The world revolves around smartphones and mobile applications. Globally, there are over six billion smartphones with subscriptions. Additionally, there are over five million mobile apps accessible for download between the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. Even though the mobile app market is becoming more competitive, this is where most startups and developers put in their efforts.
Therefore, it is not surprising that mobile app companies UK constantly seek simpler, more efficient, quicker, and less expensive methods to bring their apps to the market. Tools for development that are effective play a vital role in the process. From programming languages to app tools to frameworks for software, the tools that developers employ determine the speed at which they put their products to customers' attention.
Let's examine Flutter's massive growth in popularity and the attributes that make it beneficial for developers.
What is Flutter?
- Flutter is Google's no-cost open-source software development tool (SDK) to support mobile app development across platforms.
- Utilizing a single, platform-independent codebase, Flutter helps developers build robust, high-performance, and scalable apps with appealing and user-friendly interfaces that work with Android and IOS. Flutter is based on a set of pre-designed widgets, making it easy for anyone with little programming or development skills to build their mobile apps quickly.
- Flutter was developed by Google in the year 2015 and officially launched in 2018. Flutter quickly became the preferred toolkit for developers. As per Statista, Flutter has recently beat React Native to become the top mobile framework for developing apps.
What is Flutter's function?
- Flutter cross-platform layering system includes the framework, engine, and embedded devices specific to the platform. Flutter applications are developed with Google's Dart programming language, which is object-oriented. The Flutter engine itself is written using C/C++. The Skia library forms the core of Flutter's graphics capabilities.
- Dart is the basis for many of Flutter's advantages in performance. It can support ahead-of-time (AOT) and also just-in-time (JIT) compilation. AOT compiles code into native code, resulting in applications that start quicker and are more efficient. JIT aids Flutter's hot-reload capability (discussed further below), which helps reduce development time.
- Dart can also directly compile the native ARM and Intel x64 codes, thus reducing the performance gap between Flutter applications and native apps that depend on code interpretation intermediates during execution.
- Flutter's design also makes adding features or accepting new users quick and easy. This is why it's highly extensible and expandable.
Why do mobile app developers use Flutter?
The popularity of Flutter has exploded due to a good reason. Flutter provides app companies UK with many benefits that speed up development and result in more user-friendly mobile apps.
1-Flutter is platform independent:
Anyone who plans to launch a mobile application realizes how crucial it is to offer versions for Android and iOS. In September 2021, Android held a strong grip on the mobile market, with 72% of the market. However, iOS is also a vast segment of customers, with a nearly 27 percent market share.
The focus on developing one native application ignores an enormous portion of the market and limits the possibility of future success for the application. However, developing multiple native applications could be costly and time-consuming.
Flutter cross-platform development is simple. Instead of creating separate codes for every platform, developers can benefit from Flutter's one codebase.
2-Flutter makes it easier and faster to speed up the development of applications:
- Flutter offers various characteristics that make cross-platform mobile app development more accessible and efficient. Most importantly, the ability to use one source code base and UI engine to develop cross-platform applications helps to establish versions of an app that work on the two platforms, Android and iOS.
- The extensive widget library of Flutter lets developers access pre-made functions, thereby reducing the time needed to code. A shorter time to code results in lower development expenses.
- One of the key characteristics of Flutter to speed up development is it is stateful hot reload feature. Hot reload, based heavily on JIT compilation, accelerates the execution of modifications to code. Hot reload when Flutter incorporates code changes into the running Dart VM without changing preserved state. Since there isn't complete recompilation and rewriting of the application's code, hot-reload faster reveals the results of changes to the code.
- Hot reload lets app companies UK assess the impact of the changes in real time without changing the current status of the app. This means that developers can more quickly test the functionality and version and fix bugs. In the end, getting the first application and updates on the market is less time-consuming. Flutter is the best choice for developing and releasing MVP applications.
3-Flutter is simple to master and use:
- Flutter is easy to master, regardless of whether you have extensive development experience. People who work in languages like Java, Python, C#, or any other object-oriented language can easily add Flutter and Dart to their arsenal because Dart is structurally and syntactically equivalent to these languages. Furthermore, for those with less experience in developing, Flutter's extensive widget library makes it simple to develop applications without writing much code. Many platforms make use of Flutter to create applications without writing code!
- Flutter also comes with excellent documentation. The reference manual for general use and the Flutter assistance resources include many examples of apps, a "cookbook" explaining how developers can use Flutter to complete familiar tasks, and even a suggestion for a Flutter training program.
