Flutter Updates

In today’s digital age, the demand for mobile applications that work seamlessly across multiple platforms is at an all-time high. Developing a cross-platform mobile app involves creating software that can run on different operating systems like iOS, Android, and Windows, maximizing reach and user engagement.  From choosing the right development tools to optimizing user experience and performance, every aspect will be covered to help you navigate the complexities of this increasingly important field.  Whether you’re a seasoned developer looking to expand your skill set or a newcomer with a great app idea, this guide is your roadmap to creating cross-platform applications.  What Is Cross-Platform Mobile Application Development? Cross-platform mobile application development refers to the process of creating applications that can run on multiple operating systems, such as iOS and Android, using a single codebase. This approach saves time and resources compared to developing separate apps for each platform.  A popular choice in this field is Flutter, an open-source mobile app builder known for its flexibility and performance. Apps built with Flutter benefit from its rich set of pre-designed widgets and best cross-platform mobile development language. Before diving into development, it’s essential to understand Flutter prerequisites to ensure a smooth and effective building process. Why Do We Need Cross-Platform Mobile Applications? Cost-Effective Development: Saves money by using a single codebase for multiple platforms. Faster Time-to-Market: Speeds up development and deployment across iOS and Android. Consistent User Experience: Ensures a uniform look and feel on all devices. Easier Maintenance: Simplifies updates and bug fixes with one codebase. Wider Audience Reach: Targets users on both major mobile operating systems. Resource Optimization: Utilizes developer skills more efficiently across platforms. Access To More Features: Leverages cross-platform tools and frameworks like Flutter. Improved Scalability: Easier to scale the app for different devices and platforms. What Is Difference Between Cross-platform Vs Native Mobile Apps?   Feature Cross-Platform Development Native Development Codebase Single codebase for multiple platforms Separate codebase for each platform Development Time Faster due to shared code Slower as each platform requires unique development Cost More cost-effective with one codebase Higher costs due to separate development processes Performance Generally good, but may be less optimized Optimized for specific platforms, resulting in better performance User Experience Consistent across all platforms Tailored to each platform for optimal user experience Maintenance Easier to maintain and update a single codebase Requires individual updates for each platform Access To Native Features Access through plugins, but may have limitations Full access to all native features and APIs Frameworks cross-platform mobile app development frameworks like Flutter Utilizes platform-specific tools like Swift and Kotlin Resource Utilization Efficient use of developer resources Requires specialized skills for each platform Scalability Easier to scale across multiple devices and platforms Scalability depends on the platform-specific development   How To Develop Cross-platform Apps? Define Your App’s Purpose Begin by clearly outlining the purpose and functionality of your cross-platform mobile app. Understanding the core objectives will guide the development process and ensure consistency across different platforms. Choose The Right Development Framework Select a suitable framework like React Native or Flutter cross-platform that best aligns with your project requirements. Evaluate factors such as performance, community support, and ease of development to make an informed decision. After that, start creating cross-platform mobile apps on it.  Design User-Friendly Interfaces Focus on creating intuitive and visually appealing user interfaces that provide a seamless experience across various devices. Prioritize responsive design elements to accommodate different screen sizes and orientations. Implement Cross-Platform APIs Utilize cross-platform APIs to access device-specific features and functionalities. By integrating these APIs into your app, you can leverage native capabilities while maintaining a single codebase for multiple platforms. Optimize Performance Pay attention to performance optimization techniques such as code minification, image compression, and caching mechanisms. Efficiently managing resources will enhance the overall speed and responsiveness of your cross-platform app. Additionally, consider utilizing tools such as A/B testing to identify and address any performance bottlenecks. Ensure Compatibility Test your app on different devices, operating systems, and browsers to ensure compatibility. This will help identify any potential issues and allow you to make necessary adjustments for a smooth user experience across all platforms. Utilize Cloud Services Utilizing cloud services can be beneficial to make cross-platform apps as it allows for easier scalability and reduces the need for maintaining multiple codebases. It also provides a centralized location for data storage and access, making it easier to synchronize information across devices. Stay Updated Keep up with the latest updates and advancements in cross-platform