When creating a high-quality user interface on mobile, it is necessary to choose appropriate tools that will simplify its process. Otherwise, wrongs tools will make a situation worse and can become the reason of failure. I bet nobody wants to start doing everything from the beginning, that is why pay your attention to advanced UI framework for mobile app development like Flutter. It’s a framework from Google that was released one year ago.
Let’s find out why this framework is worthwhile for native mobile app development services and what capabilities it has.
What Flutter framework is
At the end of February 2018, Google introduced a first beta version of Flutter framework. This is an open source cross-platform toolkit for developers to create native interfaces for Android and iOS. As of August 2019, 1.7.8 version of the final product is available.
What’s special about Flutter? This framework makes it possible to combine the quality of native apps with the flexibility of cross-platform development. Native compilation for ARM processors helps simplify the development, and simple rendering, set of integrated widgets and tools and new features facilitate this process as well. What’s more, since it is an open-source framework, as it was noted above, any **developer may make changes in the framework on GitHub in real-time mode and send a merge request. Thus, developers contribute to making Flutter better.
As for features, one of the most interesting features in new Google mobile framework is Hot Reload button. When you click on it, all changes in code will be immediately displayed in gadgets, emulators, and simulators. A user interface of an app can be easily customized with the help of multi-level architecture. But it has one hidden surprise - unlike other frameworks from Google, this one requires Dart language for the development of apps.
What’s the final Flutter version has up its sleeve:
DevTools. It is a suite of performance and debugging tools for Flutter and Dart. Developers can analyze the UI layout and state of a Flutter app, debug memory issues in a Flutter or Dart command-line app, and fix other possible bugs;
New widgets. Google pays a lot of attention to widgets that provide users with functionality. The last version of Flutter design got a new slider to create good-looking ranges. For example, when users want to change price range in mCommerce app, they will use a cool widget that captures attention;
In-app purchase plugin. Now, Flutter offers a new plugin for purchasing items in apps.
AndroidX support. That is, developers have improved support for Android with new support for AndroidX from an external contributor. It means that migration process to AndroidX is simplified.Android bundles support. Since August 2019, all apps that are created for Android Pie should be provided both in 32-bit and 64-bit version to Google Play Store.
New fonts. Latest version of Flutter UI design boasts about new rich typography including different styles of figures and letters. Interaction with fonts for iOS is improved
On the whole, after official release Flutter has got improved stability, higher performance and better quality of framework functionality. There are already thousands of apps created using this framework although it is rather young.
Why use Flutter if you plan to make a cross-platform mobile app?
Cross-platform development with Flutter design tool doesn’t make software products worse. A framework provides developers with all native widgets of Android and iOS interfaces like Material Design and Cupertino accordingly. It can change the behavior of separate elements to make a habitual user experience for users.
Also, as a robust framework, Flutter makes it possible to implement discrete files compilation in the development mode. JiT compilation speeds up the development and software debugging. Moreover, a framework supports a lot of plugins like Firebase, SQLite etc. Pub.dev service will help you find the required plugin. Besides that, Flutter is compatible with elements of standard programming languages for a specific platform.
One more reason to use Flutter tool is that developers actively work on Flutter for web and desktop use as well. Just imagine, our development team will build an app for you that will run on Android, iOS, web, macOS, Linux, Windows. Sounds promising, huh?
On the whole, many developers already use Flutter for today. Cleveroad developers also start dealing with this multi-platform UI framework. Google itself uses its framework actively. For example, AdWords platform is the one where Flutter contributed.
By the way, Google is creating a new operating system called Fuchsia. Its UI is built using Flutter mobile app development framework. But a new OS is the topic for a new article, I think. You can get acquainted with Fuchsia OS more deeply on the official website.
Advantages of Flutter
Flutter is aimed at mobile app developers of any level. And current Flutter version can boast about the following advantages:
Hot Reload
This feature allows developers not only to make the development faster. It is a smart innovation. If you need to change something in your data when you create an app interface, you can simply add necessary changes in code when software is being implemented, and all changes will appear in the app as if you created a website. To make changes active, just click Hot Reload button.
Fast development
Apart from Hot Reload button, there are a large number of widgets, controls, libraries with animations that you can customize according to your current needs, and they accelerate native UI development process significantly.
Screen reader
A kind of software for visually impaired developers that can create UI with the help of acoustic cues and signals. It makes Flutter UI framework more accessible and more people can use it.
Quick rendering
Due to quick rendering, it is possible to build images and 2D models faster.
Cross-platform
Flutter makes it possible to build user interfaces both for iOS and Android with the help of such tools like IntelliJ, Android Studio, and Visual Studio Code.
It goes native
Google Flutter UI framework contains all necessary plugins and other elements for iOS and Android, so using Flutter, you can create a native first-rate app easily and without technical issues.
Open source and free
The only thing developers should have is their need for app development. Flutter is available for everyone, no costs, no restrictions - just work!
Themes
A wide range of themes and Flutter UI components makes it possible for developers to create themes separately for Android and iOS devices, and it enables proper display of user interface on the specified device.
Having listed the main Flutter advantages, you can see that Flutter has some strong reasons to use it. Now I offer you to proceed to technical details of Google framework Flutter.
What about Flutter disadvantages?
Of course, even the most perfect technology has its dark side upon closer examination. Flutter is not the exception to this rule. We have drawn up the list of the most obvious shortcomings of a new mobile UI framework.
Mobile-only
At the moment Flutter functions only with mobile apps and there is no web browser support yet. It is a matter of time since this drawback will be fixed soon, but still waiting.
The low popularity of Dart
Unlike Java or Kotlin which are the main languages for Android app development, Dart has not gained such popularity yet and it will unlikely to get the same level of success one day. That is why not all developers want to learn a new language if habitual Java and additional widespread UI frameworks are enough for them. However, Dart has more advantages than Java has in Android app development, but less than Kotlin has. At the same time, Flutter’s killer feature like Ho Reload will not function without Dart’s capabilities.
Not all devices are supported
For example, you cannot create apps for 32-bit iOS devices. Flutter simply doesn’t support iOS 32-bit system. So all early iOS devices like iPhone 5 and older cannot become your target for app development.
Limited libraries
Since Flutter is a new framework and there are no many useful libraries like native languages offer. That is why developers need to build the majority of libraries themselves, and it will take more time.
Opinion from Cleveroad
On the whole, a new Google mobile framework is rather a good option if you need to create a cross-platform app, but as our practice shows, native app development for each platform separately can be more advantageous for your business in some cases. But it depends on the features you need and the goals you want to reach out to.
Native apps may work faster, they are more responsive and they can provide with greater user experience.