In March 2021, Google announced a major upgrade to Flutter. With Flutter 2.0, we can use the same codebase for five operating systems: iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Flutter Web becomes stable
Ever since the launch of Flutter, developers are excited as they can now create feature-rich applications without worrying about the target platform. After more than eighteen months, Flutter Web is finally stable and will continue to improve on performance. One of the major benefits of Flutter Web is the creation of Progressive Web Apps (PWAs), PWAs become extremely easy to create with existing code. PWAs will be able to provide mobile-like features in web applications with certain limitations.
Flutter Desktop
We can now develop Desktop (Windows, Mac, Linux) apps on Flutter. Similar to desktop, Flutter web required a whole new category of widgets and input mechanics. With this release, we will be able to see more and more Desktop Apps developed in Flutter.
If you are a Debian user, you might have already seen the new ubuntu installer which is developed using Flutter.
Changes to Mobile Development
With the latest release, Flutter has broadened from a mobile framework to a portable framework, that is developers can publish the apps on multiple platforms with little or no change. There are already over 180,000 Flutter apps on Play Store alone. These apps can grow and target different platform users with minimal changes in the code.
What’s ahead in Flutter 2.0 Development
Toyota has announced its plan to bring a best-in-market digital experience to vehicles, by building infotainment systems powered by Flutter. Toyota chose Flutter because of its high performance, consistency of performance, fast iteration, and smartphone-tier touch mechanics. By using Glutter’s API, Toyota is able to tailor Flutter for the unique needs of an in-vehicle system.
Some of the features of Flutter 2.0 are:
- Gestures and Keyboard Shortcuts:
Mobile App Developers can introduce various gestures that helps to increase engagement in an application; Desktop platforms can introduce various shortcuts in the application to provide ease to the users. - Plugins:
Flutter 2.0 includes several plugins and libraries keeping security in mind. With this, the applications are likely to have improved security. - Sound null safety:
It is an addition to the programming language Dart. If you update to Flutter 2.0 and migrate from the old version, you can choose what is non-nullable. - Expansion and improvement of iOS features:
New iOS widgets related to Cupertino were added. They simplify the creation of validated form fields.
You can check this article for the Top 10 Apps made using Flutter, we are now getting the beta of those apps for the web and desktop versions!
Along with the previous advantages of Flutter, Flutter 2.0 will surely bring advancements in the industry. If you haven’t yet tried Flutter, we think you will find it a major upgrade for your apps. At Sofvare, we have developed several apps in Flutter, you can check out our latest application Cicle — which is built using Flutter. We will be excited to discuss and develop elegant and fast apps that target your mobile, desktop, and web users.
