Flutter 2.2 announced at Google I/O 2021, What’s new in Flutter 2.2?
Flutter 2.2: Introduction
The tech giant hosted its Google I/O 2021 from May 18th – 20th. As expected, much new stuff made its way, but this read is all about the release of Flutter 2.2. Google is proud of Flutter. It can rightfully say so observing the progress the platform has made in just a few years.
So brace yourself, as we bring you all the new updates introduced by Google in Flutter 2.2. As a Flutter app development company, we are always excited to see what the tech giant introduces to us next. If you’re a tech enthusiast or an entrepreneur looking forward to investing in the cross-platform app development world, then this blog is gold for you. Let’s begin!
Before getting to the meat of the subject let’s observe a few stats. This will surely help our imagination cultivate better expectations from the future this platform holds for us.
Flutter: Statistics
According to data presented from SlashData.
- Flutter has an exponential growth rate with more than 45% of cross-platform app developers opting for the same.
- From the start of 2020 to the present, Flutter has seen a 47% rise in usage.
- More than 12% of apps present on the Play Store are created using Flutter. This accounts for almost 200,000 apps.
- Some of the most well-known companies such as Grab, WeChat, MyBMW, eBay Motors, and ByteDance are among these.
- Engineers at ByteDance claim that they can now ship features 30% faster as opposed to the native apps they were using.
It’s clear from these figures that Flutter is here to stay for the long run and has just begun to spread its wings. Now, it’s time for what you’re waiting for.
What’s new with Flutter 2.2?
Let’s have a look at the different updates that Flutter is offering in various areas of web and mobile development.
Flutter 2.2:
The new update includes some great improvements for iOS, Android, and the web. It provides updates in icons, mouse cursor for scroll bar behavior, TextSpan widgets, and text handling. All the preceding features are stable and can be used for app production. The updated features when displayed on different platforms such as iOS, Android, and Web are a perfect fit.
If we talk individually, you can now use service workers in the background to cache resources. For Android, you can now download Flutter components at runtime by using deferred components and reduce app size. As for iOS, you can precompile shaders for running smoother animations when tried for the first time. Additionally, you can analyze memory usage in your app and find problem areas by making use of new tools in the DevTools suite. A feature that can be easily implemented if you hire Flutter developers from the go.
Google introduced the feature of null safety with the release of Flutter 2.0. Using this feature a programmer can denote whether a value or variable can be null directly from the code. Kotlin offers the same features and it highly contributes to decreasing null-pointer-related errors. Flutter 2.2 enables null safety by default in new projects.
The update also brings changes in the SDKs. They have worked hard on making web applications more accessible. It wasn’t a complete setup when there was a push for accessibility back in version 2.0. The Flutter Ads SDK has also been updated with adaptive ad banners and built-in null safety. The platform has also introduced a new payment plugin that allows developers to process payments for physical items on Android and iOS.
Dart 2.13:
The underlying Dart language has been updated to version 2.13. In its previous version i.e. 2.12, Dart’s Foreign Function Interface reached stability, while version 2.13 also supports arrays, packed structs, and type alias support. To enhance automation, Dart has introduced official GitHub Actions support and an official Docker image for automated creation and execution.
New Platforms:
One of the most prominent changes that Flutter has introduced is its services for Tizen. Samsung uses Tizen, an open-source Linux-based operating system that is used by Samsung on all of its smart devices including smartwatches and TVs. Samsung has been investing in creating an extension for the Flutter SDK to help their developers create Tizen apps. It’s obviously in its early testing stage but offers a promising start and expands Flutter’s reach.
The second is Flutter for Universal Windows Platforms (UWP). UWP is used to create some modern-style apps in Windows 10. UWP allows developers to build more native-looking applications for windows. This is alpha as Tizen and so isn’t quite ready for primetime.
Flutter Material Icons:
The new edition also introduces us to new sets of icons. They have deployed two teams of PRs in adding new icon material. This Flutter update brings you more than 7000 material icons. Flutter also assists you in how you can go about using a particular icon once you find the right one.
Platform Adaptive Apps:
Flutter has expanded to support more platforms in the stable. This makes it a useful tool to support different form factors such as a tablet, desktop, and mobile. It also helps extend support for different input types touch vs., keyboard + mouse, and platforms with different idioms such as navigation drawers vs. system menus for navigation. This would help create apps that adjust to the details of numerous target platforms thus offering platform adaptive apps.
Better Text Handling:
The updates continue to improve Flutter to support the specifics of each platform. Due to the same Google dives into areas that aren’t as important on mobile form-factors but are on desktop form-factors. And text handling is an evident example of one of these areas. This release refactors how the platform handles text inputs that enable features like canceling a keystroke as it bubbles through the widget hierarchy. In addition to this one can also customize the keystrokes associated with text actions fully.
The feature to cancel a keystroke allows Flutter to execute things such as using the spacebar and arrow keys without triggering scroll events. This accounts for a better and intuitive user experience for end-users. In your own apps, you can use the same feature to handle a keystroke before it gets to the parent widget.
You can also perform functions like special handling of the Enter key in the TextField with custom text actions. It’s due to these text actions that Flutter can provide different keystrokes to match the behavior of text editing to the host OS itself.
Automatic Scrolling:
To help Flutter apps behave in the best possible way on different platforms, scrollbars have been redone on the platform. Both Android and iOS behave in the same way when it comes to showing a scrollbar. They don’t show one by default. Yet a desktop app shows a scrollbar automatically when the content is larger than the container. This is done by adding a scrollbar parent widget. To help apps with the correct behavior on mobiles and desktops, this update adds a scrollbar automatically when necessary.
Android Deferred Components:
The update uses Dart’s split AOT compilation feature to download modules containing ahead of time compile code and assets at runtime. Each of these installable splits is termed deferred components. The initial install size can be highly reduced by deferring the download of code and assets only when needed. For instance, Google implemented a version of Flutter gallery with all studies and demos deferred and observed a 46% decrease in initial size.
Wrapping Up:
This brings us to the end of this blog. Above we shared the 9 prominent updates that have been introduced by the cross-platform app development platform Flutter 2.2. Flutter’s recognition is increasing by the day. And with the rapid pace that Google is introducing advanced features, Flutter is soon going to offer tough competition to React Native app development.
If you’re on the verge of creating a mobile application for your business, you might want to consider Flutter for the same. We – Technource a web and mobile app development company would suggest that Flutter is one of the most budget-friendly tech stacks to create your first Android and iOS applications.
Our years of continued exploration in the IT service industry have given us the opportunities to work on numerous projects that possessed a steep learning curve. Collaborating with us you can hire mobile app developers who understand your idea, brainstorm viable solutions and create the app of your dreams. Get in touch with us by signing up for a free consultation form on our website. Thank you for reading.
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