About Flutter

Flutter & its History

1. Software Development Kit (SDK)

Flutter’s SDK is a collection of really efficient and easy-to-use tools. These tools are used to compile your code into native machine code and to help you develop your applications.

2. Framework

Flutter’s framework is a UI library that is based on Widgets. It offers a wide range of reusable elements such as sliders, text inputs, buttons, etc., that one can customize to as per their requirements.

• To program in Flutter you’ll have to use the ‘Dart’ programming language. Dart has been Google’s language since 2011 and has been significantly improved and released in 2017.
• Flutter’s beta version was released on 13th March 2018 and it went live on 4th December 2018. Since then, there has been an exponential increase in the Flutter community.
• There are around 90, 000 apps on the play store that have been developed using Flutter.

Benefits of Using Flutter for your Mobile App development

High-Performance

Flutter has its 2D rendering engine that goes by the name ‘Skia’. It renders super-fast results on the platform provided canvas. It also helps the developer launch UI built on Flutter on any virtual platform.

Optimized Coding

Flutter’s programming language Dart is object-oriented and strongly typed. In addition to this Flutter follows a reactive and declarative coding style. This opens up a new dimension for intelligent coding.

Reliable

Though Flutter was introduced in 2017, it has designed sturdy mobile app solutions that are an evident example of its efficiency and reliance. Flutter’s efficiency is wildly portrayed in apps like Google Ads, Tencent, Hamilton, Reflect, etc.

These apps have been downloaded by millions of individuals and generated millions of queries. Flutter has delivered satisfactory services to these tech giants who trusted Flutter with their business projects.

Hot-Reload

Hot-Reload is one of the highlights of using Flutter. It inculcates instant changes and displays them in the platform-provided canvas. This feature stands out from the native technologies, reducing the development time by almost 30%.

Native-Feel

Though the apps are not designed using native platforms, the features surely look the part. For example, one can create a dialogue box or slider and it would look similar to an icon designed through an iPhone App development tech. In addition to this, their performance is as competent as native apps.

Well Documented

As Flutter is fairly new to the mobile app development world, it can become a cumbersome task for a newcomer to understand certain processes. But Flutter takes care of everything and offers thoroughly understandable and complete documentation od its services. Flutter offers analytical explanations of every process and also manages to explain the cross-platform tools in-depth. This is a major distinguishing factor between Flutter and other SDKs.

Update Highlights

• Flutter released its latest stable version, Flutter 1.17, and Dart 2.8 before a few weeks.
• There will be a 20-30% speed rise in apps built using Flutter 1.17.
• Developers can observe direct access to the in-built GPU of iOS devices while working with Flutter 1.17.
• Flutter also introduces us to ‘NavigationRail’ which would assist developers in creating more responsive apps. The ‘TextSelection’ and ‘DatePicker’ features have also been redesigned for a better view.
• ‘Fonts.google.com’ offers direct access to developers to choose from a myriad of font options.
• Fetching packages would be a piece of cake with the inclusion of the Pubget feature in Dart 2.8.
• The Dev plugins channel has been made available for the developers.

Flutter for Start-ups

Supports a variety of IDEs

Flutter supports a variety of Integrated Development Environments (IDE). This gives new developers the freedom to choose their preferred IDEs while coding.

Widgets

In Flutter everything is a widget. Start-ups can try plenty of widgets to build unique and attractive UI/UX. Flutter allows you to build custom complex widgets with comprehensive capabilities. This opens up tons of design options to choose from.

Platform Specific Themes

Flutter helps you choose themes that are relevant to the platform you’re developing an application for. This feature portrays the intelligence offered by Flutter as one doesn’t have to put extra effort into designing separate themes for Android and iOS.

Faster Time to Market

As Flutter doesn’t demand writing dual code for Android and iOS, it reduces the development time to a great extent. This invites lesser coding efforts and testing time for the development team.

This helps entrepreneurs plan their launch faster in the market, and connect with their niche before their competitors.

Cost-effective Development using MVP

Start-ups don’t always have deep pockets like established organizations. But creating an MVP using cross-platform technology like Flutter will invariably keep a tight budget check and would make sure you aren’t left high and dry.

Conclusion