[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]In the just concluded Mobile World Congress 2019, Google just released its ambitious Flutter SDK beta version. Since its unofficial revelation sometime in the previous year the developers worldwide were awestruck with this new open source framework that can change the face of Android and cross-platform development.
With the already existing Android Flutter came as the second solution, and together they widened the horizon of options for the developers. But the most significant benefit of using Flutter is that it is equally an excellent framework for building cross-platform apps on both iOS and Android.
Being a fully equipped cross-platform SDK, this new offering from Google it allows developers are doing without the native UI frameworks both the platforms. Instead of directly compiling the native UI elements pertaining to the Android and iOS, Flutter runs them on the Flutter rendering engine and the Flutter framework. While the first is written in C++, the second is written in Dart. For cross-platform development projects, both of these are bundled together before getting split into platform-specific packages by the SDK. The result is really awesome. With every cross-platform app built with Flutter SDK, you have the rendering engine and full pack of native code to get the Flutter-built app run on iOS and Android platforms.
The Promise of Flutter: Is It Going to Replace Android?
There is no doubt in the fact that Flutter has arrived as the mobile app development framework besides the already existing Android SDK. With the launch of Flutter Google actually brought Android’s new competitor within the Google family itself. Many consider the ease and flexibility of Flutter for wide-ranging cross-platform projects can make it a better and more sharpened alternative to the Android. While that’s something too far-fetched a situation to comment at this hour, but obviously Flutter looks like really promising SDK to bring new energy to the Android and cross-platform development space.
In this respect, we must understand the entire ecosystem of alternatives Google is slowly coming with. Flutter comes with its own app development engine for Android and iOS and alongside, Google is coming with a new OS called Fuchsia. This new OS is built to run the Flutter apps natively. This is where we need to understand the real motive of Google behind Flutter and Fuchsia.
Android is already aged for more than a decade, and it came at a time when the smartphone ecosystem was at its nascent state and was nowhere close to the sophistication of today’s usability and devices. Android was built long before the devices tend to embrace multitouch, 60fps, large-screen interfaces. Naturally, Android is loaded with too many legacy stuff that is still backdated. The move behind Flutter and Fuschia is aimed to create an ecosystem of an alternative that over time can replace Android.
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Dart Language of Flutter
Flutter SDK uses Dart programming language which is an object-oriented and class-based language. It uses C syntax and is capable of compiling the code in Javascript with all discretions.
Dart is a language with all that developers require for versatility, flexibility, and scalability. It supports abstract classes, allows static typing and comes with support for interfaces as well as mixins. No wonder, Google chooses Dart for building its highly versatile and future-ready SDK called Flutter.
- Dart comes loaded with the strong support of an array of libraries and tools for enabling a variety of applications across sizes, complexities, and niches.
- The primary benefit of Dart is that it simplifies the programming tasks to a great extent.
- Dart offers optimum stability and can be utilized for developing high-quality real-time applications with ease.
- Dart comes as the object-oriented programming language that supports interfaces, inheritance and a variety of features for typing.
Custom UI
As the demand for customization remains constant and growing across all platforms, Google with its new Flutter SDK gave this a priority. App developers now can build custom UI and spice up the experience with a lot of visual and interactive elements. When building an app with custom UI elements and feature set is crucial to stay competitive in the app market, flutter as a specialized custom development framework can be an effective choice.
The developers can fully utilize the customizing ability of Flutter through the array of widgets that this SDK comes loaded with. Thanks to these widgets developers can easily spice up the user experience and make it more user-centric. With so many customization options Flutter allows you to build a highly native-feeling app for both mobile operating system platforms.
Tooling Options
One of the biggest reasons to prefer Flutter is the awesome choice of tools it offers. Flutter allows easily building applications just from the command line accompanied by an editor. Flutter development is supported by several IDEs such as VS Code, Android Studio, or IntelliJ. Developers can choose tools as per their preferences.
Apart from these IDE choices, Flutter command fully supports the command line, and that is really a significant boost for creating, updating and launching an app without unnecessary dependence on specific tools.
Hot Reloading
Hot Reloading is a crucial feature of Flutter to give it an edge over other frameworks. Flutter offers unmatched support for hot reloading, and this helps developers to modify and bring changes within a running app. Developers instead of stopping the app followed by rebuilding and redeploying tasks can actually incorporate changes without any performance glitches within a running app. This feature ensures optimum performance and efficiency besides faster iteration.
Conclusion
In spite of the “beta” tag that it still carries, Flutter has made its way through across several Google projects including the Google AdWords app. Apart from that, there are also hundreds of iOS and Android apps across all stores that are built with Flutter. There is no doubt in the fact that Flutter is here to stay and flourish overshadowing Android and other older SDKs. It has come as one of the sound value-additions for the Android and cross-platform developers.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
