Now is the perfect time to become a mobile developer. Smartphones, tablets and smartwatches have become an important part of our lives, with Android and iOS constantly improving and adding new features with each new release. Great new frameworks help developers build apps faster and more reliably, and Flutter is certainly one of those frameworks. Flutter is Google's new mobile app toolkit for making beautiful native interfaces on iOS and Android in record time.
We can write hundreds of pages of articles for different
ways of developing for mobile platforms. To make it really short and simplify a
lot, we have three main styles of mobile, native, hybrid and web development.
Native
Native means we use native official tools, and today that means Android Studio coded in Java or Kotlin for Android, Swift or Objective-C with XCode for iOS. Both Android Studio and XCode with supported languages are great tools tried and tested. They get new features as soon as they are launched. They natively use all device capabilities to build fast, efficient apps, but they have one major drawback. If you want to build apps for both iOS and Android, you need to create and maintain two apps, one for each platform, and you need to know at least two languages.
Internet Application
On the other end, we have the web application. We can access
them from the browser, and web applications allow us to share the same code for
mobile and web development. This is great for developers working with HTML, CSS
and JavaScript. There is only one code for any system, easy to use and easy to
implement with one main process. You don't have access to more advanced
features of the device, and users may feel that your app isn't really an app.
It's really just a website in the form of an app. Even though there are tools
to overcome some limitations, not all limitations are currently addressed.
Hybrid
There is a third way. Tools like Xamarin, Cordova, Ionic, Reactive Native (to name a few) are known as hybrid tools. Each of them has its advantages and disadvantages, but all of these frameworks allow us to use a single mobile codebase to build our applications. They usually use some form of JavaScript, with the exception of Xamarin which uses C#. The problem with most of them is that they require a bridge between the code and the mobile OS, and some of them perform well below that of native apps. Not only that, but in some cases, the complexity of using multiple third-party libraries and components and their compatibility issues can turn a developer's life into a nightmare. Trust me when I say I've been there.
In the hybrid category, Google thinks it can offer some additional features. The first is that Flutter can natively compile to great performance. Actually, Flutter has two different compilation models. Just-in-time compilation, which recompiles code on the fly, enabling hard reloading. This means that as we develop, we can see changes in real time without recompiling. You write the code and immediately see the results on the device or emulator. Then we can compile ahead of time. Compile the code to native arm code for great performance on any device.
Flutter was created to provide a rapid development framework for developers and a great engagement and fast experience for users. Of course, you will have a single codebase for both iOS and Android. Another difference from other hybrid frameworks is that with Flutter you don't have a bridge between code and device, another feature that sets Flutter apart from its competitors. Actually, Flutter is a very young framework. It was released with an alpha kit at Google I/O in May 2017, and a third beta release at Google I/O 2018. So, according to Google, Flutter is ready for production applications. Even though it's production-ready, there may be some major changes in the future.
When we develop for Flutter, we use a language called Dart. This is a strongly typed object-oriented programming language developed by Google. Don't worry if you don't know Dart. If you are familiar with C#, Java, Swift, TypeScript or even JavaScript, Dart will have no problem at all. You will find it intuitive and easy to learn.
So what do you need to know before getting started? Well,
you need to know any object-oriented programming language. If you understand
variables, control flow, inheritance, classes and objects, you're good to go.
What do you need to have? You can use your Windows PC, Mac or Linux box with your favorite text editor (I personally prefer android studio). You'll also need an Android device or emulator, or an iOS device or emulator if you're using a Mac.
Why Flutter is the Most Popular Cross-Platform Mobile SDK?
Life revolves around our mobile devices and applications. Currently, there are more than 6 billion smartphone users worldwide. Additionally, between the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store, there are nearly 5 million mobile apps available for download. Despite the increasing competition in the mobile app market, this is the focus of many startups and developers.