development tools and technologies. This will not only improve your app’s performance but also ensure compatibility with newer devices and operating systems. Test, Test, And Test Again Testing is crucial in ensuring a seamless experience for users on different platforms. Make sure to thoroughly test your app on various devices, browsers, and operating systems. This will help identify any bugs or glitches that may arise and allow for prompt fixes before releasing the app. Seek User Feedback Lastly, always seek feedback from users who have used your cross-platform app. This will give you valuable insights into their experiences and help identify areas for improvement. Regularly incorporating user feedback can significantly enhance the overall user experience of your app. Benefits Of Cross-platform Mobile App Development Cost Efficiency Cross-platform development allows businesses to save costs by using a single codebase for multiple platforms such as iOS and Android. This reduces development time and resources needed for maintaining separate codebases, making it a cost-effective solution for app development projects. Faster Time-to-Market With a unified codebase, developers can release apps across different platforms simultaneously, speeding up the time-to-market significantly. This agility is crucial in competitive markets where getting ahead quickly can make a substantial difference. Consistent User Experience Cross-platform frameworks like Flutter and React Native ensure a consistent user interface and experience across various devices. This uniformity enhances user satisfaction and loyalty, as users can expect the same functionalities and design elements regardless of the platform they use. Access To Native Features Modern cross-platform frameworks offer

Implementing a Flutter embedded browser is a powerful way to enhance your mobile applications by enabling them to display web content seamlessly. With WebView Flutter, developers can integrate a web browser within their Flutter apps, providing users with an in-app web view Flutter experience. This approach is particularly useful for displaying web pages, handling user authentication through web-based services, or incorporating dynamic content without leaving the app’s interface. The WebView Flutter plugin allows for robust customization and interaction with web content, making it an essential tool for modern app development. By embedding a browser directly within your app, you can maintain a cohesive user experience while leveraging the full capabilities of web technologies. What Is Flutter_inappwebview? Flutter_inappwebview is an advanced package for integrating web content into Flutter applications, offering more features and flexibility than the standard WebView widget Flutter.  This plugin enables developers to create a highly customizable WebView Flutter experience, allowing for detailed control over the web content displayed within the app. It supports a wide range of functionalities, such as intercepting requests, injecting JavaScript, and handling various web events. One of the standout features of Flutter_inappwebview is the ability to implement a Flutter WebView loading indicator, ensuring a smooth and user-friendly experience. This package also provides tools for managing cookies, caching, and web storage, making it a comprehensive solution for embedding web pages into Flutter applications. Prerequisites For Setting Up Your Flutter Environment Before you can start implementing a Flutter embedded browser using WebView Flutter, you need to ensure your development environment is properly set up. Here are the steps to get started: Prerequisites Flutter SDK: Make sure you have the latest version of the Flutter SDK installed on your machine. You can download it from the official Flutter website. Integrated Development Environment (IDE): It is recommended to use either Android Studio, IntelliJ IDEA, or Visual Studio Code. Ensure your chosen IDE has the necessary Flutter and Dart plugins installed. Android And iOS Setup: Ensure you have the Android SDK and Xcode (for macOS users) installed and configured. This is necessary for building and running Flutter apps on Android and iOS devices or simulators. Internet Access: You need an active internet connection to download dependencies and plugins. How To Add Webview Plugin To Flutter Project?  Here are the steps to add the WebView Flutter plugin to your Flutter project: Step 1: Create A New Flutter Project Open your terminal or command prompt. Run the following command to create a new Flutter project: flutter create webview_example Navigate to the project directory: cd webview_example Step 2: Open The pubspec.yaml File Open the pubspec.yaml file located in the root directory of your Flutter project. Step 3: Add WebView Flutter Dependency Under the dependencies section in the pubspec.yaml file, add the webview_flutter dependency: dependencies: flutter: sdk: flutter webview_flutter: ^2.0.10 Make sure to add the correct version of the plugin. You can check the latest version on the pub.dev website. Step 4: Fetch The New Dependency Save the pubspec.yaml file. Run the following command in your terminal to fetch the new dependency:  flutter pub get Step 5: iOS Setup (If Applicable) Open the ios directory of your project in Xcode. Navigate to the Info.plist file and add the following key to enable the WebView: <key>io.flutter.embedded_views_preview</key> <true/> Step 6: Android Setup (If Applicable) Open the android directory of your project. Navigate to android/app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml and add the following permission: <uses-permission android:name=”android.permission.INTERNET”/> Ensure your minSdkVersion in android/app/build.gradle is set to at least 19: defaultConfig { minSdkVersion 19 } With these steps, the WebView Flutter plugin is now added to your Flutter project, and you are ready to use it to embed web content within your application. Can Flutter Build A Web App? Yes, Flutter can build a web app. Flutter’s web support allows you to create responsive and feature-rich web applications using the same codebase as your mobile applications. By leveraging Flutter web app development, developers can seamlessly transition their mobile apps to the web, ensuring consistent performance and design across platforms. This capability enhances the flexibility and reach of Flutter, making it a powerful tool for building high-quality, cross-platform applications. Creating A Simple WebView Widget Once you have set up your project and added the WebView plugin, follow these steps to create a simple WebView widget in Flutter: Import The WebView Package: Open the Dart file where you want to add the WebView widget (e.g., main.dart). Import the WebView package at the top of the file: import ‘package:webview_flutter/webview_flutter.dart’;  Stateful Widget: Define a new StatefulWidget to hold the WebView: class WebViewExample extends StatefulWidget { @override _WebViewExampleState createState() => _WebViewExampleState(); } Create the corresponding State class: class _WebViewExampleState extends State<WebViewExample> { @override Widget build(BuildContext context) { return Scaffold( appBar: AppBar( title: Text(‘Flutter WebView Example’), ), body: WebView( initialUrl: ‘https://www.example.com’, javascriptMode: JavascriptMode.unrestricted, ), ); } } Integrate WebView Widget: In the State class, replace the body of the Scaffold with the WebView widget: body: WebView( initialUrl: ‘https://www.example.com’, javascriptMode: JavascriptMode.unrestricted, ), Set the initialUrl to the web page you want to load. You can change https://www.example.com to any URL of your choice. After this, set the javascriptMode to JavascriptMode.unrestricted to enable JavaScript in your Flutter web app. Add Loading Indicator (Optional): To add a Flutter WebView loading indicator, you can use a Stack widget to overlay a loading spinner on top of the WebView while it loads: class _WebViewExampleState extends State<WebViewExample> { bool isLoading = true; @override Widget build(BuildContext context) { return Scaffold( appBar: AppBar( title: Text(‘Flutter WebView Example’), ), body: Stack( children: [ WebView( initialUrl: ‘https://www.example.com’, javascriptMode: JavascriptMode.unrestricted, onPageFinished: (finish) { setState(() { isLoading = false; }); }, ), isLoading ? Center(child: CircularProgressIndicator()) : Stack(), ], ), ); } } Advanced WebView Customization Advanced WebView customization in Flutter allows developers to create highly interactive and responsive web experiences within their apps. Handling navigation and page load events is crucial for controlling the user flow and improving the app’s usability.  By listening to page start and finish events, you can provide real-time feedback, such as showing a loading

Flutter’s popularity has grown immensely over the last few years. The main reason is that they continue to provide evidence of growth with new updates. Flutter 3, announced almost 3 months ago, was a huge milestone that offered reliable support for application development for all six platforms. But they didn’t just stop there. On August 31, Flutter announced the launch of Flutter 3.3 at the Flutter Vikings conference. The version has merged around 5,687 pull requests.  The update has added some more refinements and improvements to Flutter 3 like Dart 2.18 support, new components of material 3, Scribble, some exciting extensions, and much more. Let’s have a look. Framework Features Introducing Global Selection Flutter didn’t really show good behavior when it came to text selection. You couldn’t select the widgets by default with a single swiping gesture. But no more of that fuss. Flutter 3.3 has introduced this new feature of the “SelectableArea” widget, allowing adaptive selection controls to web app developers. To get the feature just wrap your route body with the widget of “SelectableArea”. Flutter will do the rest for you. Rich Text Editing with Text Input Flutter 3.3 has now improved its rich text editing support. Now you can receive granular text updates from “TextInputPlugin”. In previous updates, the “TextInputPlugin” only provided the new states with no delta between the old and the new. But “TextEditingDeltas” and “DeltaTextInputClient” have replaced this informational gap. An Improved Touchpad (trackpad) Input Flutter 3.3 offers improved touchpad input support for its users. With this feature, you get a much smoother and richer control, further reducing any chances of misinterpretation. Say goodbye to clicking and dragging, simply manipulate content with the pointer on the touch screen. With a wide range of different touch gestures, there won’t be any awkward interactions. You can further read about the pan gesture, zoom gesture, rotate gesture, and other details here. A Jump to Dart 2.18 Like most of the past Flutter launches, Flutter 3.3 has also bumped up Dart language by introducing Dart 2.18. The 2.18 version has extended its support to Swift and Objective-C codes with “ffigen” – an API wrapper generation tool. The Flutter 3.3 update has streamlines the process of making API calls. This is surely pleasing news for iOS and Mac developers. The developers of Android and iOS are also allowed to use platform-specific code for the required HTTP requests. Scribble it! Flutter 3.3 now also supports Scribble – a free-hand drawing tool for iPad using the input of Apple Pencil. It has already been enabled by default on “TextField”, “Cupertino TextField” (ios-style textfield), and “EditableText”. Upgrade to Flutter 3.3 to get this feature.  