Are you a mobile app developer but confused about which platform to go for in 2021 for your startup? Or, you heard about Flutter, and are curious to know why Flutter is the top pick development framework by startups and entrepreneurs!

Simple, because Flutter is Amazing! 

Known as Google’s UI toolkit for mobile, web and desktop, there’s no wondering why Flutter continues to surge in popularity. Right from top mobile App Development companies and developers to established foundations, including The New York Time, Alibaba, Google Ads and many more to the list. 

At present, Flutter is an evolving framework in the digital industry, curating an utterly new revolution for budding businesses. With Flutter catering to both companies (by offering reasonable development cost) and developers (by providing superb usability and faster speed), it proves to be the latest hue to give the best tools and a robust framework to craft an excellent startup app. 

Before diving straight into why Flutter is a great choice for creating an app, it’s important to understand what makes cross-platform a viable choice for everyone across the world.

What’s The Gist Of Cross-Platform App Development?

It’s no more a secret that there are many more ways to create an excellent mobile app; these include native, cross-platform and hybrid app development. 

Many among you prefer native app development when the app is created in a language native to a specific platform – like Java (Android), Swift (iOS). For sure, this approach reaps enormous benefits, amid which is the ability to use all the features and perks of a specific operating system. 

Regardless of native app development having some pitfalls; let’s imagine, to implement the same user and algorithm scenario, the professional must develop a program for numerous environments in different languages. This means the company should manifold its working hours, budget, and efforts to maintain the end product.

Agree, it’s daunting, tiresome and also inclined towards an expensive side. So it’s advisable to hire Flutter developers in Dubai to save on your efforts, time and finances.

A Solution Without Putting A Burning Hole In Your Pocket – Flutter!

Herein, we are going to share my experience with you. A nonce, we would like to introduce you to Flutter, Google’s mobile app Software Development Kit as Flutter apps have become quite popular nowadays. It’s more exciting to discover the reason behind it’s exponentially growing demand. To add, you will know when and how to use Flutter and what perks it offers as a solution. 

Simply put, you can choose whether you should create an app with Flutter because you will be having all the information needed to make up your mind. Plus, I’ll shed light on what may hold back big companies from opting Flutter. 

But, First thing, First! 

What’s The Quintessence Of Flutter?  

Here’s a quick rundown about Flutter you may already know:

• It’s an open-source, cross-platform toolkit.
• Apps are developed in the Dart programming language
• It consist of its own graphic engine (Skia)
• It braces three platforms officially – iOS, Android and Web (in beta)
• Unofficially – it also braces desktop

Google introduced the first version of Flutter at the end of 2018, February. And, as of 1 October 2020, Flutter 1.22 was live! 

Announcing Flutter 1.22 version, supporting iOS14 and Android 11, new i18n and I10n support, Google Maps and WebView plugins all set for production, a new App Size tool and much more! 

What Makes Flutter So Special? 

Flutter blends the quality of native apps with the flexibility of cross-platform development. 

Indeed, most of the cross-platform tools let you write the code once and use in both – iOS and Android. Still, not all can render the same feel and look like a Native app.  

But, that’s where Flutter comes in the big picture. Instead of being a wrapper on top of native UI elements (like React Native and Xamarin), Flutter creates the UI from scratch. Flutter maintains the native experience and the feel of the app, and you don’t have to stay concerned about its performance for any specific platform. 

Besides, Flutter being an open-source framework, any dev can make changes and alterations on GitHub and send merge requests. And, if you take a closer look at “Flutter’s popularity – 90.4k GitHub stars, 12k forks, and 18,445 commits” – you will have a fair idea that why developers from mobile app development companies in Dubai and worldwide love Flutter and contribute to making it better. 

How Flutter Based App Actually Works? 

The above mentioned quintessences of Flutter are enough to give it a try – but you might wonder if it’s really production-ready?

Here’s the answer! 

Flutter is not compiled directly to iOS or Android apps. The apps are launched based on an amalgam of rendering engines that are developed on c++ and Flutter built on Dart. All files produced this way attach to each app and SDK assemblies software for a specific platform. 

It’s the same as a game development: A game doesn’t locate its framework, and the functionality set is carried out with the game engine. Same is followed by Flutter mobile app development company in Dubai working on the Flutter software – all apps developed on the Flutter SDK swap elements of the native framework with Flutter parts. 

However, it can impact the final app’s size, while performance remains still good – rendering is done with a speed of up to 120 FPS. Because of native compilation for ARM processors, simple rendering, and included widgets and tools, Flutter makes the development process more manageable. Also, it provides a desirable feature of Hot-Reload. 

Have an insight into how it works: 

On clicking the Hot Reload option, all code changes are portrayed in gadgets, emulators, and stimulators right at the moment. The app continues to work from where it was before clicking the hot reload button. 

The code updates, while execution continues.

Why Flutter Is The Right Choice For Cross-Platform App Development? 

New versions of Flutter will keep coming now and then with more advanced features up their sleeves. But, at present there are a lot of advanced features that perfectly explain why Flutter is everyone’s favorite choice. 

#Reason 1

Opting for cross-platform app development with Flutter, inimical to popular belief, would not make the software worse. 