So it's only natural that mobile app developers are always looking for easier, faster and cheaper ways to bring their products to market. Effective development tools play an important role in this process. From programming languages to application frameworks to software development kits, the tools developers use determine how quickly they can get their products in front of consumers.
Let's take a look at Flutter's explosive growth in popularity and the features that make it so beneficial to developers.
Flutter is Google's free and open-source software development kit (SDK) for cross-platform mobile application development. Using a single platform-agnostic code base, Flutter helps developers build high-performance, scalable applications for Android or IOS with attractive and functional user interfaces. Flutter relies on a library of pre-made widgets to enable even people with limited programming or development experience to quickly launch their own mobile applications.
Created by Google in 2015 and officially launched in 2018, Flutter has quickly become the toolkit of choice for developers. According to Statista, Flutter has recently surpassed React Native as the No. 1 mobile app development framework.
Flutter is a layered system including frameworks, engines and platform-specific embedders. Flutter applications are built using Google's Dart object-oriented programming language. The Flutter engine itself is mostly written in C/C++. The Skia library is the backbone of Flutter's graphics capabilities.
Darts are the basis for many of the flutter performance advantages. It supports ahead-of-time (AOT) and just-in-time (JIT) compilation. AOT compiles code into lower-level native code, resulting in faster application startup and higher performance. JIT facilitates Flutter's hot reload capability (discussed in detail below), which reduces development time. Dart can also be compiled directly to native ARM or Intel x64 code, minimizing the performance difference between Flutter applications and native applications that rely on intermediate code interpretation at runtime.
Flutter's architecture also makes adding functionality or accommodating new users quick and easy, and as such, it is highly extensible and scalable.
Flutter's popularity has skyrocketed for good reason. Flutter offers developers a range of benefits to speed up development and create more user-friendly mobile applications.
Any developer planning to launch a mobile app knows how important both Android and iOS versions are. As of September 2021, Android maintained a 72% market share in the mobile market. But iOS also has a large number of users, with a market share of nearly 27%.
Focusing on building a single native app ignores a significant portion of the market and limits the potential future success of the app. However, developing separate native applications can be time-consuming and expensive.
Flutter makes cross-platform development easy. Instead of creating separate code for each platform, developers can take advantage of Flutter's single codebase.
However, Flutter's applicability for cross-platform development goes beyond code portability. Unlike other cross-platform frameworks like React Native and Xamarin, Flutter builds user interfaces (UIs) that are also platform-agnostic, as Flutter's Skia rendering engine doesn't require any platform-specific UI components.
Flutter has many different features that make cross-platform mobile app development simpler and faster. Perhaps most notably, the ability to rely on a single codebase and UI engine for cross-platform development reduces the amount of work required to generate app versions for Android and iOS.
Flutter's rich widget library also provides developers with pre-made functionality, reducing overall coding time. Reducing coding time reduces development costs.
To reduce development time, one of the most important features of Flutter is its stateful hot-loading capability. Hot reloading relies on JIT compilation, which can speed up the implementation of code changes. In a hot reload, Flutter inserts code changes into the running Dart VM without changing the persisted state. Since the application code is not completely recompiled, hot reloading shows the effects of code modifications faster. Hot reloading allows developers to see the effect of changes in real time without changing the current state of the application. As a result, developers can test features and versions faster, and fix bugs. As a result, it takes less time to bring initial applications and updates to market. Therefore, Flutter is the best choice for building and releasing MVP applications.
Due to its efficiency, Flutter is a great option for startups with limited capital. For example, a startup may have invested at least $75 per hour in a web designer and will be looking for similar or higher costs for app developers. Flutter provides cost-conscious businesses with an effective development tool by reducing development time and speeding time to market.
Flutter is easy to grasp whether you have extensive development experience or not. Developers who regularly use other languages such as Java, Python, C# or other object-oriented languages will have no problem since Dart is similar in structure and syntax to these languages. Also, for those with less development experience, Flutter's extended widget library makes it easy to build apps without writing a lot of code; there are several platforms that use Flutter to build apps without writing any code!