Windows Desktop  In previous Flutter versions, you could only set your windows desktop application’s version by the file that’s specific to the window app itself. But now, you can set your app versions and build arguments from the project “pubspec yaml” file. Now it’s easy to enable auto-updating and get the recent version to your client. Material Design 3 is Here! Material design 3 new components have now been incorporated in the Flutter 3.3 version with updates on “Chips”, “IconButton” and medium and large variants of “AppBar”. The following images will help you get a better idea. Impeller – A new rendering Engine on its Way Flutter is also releasing a new replacement for Skia. Flutter developers can now test this new rendering layer – Impeller. The purpose of this improvement is to give a significant boost to the Android and iOS apps with its runtime taking complete advantage of hardware-accelerated APIs like Vulkan for Android and Metal for iOS. Check out Flutter 3.7 update that just rolled out with amazing features and improvements. You can surely expect an almost silkier animation on your Flutter applications. Impeller has also removed the need for runtime shader compilation which has been a major source of frame time janks in the applications. It is being tested actively and iOS developers have been asked to submit their reviews on it too. Impeller for Android is still under process. New Packages in Flutter 3.3 go_router  Things can get complex while developing an app with complicated navigation needs. But now it’s easy to design a routing logic that will work fine across the web, desktop, and mobile through go_router. It is a Declarative Routing Package designed by the Flutter team. By providing a declarative, URL-based API, this flutter package gives you an easy way to handle deep links and navigation across different screens. VS Code Extension Enhancement  tools to your installation that will later help your development workflow. Almost every version of Flutter has released some enhancements of Visual Code Extension and Flutter 3.3 has done it too. By using Dart: Add Dependency, you can now add multiple, comma-separated dependencies in a single step. An Update on DevTools The new update comes with UX and some performance improvements to data display tables. There will be a less jittery and much faster scrolling experience of large lists of events.  How has the performance improved? Raster Cache Improvements The improvement resulted in faster image loading capability by reducing Dart GC (Garbage Collection) pressure and the need for multiple copies. Before this, for the loading of asset images, the “ImageProvider” needed the compressed data to be copied many times. By the addition of “ui.ImmutableBuffer.fromAsset”, you can load the compressed image directly into the structure utilized for decoding. The improvement has reduced the loading time to almost half of what it was before. Deprecation of 32-bit iOS The new version no longer supports iOS versions 9, 10, and 32bit iOS devices. Deprecation of Bitcode Bitcode helps you in reducing an app’s size through recompilation. In the upcoming Xcode 14 release, bitcode most probably will not be allowed for iOS app submission. Although it is disabled by default, for the projects that have it enabled, it will emit a built warning. No iOS Pointer Compression – A Step towards Stability Pointer compression reserves a huge virtual memory region for

Flutter continues to bring amazing updates with exciting features that help developers build apps more productively. Over the past couple of years, Flutter has gained much popularity in the mobile app development realm. Businesses are opting for newer and more advanced technologies to build apps to mark their presence in the online marketplace. Flutter just released its stable release Flutter 3.0, with app support for macOS and Linux desktops as well. Recently, about 3 months ago, Flutter announced support for Windows. Now, here is the latest and much-improved Flutter release with improvements to firebase integration, and new productivity and performance features. Moreover, this release has support for Apple silicon as well. In this article, we are going to cover all the new features and improvements Flutter has incorporated into Flutter 3.0. Introducing Flutter 3.0 Flutter started as an attempt to revolutionize app development. This was only possible by combining the iterative development model of the web with hardware-accelerated graphics rendering. And also the pixel-level control that was previously the preserve of games. Over the last four years since