Translator: Chen Jun
As cross-platform development rapidly gains popularity in the software delivery market, top global mobile app development companies are focusing on this area. In recent years, various tools simplifying cross-platform development have emerged like mushrooms after rain. Among the most well-known tools is Flutter. It not only allows you to quickly develop native applications for Android and iOS with just a few lines of code, but also reduces the workload and time for professional developers, speeding up the delivery of scalable mobile applications.
1. What is Flutter?
Created by Google, Flutter is an open-source technology used to develop native Android and iOS applications. The Flutter SDK allows developers to create and deploy intuitive mobile applications in a relatively short time by collaboratively using various tools, widgets, and a comprehensive framework. Currently, there are over 50,000 Flutter applications in the Google App Store, including apps from major companies like eBay and Alibaba. Google has even integrated the Flutter toolkit into the Google Home Hub UI and various Google Assistant modules, enabling large organizations to leverage Flutter for developing user-friendly web and mobile applications.
2. Flutter Overview
According to statistics, about one-third of mobile developers are currently using Flutter as their cross-platform mobile development technology and framework. Its main features include the following:
- Flutter comes with a variety of widgets and UI elements.
- You can use Flutter for free and customize its functionality.
- Flutter is the second most popular cross-platform technology used by developers worldwide.
- Flutter is easy to learn, supports the fast and object-oriented programming language Dart, and comes with a user-friendly UI.
- Flutter uses a C++ rendering engine.
- Built on reactive programming, Flutter's architecture is comparable to React Native.
3. Advantages of Flutter for App Development
Platform stability and overall performance of business-grade applications are crucial for any enterprise. Flutter can provide real-time support and timely adjustments through the following aspects to ensure customer satisfaction:
High Performance
Applications developed with Flutter can be directly compiled into machine code, suppressing various errors through code interpretation. This provides a high-performance foundation for cross-platform technology implementation.
Resource Efficiency
Customized application development often requires advanced compilation into the rendering engine. Flutter can easily achieve compilation by adjusting the user interface and transferring it to a platform, saving rendering resource usage.
Development Competitiveness
Compared with other cross-platform languages, Flutter can provide a more valuable and lower-cost workflow. And compared with native development, building a Flutter mobile application requires less engineering time.
Efficient and Stable
Since Flutter's syntax requires less code and is easier to debug and upgrade, it helps developers write highly productive code faster. Consequently, ready-to-use tools built with Flutter often offer excellent platform stability.
Faster Time to Market
Developing Flutter applications takes less time compared to creating applications with other programming languages, thus accelerating the coding delivery and time to market of the application.
4. What is the Flutter Development Framework?
Since its launch in May 2017, Flutter has been one of the fastest-growing repositories on GitHub. Its improved framework, version 2.0, was released in March 2021. Currently, the Flutter framework includes a complete UI software development kit (SDK) and a widget library containing reusable UI elements such as sliders, text inputs, and buttons. These components and toolkits are free and open-source.
Flutter's application development services support Android, iOS, Windows, Linux, and Mac systems that have complete Flutter elements. Since it can mimic the platform's unique native experience, you can run Flutter applications on any device (such as mobile, TV, tablet, etc.). Additionally, with Flutter's various testing and integration APIs, rendering engine, ready-made widgets, and command-line tools, you can develop high-performance applications.
5. What Programming Language Does Flutter Use?
As mentioned earlier, Flutter uses the Dart programming language, which is designed to replace classic JavaScript. With the help of Dart programs, developers can run an application directly on the server. In the browser, the code is converted to JavaScript by the decompiler Dart2js. For example, applications on Google's new operating system platform, Fuchsia, are created using Dart. Flutter's structure is fully comparable to well-known object-oriented programming languages like Java and C#.
7. Advantages of Flutter App Development
Every programming language has its own strengths and weaknesses, and Flutter is no exception. Besides being developer-friendly, Flutter has various inherent advantages derived from its programming language and development tools:
One Codebase for All Platforms
Unlike the traditional Android writing method and the approach of invoking different codebases on iOS devices, Flutter requires only one codebase. Flutter's code reusability feature allows developers to write a single codebase and apply it to Android, iOS, Web, and desktop environments. This single codebase helps reduce development time and costs and enables faster application launch.
The Widget Concept Offers Countless Possibilities
Flutter's custom widgets are perfect for developing excellent application visual effects. At the same time, Flutter application development service providers will assist you in building a polished application, and you don't have to worry about UI issues on other devices.
Rich Libraries
Flutter uses the popular framework Skia graphics library. Skia is a small, mature, and open-source graphics library. Whenever there is a change in the view design, it redesigns the UI in the application. As a result, users experience fast loading and smooth usage.
Rapid Testing with Hot Reload
After testing the hot reload feature, application development speed often increases. If you use Flutter, you don't need to reload the application to see the effects of code changes. This allows you to easily make real-time changes to your application, enabling early detection and fixing of code errors during development.
8. Disadvantages of Flutter Applications
While Flutter's shortcomings are not significant enough to ruin a transaction or application, as an application toolkit, it does have the following deficiencies:
Large Size
Due to the inclusion of various widgets, Flutter applications often take up a lot of limited space. Because of its bloated size, it takes longer to download or update data.
Complex Updates
Flutter requires updating relevant modules to upgrade programming elements in the operating system. This involves combining Flutter modules with fixed elements in the program, as well as recompilation and reinstallation on the device.
Limited Tool and Library Set
Although Flutter already provides various tool libraries with the latest market features, if you need to create a specific tool, extend a certain function, or develop a community, you may need to wait for some time. For example, Flutter currently does not fully support 3D touch applications and some features that require frequent calls to the camera or phone.
9. Applications Developed with Flutter
As the popularity of Flutter app development continues to rise and the demand for Flutter developers grows, top new technology companies such as Alibaba, Yandex, Airbnb, Philips Hue, Reflectly, Uber, Hookle, and eBay have continuously created Flutter application services for various purposes.
10. How to Get Started with Flutter?
Since the learning curve for Flutter applications is relatively smooth, Flutter developers can easily build custom widgets for their applications through a friendly UI and seamlessly integrate them with existing widgets. In general, you can follow these steps to get started with Flutter:
- Learn and understand Dart and other related programming languages, such as C language and some object-oriented concepts.
- Join the Gitter chat room to communicate with developers who have practical experience with Flutter.
- Provide accurate requirements and feature lists for the type and design of the application to be developed.
- Learn about GitHub repositories and gain sufficient Flutter knowledge by joining Slack and other Flutter communities.
- Attend various technical conferences, tutorials, workshops, and even hackathons to stay updated with industry trends.
- Participate in Flutter-related webinars, online courses, browse Flutter blogs, and join code challenges.
- Install an editor and understand its fundamentals.
- Check system requirements based on the framework's updates and versions.
- Choose an operating system and download the appropriate Flutter SDK version.
11. Why is Flutter the Best Choice for Web Development?
If you are planning to develop a web application that runs smoothly on any platform, Flutter allows you to build applications that can run on Linux, Mac, and Windows in addition to smartphones. At the same time, you can customize elements such as icons, colors, and layouts on the application interface to improve usability. Additionally, startups can use the Google Firebase framework to build serverless applications, supporting backend functionality and accelerating the entire development cycle.