A great news for app developers is here! Yes, if you are in the world of mobile app development for iOS and Android apps, then you must be aware of Flutter, the open-source mobile application development SDK created by Google last year. Google has released Flutter 1.0: The Cross-Platform Mobile UI Framework is Official Now! which is the most popular cross-platform mobile UI framework of the present time. Let’s take a deeper look to the announcement made by Google.
The announcement was made today at Google’s Flutter Live conference in London, which is primarily a show dedicated entirely to the launch of Google’s new developer track. Flutter gives a way to develop UIs for Android and iOS from a single codebase with a focus on speed and maintaining a native feel. Considering the wide popularity and usage of Flutter among app developers, Google has announced to release its first stable release with some unique characteristics. In fact, the release of Flutter 1.0 has been announced just 10 months after the initial beta was revealed. Today, I am going to discuss that what the latest release offering to the mobile app development companies. However, it is also important to know that why it is becoming so much popular in the world of app development.
What Makes Flutter Unique?
Google designed Flutter to facilitate rapid development and effortless collaboration between app designers and coders. It also includes Material Design widgets, which look great on Android devices and iPhones similarly, and it’s all powered by Google’s own Dart platform. With Flutter, app developers believe that they have a perfect solution giving them the best of both worlds: hardware-accelerated graphics and UI, powered by native ARM code, targeting both popular mobile operating systems, i.e. Android and iOS. Here are some prime characteristic, which makes it unique-
- Flutter enables you to build beautiful apps.
- Flutter is fast.
- Flutter is productive.
- Flutter is open-source.
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Well, it has been clearly identified that Flutter has several characteristics that make it stand out from native iOS and Android development option that is why it is quite popular among the mobile app developers. On the other hand, Flutter does not use native widgets like React Native or NativeScript, nor does it use a web-based rendering, which is expected in the latest release.
As Flutter has moved to version 1.0, a “stable” channel, it will be updated less often than other channels but should include more high-quality, battle-tested builds, boosted by quarterly updates of the company. The popularity of cross-platform mobile UI framework Flutter can be seen by far because there are thousands of Flutter apps already published to the Apple and Google Play stores even before the 1.0 release. Internally, Flutter is being used at Google for a wide array of products, with Google Ads already having switched to Flutter for their iOS and Android app. Considering this, It’s clear that developers are ready for a new approach to UI development.
New Features in Flutter 1.0
Since the first beta, the company has been working to add features and polish to Flutter. Some of the major highlights this update offers are-
- Support for pixel-perfect iPhone apps with new widgets
- Added support for nearly twenty different Firebase services
- Performance improvements
- Reducing the size of Flutter apps
- Bug fixes
While the focus of version 1.0 was on bug fixes and stabilization, this time different new functions are also presented. Let’s take a look at the new features added to the Flutter 1.0-
Includes Latest Version of Dart
Flutter 1.0 is based on Dart 2.1, which is the latest version of Google’s programming language and JavaScript alternative. This offers smaller code size, faster type checks, and better usability for type errors. Moreover, Dart 2.1 version has new language features to improve productivity when building user experiences.
Add to App
Add to App, an amazing feature which is designed to make adding new Flutter-based functionality to the existing apps or migrating apps to Flutter easier. This functionality enables top mobile app developers to smoothly continue development while integrating Flutter’s features at your own pace.
Platform Views
Another feature that you will see is “Platform Views,” which is essentially the opposite of “Add to App”. It allows app developers to embed Android and iOS controls in their Flutter apps its own frame. In this feature, platform view widgets (Android View and UiKit View) has been introduced that let you embed this kind of content on both the platform.
All these features make Flutter 1.0 a major milestone for the Android and iOS app developers globally.
Other Things to Know
Flutter is already out there in the globe. Google is using it internally to work on several internal apps. In fact, Capital One, Alibaba, Philips Hue, Tencent, and many other companies are already working with Flutter to develop their mobile and web apps.
Apart from that, Google is also announcing new third-party integrations to Flutter. The first is with Square, and the second is 2Dimensions for different beneficial purposes.
Now, you are aware of the latest release of Flutter, you must be wondering how to download it. You can download Flutter 1.0 from the website at https://flutter.io.
Download and Get Started!
Wrapping Up
Everyone is excited to see how Flutter grows with its every release, especially now since the first stable release is being accompanied by rising interest from major app development companies. In the announcement, it has been stated that Google does not intend to stop here. Top-rated companies like Fluper are very much excited to start new projects by building apps with Flutter 1.0 version. If you also want to create your own app, hire best app developers at Fluper now.
