Google’s Flutter SDK – Is it Good Choice for Your App?

Mobile apps have changed people’s lifestyles completely at present. They assist individuals in performing day-to-day chores such as booking tickets, banking, shopping, transactions, etc. The success of a mobile app will depend significantly on the layout, fast navigation, and speed. Apps such as Facebook and WhatsApp are extremely popular, and they have made a huge impact on the mobile world right now.

Every mobile app development company looks for app developers to create applications with a limited budget and time. Multiple tech stacks are required by native mobile application development, which leads to more investment and separate teams. For this reason, there is a huge demand for cross-platform solutions right now. You have probably heard about Flutter, which happens to be one more cross-platform framework out there.

What exactly is Flutter SDK?

Flutter is a multi-platform and open-source SDK used for creating Android and iOS apps. Although it has been a long time since this SDK had been introduced on the market, it has become more well-known since Google I/O 2018, when the tech giant declared a preview release of Flutter.

Must Read: Is Flutter the Future of Hybrid App Development?

How is Flutter making an impact?

Android development companies are helped by Flutter for creating highly secure, unique, and optimized apps. Working around the Dart language, the good thing is that Flutter is an open-source and free framework.

From the perspective of app development, the most significant advantages are: Flutter accelerates the task of developing apps, minimizes the development cost, and creates an MVP along with an attractive app interface. Let us talk about this in detail right here.

1. Dynamic code

App developers can make use of Flutter for writing fast and dynamic code. It is possible to preview the code’s customization in the app. One can gain access to the hot reload technique, which will take only a few seconds for loading an app, and thus, it will help the developers to make the changes, detect bugs, plus implement features. Hot reload aids in creating the designer-developer cooperation once rework is needed on the look of the app.

2. Cross-platform code

It is possible to save lots of time in writing code because developers need to write just one code for a couple of application platforms. Flutter comes with its own set of designs and widgets, and this helps to make it independent. Apps can work without showing any problem. This helps to save the company’s expenses to a great extent, given that less investment is required while hiring an Android developer, and the process of development is quite fast. After writing just one code, the developer will be able to use it to create apps for several platforms according to the client’s requirements.

3. Minimum testing

Minimum testing will be needed in case you have an identical app for two operating systems. Automatic tests with only one codebase are performed just once. Apart from this, Quality Assurance professionals do not have many tasks to do since they have to verify only a single app. All these advantages help to reduce the overall development costs of the app.

4. Fast development procedure

The developers will need much less time to create a cross-platform app using Flutter. The SDK supports hot reload functionality, which makes it feasible to see the alterations in the app code on the screen. This helps to make the process of Android app development quite fast as well as smooth. Various teams of designers, quality experts, and developers will be able to work in collaboration for quick development using Flutter. The innovative hot reload feature allows the programmers to include new features plus fix glitches within a short period. The entire process becomes quite fast as only one code is used for creating various apps.

Must Read: Top 14 Flutter App Development Tools

How is Flutter superior to its rivals?

React Native and Flutter happen to be the most in-demand cross-platform application development technologies right now. Here, we will take a look at how Flutter is better than its rivals: Check out below stats:

Image Source: Google

1. Programming language

It is known to all of us that Dart is an extremely fast-developing language. Being Dart-based, Flutter is quite popular among the developers right now. Besides this, it is quite easy to understand Dart since it is a lesser-known programming language and is not used on a wide scale. This helps to make developing apps in Flutter smooth and fast.

2. Technical architecture

It is a fact that communication in React native modules using a bridge might not perform well. Flutter does not need a bridge for communication since it incorporates most of the native modes within the framework. On the other hand, the JavaScript bridge is implemented by React Native for interacting with native modules.

Image Source: Google

3. API and UI component development

React Native is dependent on 3rd-party libraries for using native modules since it offers only device access APIs and UI rendering. On the contrary, Flutter is packed with navigation, UI rendering components, device API testing, access, stateful management, and libraries. However, these components do not require the usage of 3rd-party apps.

Is there any limitation or drawback?

 1. Only 2D apps – Currently, only the Skia 2D graphics engine is used by Flutter for rendering UI, and 3D is not supported using OpenGL ES. However, this capability has been planned eventually.

2. Flutter desktop happens to be in alpha. Suppose you like to develop an application with desktop support for macOS, Windows, and Linux. In that case, it will be imperative to use the target platform and use the reduced alpha functionality of Flutter.

3. Not many libraries and plugins – Being a comparatively new technology, Flutter can’t compete with React Native in its ecosystem. Moreover, there is not an extensive choice of plugins. At times, you may find that several components are only obtainable for Android, and the developers might be needed to write the iOS version, which is missing.

4. Big file size – Unlike Native, one downside of cross-platform development happens to be the compiled app’s size. Flutter apps fall in this category. A minimum Flutter app’s sample measurement depicted that it does make 4.6 MB for ARM 64 and 4.3 MB for ARM. This implies that you need to make some effort to optimize saving space on your future users’ smartphones.

Must Read: Top 6 Responsibilities of a Hire Flutter Developers

FAQ

 1. How does Flutter function?

 A Flutter application contains widgets. Unlike Xamarin or React Native, Flutter does not use any widget shipped with Android and iOS platforms. Rather, UI components are drawn by it independently employing the Skia graphics library and its rendering engine. The widget code becomes compiled beforehand to Android or iOS native code. This helps make certain that every UI element appears and behaves similarly on any platform or device version.

2. Is Flutter a sensible choice?

Flutter will be a decent choice for creating apps that are natively compiled with brand-driven designs. In addition, it aids in creating custom UI elements that appear good and work well on Android and iOS platforms. With the increase in the popularity of Flutter amongst the developers, it becomes quite easy to hire Flutter developers for building a Flutter application.

3. Why Flutter uses Dart?

The widgets and framework of Flutter have been written using the Dart programming language. Being object-oriented, this language is fantastic when it comes to user interface programming. It has well-organized memory management as well as allocation. Furthermore, Dart enables the usage of JIT compilation at the time of development to enhance the developers’ productivity and compilation of AOT in production for ensuring quick and predictable application performance.

4. Can Flutter be considered to be mobile development’s future?

Flutter has been developed with Fuchsia in mind. Although it is impossible to foresee the future, Flutter comes with every feature to become extremely effective. Flutter happens to be a fantastic option for companies to create native Android and iOS apps with limited resources and identical source code.

5. Is Flutter superior to React Native?

Performance mapping of React native vs. Flutter is the most effective way to figure out which framework is ideal for developing mobile apps. At times, developers have to face problems while operating React native application architecture. On the other hand, Flutter makes it quite easy for the developers since it will be possible to use the code once again for other applications.

Read also: Top Flutter App Development Companies

Conclusion

We are of the notion that Flutter provides plenty of benefits for mobile application development teams. It is the ideal framework for creating attractive, high-performance, and user-friendly applications fitting the requirements of the end-users. This framework is worth considering, especially if you would like to have an application created for Android and iOS. It would be sensible to consult a reliable app development company with all the resources for building a smooth and secure mobile app.