In March 2021, Google launched the much-awaited Flutter 2.0 to help flutter developers streamline processes and build native-like apps quickly. At the moment, so many mobile app developers see this development as a landmark achievement since the new software comes with amazing updates and features.

Before now, developers made use of Flutter for iOS and android app development. However, with the new update, Google has extended Flutter mobile application services into other key platforms such as embedded devices, Windows, Linux, Mac, and many more.

This article takes a detailed look at some of the notable features of the Flutter 2.0 version.

New and notable features in Flutter 2.0

Null Safety
Null safety is a great addition to Dart language. This feature helps Flutter app development companies developers prevent null crash errors during app development and differentiate between nullable and non-nullable types. Flutter app developers interested in moving Dart over Kotlin or other languages understand the importance of this feature. It helps them avoid errors even before they occur and shrink code size to get rid of additional checks.

Flutter for Web
One of the best features of the new Flutter 2.0 is Flutter’s support for the web. At the moment, developers can now use Flutter on all platforms, including Android, iOS and web. After 18 months of a thorough review by the team at Google, Flutter has become stable with great improvement in its performance for the web.

Before now, the flutter web had so many obstacles. First, the web was a complicated platform, and there was a need to implement features like hover, which made the site look like a large mobile application. In addition, the dart compiler was used extensively because it was initially built to replace JavaScript.

However, by providing support for the web, Flutter has now moved its reusability of code to a new level. With this, the web is now a great option for flutter app development and the creation of interactive web-based applications. In addition, the platform has also been improved with APIs to build flexible 2D & 3D graphics.

Flutter for Desktops
Just like the web, it is now possible to use Flutter in supporting desktop applications. A lot of work has been done by the team at Google to get to this stage which includes internationalization support. With Flutter, developers can provide a native-like app experience on every single platform. This native-like experience on the desktop includes improvements like mouse dragging with precision, an inbuilt content menu, selection of text pivot points, among others.

Now a mobile app development company can store keyboard events after initiating them; they can also move the grab handles effortlessly within the ReorderableListView widget. Another addition can be seen in the updated scrollbar widget, which helps to increase interactiveness by making use of a thump in the desktop application.

Also, a built-in content menu was added to the TextFormField and TextField widget for both Cupertino and Materials design languages. Flutter application developers can use ScrollbartThemes when personalizing applications.

Flutter DevTools
DevTools is a tool for debugging flutter apps. With Flutter 2.0, it is now known as FlutterDevTools. This great feature allows developers track down additional memory usage and app size. It enables IntelliJ, Android Studio, Visual Studio Code to help developers debug and check for exceptions.

FlutterDevTools also can identify images that have higher resolution. To use the feature, you need to enable the Invert Oversized Images in the Flutter Inspector. So when you display a picture that is larger in resolution than the size displayed, it gets to show upside down to make it easily searchable on the app.

In addition, with your DevTools running on your app, you can easily identify new error badges on tabs and track down problems with your app.

Ecosystem updates
Flutter development goes beyond the tools and the frameworks. It also encompasses a wide range of plugins useful for app developers. In the new Flutter 2.0, there have been lots of improvements in its ecosystem. For instance, the camera and video player plugins have been merged to increase production quality. In addition, for Firebase users, more plugins have been brought to make production quality better. These plugins include Authentication, Cloud Functions, Cloud Messaging, Authentication, Core, Cloud Storage and Crashlytics.

Extended portability of Flutter
Beyond the conventional smartphones, Flutter is expanding to different types of gadgets. Google highlighted up to three team-ups to showcase the maximized portability of Flutter. With Canonical, Google intends to offer a remarkable experience on more than a single hardware configuration. In addition, Microsoft is also contributing to Flutter Engine by offering support to foldable Android gadgets. Furthermore, the leading vehicle producer, Toyota, has declared its interest in producing a top-class digital experience for vehicles by including infotainment systems enabled by Flutter.

Flutter Fix
Flutter Fix is the best way to improve flutter API without breaking developers. It is a combination of different things; the first is the new command-line option to dart the CLI tool. Then it contains a list of available fixes which come with the Flutter SDK version 2. In addition, it also contains an updated set of extensions for Android Studio IDEs, VS Code, and IntelliJ.

New widgets: Autocomplete and ScaffoldMessenger
The release of Flutter 2.0 comes with two additional widgets, which are the ScaffoldMessenger and AutocompleteCore. ScaffoldMessenger deals with several SnackBar related issues, such as the ability to create a SnackBar in regards to an AppBar action. AutocompleteCore, on the other hand, is an often requested feature for Flutter. This feature represents the minimal functionalities to get autocomplete into your Flutter app.

Conclusion
As the advancement in technology increases all over the globe, there are expectations that more innovative businesses and startups will be established all over the globe. These businesses in turn need software that satisfies and meet their requirements. Flutter 2.0 provides all features needed by flutter application developers to meet business need just in time. Flutter is indeed the future of app development. It is evolving continuously, with more developers adopting its use.