Indeed, Flutter includes all native widgets for Android and iOS interfaces like Cupertino and Material Design. Besides, the framework can transform the behaviour of different elements to craft similar User Experience for the app’s users. 

#Reason 2

Opting Flutter makes it possible to implement discrete file compilation in the dev mode. JiT compilation boosts development and software debugging. 

#Reason 3

Flutter provides a flexible and scalable backend making it a hot pick of top rated mobile app development company and developers. It supports plugins like Firebase, SQLite, and the list goes on. Even, Firebase makes the app’s infrastructure serverless, scalable, and redundant.  

So, if you are sitting on a fence to create an app that needs real-time database or cloud functions, Flutter’s got your back. 

#Final Reason

Flutter is easy to learn. 

Right from the beginning, Google devs set a goal to keep the entry barriers lower. They precisely worked out documentation and on the resources developers can use. It even has some special sections you can use to start learning the framework depending on your specification.  

• Flutter for iOS
• Flutter for web devs
• Flutter for React Native devs
• Flutter for Xamarin.Form devs
• Flutter for Android

Lastly, because of Flutter detailed documentation, it will be easier to write a code in Dart even if you only have experience with Unity graphic tools for developing Android games.

Are You 2021 Ready With Flutter 1.22 (The Latest Version)? 

The latest version Flutter 1.22 develops on the foundation set by previous releases by enabling developers to create fast and beautiful user experiences for multiple platforms from one codebase. The quarterly stable releases pack the latest features, improves performance and makes it bug-free. Most importantly, it’s ideal for wider production use.  

Besides the support for new mobile OS versions, it includes a preview of one of the top-requested features for Android – 

• State Restoration, 
• an entirely new universe of material buttons, 
• further international and localization support that works wonder with hot reload option, 
• a navigator, ”, 
• a stable release for platform views
• A switch you can throw in your code to improve scrolling on devices with high-frequency displays. 
• There is also a new tool for dissecting app size and ensuring the plugin you are creating support only the platforms you wanted to support. 

Targeting iOS14

Whenever the latest version of a mobile OS is announced, it’s tested thoroughly, searching for incompatibilities or changes that affect Flutter and its respective tools. 

And, in the scenario for iOS14, there are fundamental changes to Flutter to make sure that it works the way developers want it: 

• iOS14 specific crashes and front rendering issues are fixed in Flutter 1.22.
• An introduction of a new policy showing uses notification when apps access their clipboards caused phony messages in Flutter apps and was later fixed as Flutter 1.20.4.
• Xcode 12 needs iOS 9.0 or up, so the default template is increased from its default convention 8.0 to 9.0.
• Problems deployed to physical devices were fixed as of Flutter 1.20.4.
• A new policy around network security for locally debugged Flutter apps causes iOS14 to show a one-time confirmation dialogue.
• Even, a restriction disables running debugging apps on iOS14 devices except for the debugging process.

In A Nutshell: If you are targeting iOS14 with your Flutter app, it’s straight from experts’ pens and leading mobile app development companies in Abu Dhabi and worldwide to rebuild it with Flutter 1.22 and deploy it to the App store. This will ensure your iOS14 users have an unparalleled experience. 

Keeping fingers crossed, all of this work on tooling and SDK allows you to focus more on the coding – taking advantage of iOS14 features. 

Take On Android 11

The release of Flutter 1.22 also coincided with the launch of Android 11. The Flutter framework and engine have been updated to support two new features introduced in the latest version of Android.  

First and Foremost, now Flutter supports exposing the safe insets of Android notches, cutouts and edges of waterfall displays.  

Next is the animation synchronized with Android 11 as it displays the software keyboard. 

Besides resolving all the issues, Issue  #19279 has been a long-awaited problem where the system keyboard show/hide animation is not synchronized with Flutter inset. This is also resolved for Android 11. 

Where It’s Recommended To Use Flutter? 

Utterly important, it’s better to use Flutter for MVP (Minimum Viable Product) startups when you have limited time and finances to validate the business model. 

An app created on Flutter proves to be more affordable:

• In comparison to the cost of two native apps
• The required development team is 40% smaller
• Linear processes
• More time invested working on the app’s features

Therefore, by opting for a Flutter app development for your project, you can cut exponentially on development hours. As you know, Flutter development doesn’t take as much time as needed in native app development. 

For instance, you opted for mobile app development in Abu Dhabi to craft an app like Facebook for two different platforms. Android development – takes 800 hours and iOS app development also takes roughly ~750 hours. But, with Flutter, you can easily cover both platforms and cut down on time also:

800hrs Android + 750hrs iOS vs 700 hrs Flutter

You can save your time, efforts in a rampant manner! 

Lastly…

If you are developing apps in limited budget and time, Flutter is worth considering as upshot with an ideal app development company. 

It’s not just as good as it may sound, but with each new update, Google devs add more tools for cross-platform app development, doing sure your project abreast the competition. For sure, having mastered the small syntax differences, you can easily spot the UI development goes manifold times faster than native app development.

So, get your Free Quote to enjoy an outstanding mobile app development in Abu Dhabi, UAE, to stay 2021 ready!