Mobile App Development September 16, 2020

Why Google Flutter is the New Mobile Development Trend of 2020

Written by Analytix Editorial Team Jagruti Patel

COVID-19 has accelerated the need to embrace digital transformation for big and small businesses alike. As a vital part of the digital transformation strategy, mobile apps are no longer optional but necessary for all reopening businesses as they look to thrive in the “new normal.”

Nowadays, many apps are running on multiple platforms like iOS, Android, and on the web. There is a growing popularity for cross-platform apps because they are more cost-effective and a lot quicker to develop. Building native apps can be costly and challenging for small businesses.

As per the Statista 2020 survey, Flutter by Google reigns as the most preferred cross-platform mobile framework for building beautiful, natively compiled apps for mobile, web, and desktop, next only to React Native. According to a 2019 report by GitHub’s State of the Octoverse, Flutter is the fastest-growing mobile app platform. In 2020, the usage and popularity of Flutter continues to surge among developers as shown by the latest Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2020 and Jetbrains survey.

What is Google Flutter?

Flutter is a free open-source UI software development kit developed by Google for building beautiful, natively compiled applications for Android, iOS, Linux, Mac, Windows, and Google Fuchsia from a single code base. It works on the Object Oriented Programming (OOPs) concept and consists of two parts: a Software Development Kit (SDK) and a Framework (UI library based on widgets). A relative newcomer to the cross-platform app development industry, the Flutter SDK kit comprises ready to use widgets, engine rendering, command-line tools, and APIs for testing and integration.

Flutter offers a series of benefits, as it takes the best from cross platform app development and native development, making it the ideal cross-platform mobile app development framework.

Single Code Base System

Flutter is built on a single code base without compromising on quality, speed, or performance. As a cross-platform tool, Flutter SDK allows developers to create apps for desktop, mobile, and the web using a single code base. It renders everything by itself supporting both iOS and Android platforms.

Hot Reload

The Hot Reload feature ensures that any changes made in the code of the app are instantly visible to the developers without the hassle of recompiling the code. This helps save a lot of time for developers and designers.

Fast Development

Flutter’s Hot Reload feature helps developers quickly and easily experiment, build UIs, add features, and fix bugs. Flutter has a short development cycle and a simplified app development process. It also offers sub-second reload times without losing state on emulators, simulators, and hardware. Along with this it uses a rich set of fully customizable widgets as its core element to build native interfaces in minutes, thus drastically reducing deployment time.

Expressive and Flexible UI

The layered architecture allows for full customization, which results in incredibly fast rendering and expressive and flexible designs. Flutter comes with built-in beautiful Material Design and Cupertino (iOS-flavor) widgets, rich motion APIs, smooth natural scrolling, and platform awareness. Additionally, Flutter helps developers make simple widgets or customize existing widgets according to the user needs as part of the app design. This allows developers to build high-quality apps with less effort.

Native Performance

Flutter apps are written in Dart programming language that eliminates JavaScript bridge and are compiled with native machine code. This makes compiling and launching apps faster and easier. Moreover, Flutter’s widgets incorporate all critical platform differences such as scrolling, navigation, icons, and fonts. This enables Flutter to provide full native performance on both iOS and Android. Flutter renders the app itself rather than letting the platform do so. This makes sure that your app is both fast and responsive.

Perfect Choice for MVP

Flutter makes an excellent choice for Minimum Viable Product (MVP) because of the enormous collection of UI features and interactive designs. This means it creates a minimal version of your app and helps gauge the response towards the offerings. It also supports app development on both Android and iOS through a single code base. The Hot Reload feature not only expedites the app development process but also makes it easier to view changes in the app simultaneously.

Backed by Google

Flutter is Google’s UI Kit and, given the strong Google support, it has a massive global community. According to Google, around 500,000 developers use Flutter each month and there are now 50,000 Flutter-based apps on Google Play. The latest Google 2020 update of the cross-platform development kit has brought Flutter up to version 1.17 and the associated Dart language to 2.8.In the future, Google will update the release process for Flutter to improve the stability and predictability of its releases.

Wrapping Up

Flutter by Google is indeed a game-changer in the cross-platform development space. With Flutter app development on the rise as a popular choice among developers, it makes for the perfect choice as a cost-effective alternative to native apps for small businesses.

At Analytix, we combine our rich domain and vertical experience with comprehensive technical expertise addressing your current needs and positioning you well for the future.

Next Steps:

Back to Top
781.503.9003
sales@analytix.com