However, the widespread adoption of Flutter has led to a flourishing community of experts and support for both new and skilled Flutter developers. Developers can seek guidance and assistance through various forums, blogs, and online communities. These include:
- The Stack Overflow Flutter Wiki and questions pages
- Flutter Awesome A comprehensive Flutter guide that provides tutorial libraries, UIs, libraries, applications, and more.
- The Flutter-dev Google Group is an excellent source of technical assistance problems for developers.
- The subreddit for flutter developers The Reddit Flutter community, where users can share their knowledge and resources.
These are only a handful of the sources available. It's just a few minutes of searching to find numerous more.
4-Flutter is scalable:
Developers should be able to easily add new features or expand the number of users who use the application without breaking it. Flutter utilizes Google's Firebase application for the backend, designed with the idea of scalability in the back of their minds. Firebase offers real-time updates to databases, ensuring that data is synced quickly across clients. Firebase also helps to optimize and reduce the number of updates required to sync data and ensure that adding users to the feature doesn't affect performance.
5-Flutter apps provide the best user experience:
If mobile apps succeed, they need appealing, well-designed, and user-friendly interfaces. Additionally, Flutter excels at providing an exceptional user experience.
The built-in widget catalog of Flutter focuses on providing high-performance, visually appealing components for applications. Making UIs that range from simple to more sophisticated interfaces that incorporate numerous features is easy using Flutter.
Flutter apps can be compiled directly into native code without intermediary interpreter steps. Unlike other cross-platform development tools such as React Native that require bridges between their native code and their native elements, Flutter does not require the additional processing steps that reduce efficiency, making it significantly quicker.
What are the disadvantages of Flutter?
As with every different SDK, Flutter is not the perfect one. Although its flaws are more than compensated by its benefits, potential Flutter developers must be aware of its weaknesses of Flutter.
1-Large applications:
The size of the application is a significant problem for numerous developers. While most mobile devices come with ample storage space, many videos, photos, and games that require graphics can quickly fill a device up to capacity. The older model, the greater the issue.
Flutter apps are self-contained and contain all the code needed to run the application instead of relying upon platforms, resulting in bigger app sizes than other apps. If developers want to reach the broadest possible audience, The size of Flutter applications can be problematic and force the developer to select another language.
2-The absence of third-party libraries:
Access to third-party libraries can help cut development time, and developers depend on third-party libraries. The widget catalog built into Flutter is vast, and Flutter's official website offers a variety of choices. But, since Flutter is still young, third-party libraries have fewer resources than those available for other development tools. However, the Flutter third-party community is expanding rapidly as more users switch to Flutter, and you can anticipate this problem to diminish with time.
3-Platforms with limited capabilities:
The list of platforms on which Flutter apps can be used is minimal. In particular, it is impossible to create watchOS or tvOS Apple CarPlay applications using Flutter. With sales for smartwatches projected to surpass a quarter of one billion units over the coming five years, This is a significant issue. Flutter attempts to solve this issue by offering solutions, including the native Apple Watch extensions to Flutter applications.
4-You must learn Dart:
To use Flutter, You must be familiar with Google's Dart programming language. Although Dart isn't too difficult to master for object-oriented programmers, it's not as widely used or widely used in the same way as other object-oriented languages, like C#, Java, and JavaScript. Therefore, those who wish to enter the market quickly might be unable to use Flutter due to this additional learning step.
5-It could be more suitable to use on Android as opposed to iOS:
It's not surprising that Flutter's capabilities could be superior to Android as opposed to iOS. Many instances of iOS features aren't as good on Android as Flutter updates and fixes hit the market. For all that, the most well-known proponent of Android, Google, is the driving force behind Flutter and Android represents the vast majority of the need for mobile devices. Since Flutter is a Google product, more Android developers use Flutter than iOS developers. There are indications that the new Android features will make Flutter quicker than iOS features. Developers focusing exclusively on the iOS market must keep an eye out for future Flutter updates.
Final: What does Flutter's future hold for us?
After a dramatic increase in use over the last three years, the market share of Flutter has begun to decline. However, O2SOFT developers shouldn't consider this as a sign Flutter will disappear anytime soon. The current popularity of Flutter will likely prompt Google to tackle some of Flutter's most problematic issues, such as its size and inability to access third-party resources will be resolved. Because of its simplicity and power, it is expected to remain extensively used by developers. Are there new and exciting tools that appear that attempt to replace Flutter? It's almost inevitable. However, Flutter's future is bright soon.