Flutter came into existence, Flutter has gradually built on these foundations by adding new framework capabilities and new widgets, deeper integration with the underlying platforms, a rich library of packages, and many performances and tooling improvements. Flutter expanded iOS and Android with web and Windows support in previous releases. And now, Flutter 3.0 brings stable support for macOS and Linux apps as well. It requires more than rendering pixels to add platform support. It includes new input and interaction models, compilation and build support, accessibility, internationalization, as well as platform-specific integration. Flutter’s goal is to give you the flexibility to take full advantage of the fundamental operating system while sharing as much UI and logic as you choose. Flutter 3 Release Date Flutter 3.0 was released on May 11, 2022. It came up with a stable version for macOS and Linux stable support and performance improvements as well. What’s New in Flutter 3.0? As flutter aims to deliver an immersive development experience to its users, Flutter 3.0 came with the most beneficial features. Firebase Integration Improvements While building an app, there is a lot more involved than a UI framework. To build an app, developers need a comprehensive approach that helps build, release, and operate the app. This includes services like authentication, data storage, cloud functions, and device testing. Different services like Sentry, AppWrite, and AWS Amplify. Firebase provides app services to Google. Moreover, developer benchmarking studies by SlashData show that 62% of Flutter developers choose Firebase for their apps. So, Flutter has been working with Firebase to expand and better integrate Flutter as a first-class integration, lately. This includes bringing the Firebase plugins for Flutter to 1.0 and adding better documentation and tooling. And also new widgets like FlutterFire UI provide developers with a reusable UI for auth and profile screens. Foldable Phone Support Interestingly, Flutter 3.0 release now also supports foldable mobile devices. New features and widgets in Flutter 3.0 allow you to create dynamic and delightful experiences on foldable devices. This only was made after a collaboration spearheaded by Microsoft. As part of this work, MediaQuery now contains a list of DisplayFeatures that describes the bounds and states of device elements. For example hinges, folds, and cutouts. In addition, the DisplayFeatureSubScreen widget now positions its child widget without overlapping the bounds of DisplayFeatures. Also, it has already been integrated with the framework’s default dialogs and pop-ups, making Flutter aware and responsive to these elements. Updated Gradle Version The generated files with Flutter tools now use the latest versions of the Gradle and Android Gradle plugins. You will need to manually bump the versions to 7.4 for Gradle, and 7.1.2 for the Android Gradle plugin for existing projects. Flutter Casual Games Toolkit Flutter is an app framework for most developers. Unfortunately, they lack knowledge about a growing community around casual game development, taking advantage of hardware-accelerated graphics support. Interestingly, Flutter supports them with open-source game engines like Flame. Flutter also aims to make it easier for casual game developers to get started. So, at I/O they announced the Casual Games Toolkit. It provides a starter kit of templates and best practices for developers along with credits for ads and cloud services. You can easily integrate Game Center on iOS and Google Play on Android devices. Dart 2.17 Flutter has announced a new Dart SDK, version 2.17 with newer upgrades and additions. This release brings Flutter’s core themes of leading productivity and platform portability. It offers new language features that include enums with member support, improved parameter forwarding to superclasses, and more flexibility for named parameters. Flutter also improved tools with a new major version of package:lints. It is a tool to support checking Dart code against Flutter’s best practices. Also a broad update of core library API documentation with rich code samples. For improved platform integration. Flutter has new templates for using dart:ffi (native C interop) in Flutter plugins, experimental support for RISC-V processors, and support for signing macOS and Windows executables. Material 3 Support in Flutter 3.0 Flutter 3.0 now supports Material Design 3, the latest design system from Material Design. Flutter 3 provides support for Material 3.0. This includes ‘Material You’ having features like dynamic color, an updated color system, typography, and many updated components. Additionally, new visual effects are introduced in Android 12 like a new touch ripple design and a stretch overscroll effect. In flutter 3.0, developers can adopt an adaptable, cross-platform design system that offers dynamic color schemes and updated visual components. Lint Package Updates Apps built with Flutter 3.0 with flutter create automatically enable the v2.0 sets of lints. Current apps, packages, and plugins are encouraged to migrate to v2.0. This tends to follow the latest and greatest best practices in the Flutter world, by running flutter pub upgrade –major-versions flutter_lints. Most of the latest lint warnings in v2 come with automated fixes. After you’ve upgraded to the latest package version in pubspec.yaml