross-platform development in the year 2020 and beyond.