Flutter also has good documentation. In addition to the general reference manual, Flutter help resources include many sample apps, a "cookbook" that shows developers how to accomplish common tasks, and even a suggestion for a Flutter boot camp.
However, the widespread adoption of Flutter has created a thriving community with help and resources for new or experienced Flutter developers. Developers can find information and help through a variety of blogs, forums, and other online communities, including:
These are just a few of the resources available. Just a quick search to find more.
Developers must be able to easily add functionality or increase an application's user base without breaking the application. Flutter uses Google's Firebase app on the backend, which was built with scalability in mind. Firebase provides real-time database updates that help ensure data is quickly synced between clients. Firebase also optimizes and minimizes the number of updates required to sync, which means adding functionality users won't negatively impact performance.
For mobile apps to be truly successful, they must have a well-designed, attractive, and functional user interface. Flutter excels at creating great user experiences.
Flutter's catalog of built-in widgets focuses on delivering high-performance, visually exciting app elements. Using multiple components to create UIs from the most basic interface to the more complex is almost effortless.
Flutter applications are compiled directly into native code, no intermediate code interpretation steps are required. Compared to other cross-platform development apps like React Native, which require a bridge between code and native elements, Flutter reduces performance by eliminating extra processing steps, making it significantly faster.
Like other SDKs, Flutter isn't perfect. While its disadvantages are outweighed by its advantages, potential Flutter developers should be aware of its limitations.
Application size is a big concern for many developers. While most mobile devices have ample storage space, a ton of photos, videos, and graphics-intensive games can quickly fill up a device's capacity. The older the device, the bigger the problem.
Flutter apps are self-contained and have all the code needed to run the app instead of relying on platform elements, so apps are larger than others. For developers looking to reach the widest range of potential users, the size of a Flutter app can be problematic and cause developers to choose a different language.
Access to third-party libraries helps reduce development time and costs, and many developers rely heavily on third-party resources. Flutter's catalog of built-in widgets is extensive, and Flutter's official package site has thousands of options. However, since Flutter is still relatively young, third-party libraries still have fewer resources than other development tools. However, the third-party flutter environment is rapidly evolving as more and more users turn to flutter, and over time this problem will fade away.
Currently there is a limited number of platforms on which the Flutter app works. For example, you can't use Flutter to develop watchOS, tvOS, or Apple CarPlay apps. Total smartwatch sales are expected to reach 2.5 billion units over the next five years, a key limitation. Flutter tries to solve this problem by providing workarounds, such as adding native Apple Watch extensions to the Flutter app.
To use flutter, you must know Google's Dart programming language. While Dart is not that difficult for object-oriented programmers to learn, it is not as well known or widely used as other object-oriented languages such as C#, Java, and JavaScript. Therefore, developers looking to get to market quickly may bypass Flutter as it increases the learning curve.
On Android, it's no surprise that Flutter might function better than iOS. As Flutter patches and updates hit the market, there are already examples of iOS features falling behind Android. After all, Android's most famous proponent, Google, is the force behind Flutter, and Android makes up the vast majority of the mobile market. Since Flutter is a Google product, it is used by more Android developers than iOS developers. There are also suggestions that Android's new features are coming to Flutter sooner than iOS's. Therefore, developers focused on the iOS market should keep an eye on future Flutter releases.
After explosive growth in usage over the past three years, Flutter's market share has begun to stabilize. But developers shouldn't take this as a sign that Flutter is going away. You can only assume that the tool's current popularity will lead Google to try to solve some of the tougher issues, especially app size, and the lack of third-party resources will solve it on its own. Given its simplicity and power, Flutter will likely continue to be widely used by developers.
Will there be new trendy tools that try to replace Flutter?
Almost certainly. But for the foreseeable future, Flutter's prospects remain
bright.
That's it so far. I hope this article gave you a good
introduction to Flutter.