Comparing Android Jetpack Compose and Flutter Framework — Making the Right Choice for You
Shared aspects of Android Jetpack Compose and Flutter, besides that they both originate from Google
Modern mobile app development frameworks have introduced exciting possibilities for developers, especially mobile ones. In the case of Android and Flutter, there are striking similarities that can ease the transition for developers considering a switch.
The obvious, one of the most evident similarities between these two frameworks is that they both originate from Google and are nurtured by dedicated Google developer teams. This common, shared origin has a certain level of consistency in terms of design, principles, and philosophies that are carried over from one framework to the other.
In this article, I will dive into the shared aspects of Android Jetpack Compose and Flutter, offering insights for other developers.
Exploring Android Framework and Flutter Framework — Similarities (and Differences)
1. Declarative UI Paradigm: A Common Ground
Both Android Jetpack Compose and Flutter adhere to a declarative UI paradigm. This approach, pioneered by Flutter, empowers developers to describe the user interface in terms of its desired state rather than imperatively manipulating UI components.
This results in more intuitive and maintainable code, as well as rapid iteration during development.
More on the understanding declarative approach can be found here, in this article.
More about why Android turned to a declarative UI paradigm, you can read on Android's official documentation.
Flutter’s Widget tree and Compose’s UI tree are both declarative representations of the user interface. Changes in the UI state trigger updates and doing so causes the widgets emitted by the function to be redrawn, if necessary, with new data.
Recomposing the entire UI tree can be computationally expensive, which uses computing power and battery life. Compose solves this problem with this intelligent recomposition.
Flutter, on the other hand, solves this by calling setState and notifying the framework that the internal state of this object has changed in a way that might impact the UI, which causes the framework to schedule a build for this State object.
2. Rich Ecosystem of (Flutter) Widgets and (Android) Composables
Both Flutter and Compose provide an extensive collection of widgets and composables, respectively. These pre-built UI elements cover a broad spectrum of use cases, from basic buttons to complex layouts and animations.
Widgets and composables are the building blocks of the UI architectures in Flutter and Android Jetpack Compose.
Both paradigms advocate for reusable, self-contained components that can be combined to create complex user interfaces.
For example, Flutter’s Text widget and Android Jetpack Compose’s Text composable serve analogous purposes – they both render text on the screen and can be customized with various properties to alter the appearance.
3. Platform Perceptions: Native vs. Customizable
While Flutter aims to offer a consistent and customizable UI experience across platforms, the Android framework focuses on adhering to platform-specific design guidelines. This distinction shapes the user experience and interaction patterns.
Flutter’s widgets are designed to be adaptable across platforms, providing a similar look and feel on iOS, Android, and other targets. On the contrary, Android follows platform-specific guidelines like Material Design, ensuring a native and familiar experience on Android devices.
4. Reactive Programming Model: Ensuring UI Consistency
Flutter and Android Jetpack Compose also share a reactive programming model, enabling UI updates based on changes in underlying data. This ensures a seamless synchronization between the app’s logic and its visual representation.
In simpler words, it ensures that your app’s user interface (UI) stays consistent and up-to-date.
Imagine your app’s UI is a reflection of the data or information it holds. With reactive programming, any changes to this data are automatically reflected in the UI without you having to manually update it.
It’s like having a magic mirror that instantly shows the latest version of your app’s information. This not only saves you a lot of time but also ensures that your users always see the most accurate and current information, creating a smoother and more reliable experience. This approach is a key part of modern app development, making sure that the user interface is always in sync with what’s happening behind the scenes.
For example, in Flutter, changing the state of a widget triggers a rebuild of that widget and its descendants.
Similarly, modifying the state of a Composable in Android Jetpack Compose leads to an automatic recomposition of the UI element, as already described in the beginning.
Difference — Hot Reload for Immediate Feedback
Flutter’s hot reload feature has revolutionized the development process by providing real-time feedback on code changes.
In the Compose case, hot reload takes a backseat. To counter the lack of hot reload, Google introduced the Preview mechanism within Android Studio for Compose. By adding the Preview annotation to your composable function, it lets you visualize UI components right within the IDE, as changes happen in real time.
Difference — The Developer’s Canvas: IDEs
The development environments that developers use have a big impact on how smoothly they can work and how much they can accomplish. For instance, Android Studio is designed specifically for creating Android apps, while developers using Flutter often choose between Visual Studio Code or Android Studio with the Flutter plugin.
There are a variety of functionality differences between these two tools. Visual Studio Code is lighter than Android Studio. So if you choose Flutter and you are genuinely limited by your hardware, you may be better off on Visual Studio Code.
Android Studio stands out as a robust and feature-packed integrated development environment (IDE), making it an excellent match through debugging and optimization.
Having used both tools daily, I can assure you they’re both quite user-friendly. But, if you’re just starting out with Flutter, Android Studio might feel a bit trickier to grasp at first. On the other hand, Visual Studio Code has a welcoming vibe, making it very beginner-friendly.
When it comes to Android development, it seems like Android Studio is pretty much the go-to option for developers. There isn’t much of an alternative, really.
So, which one to learn, and should you even pick one, or you can learn both?
Choosing One — Android or Flutter?
- Android Development: If your primary focus is building native Android applications, and you are comfortable with Java or Kotlin, then the Android framework is a natural choice. Android provides deep integration with the Android ecosystem, access to platform-specific features, and adherence to Material Design guidelines for a consistent user experience. First and foremost, native apps have better performance than cross-platform or hybrid solutions, advanced customization, and improved scalability.
- Flutter Development: If you aim for cross-platform development, targeting both Android and iOS (and even other platforms like web and desktop), Flutter becomes an excellent choice. Flutter’s single codebase approach offers efficiency in maintaining consistent UI across platforms and accelerating development cycles.
Learning Both
Learning both Android and Flutter can be beneficial if you want to be proficient in multiple app development approaches. However, keep in mind that this might require investing more time in mastering two different languages (Kotlin for Android, Dart for Flutter), and UI paradigms even if they seem similar.
It’s also essential to consider whether you have the resources and time to allocate to learning and maintaining proficiency in both.
Ultimately, the decision depends on your project goals, the platforms you want to target, your existing skillset, and your willingness to invest in learning.
If you’re just starting out, focusing on one framework might be more manageable.
However, if you’re an experienced developer looking to enhance your skill set, learning both Android and Flutter could open up more opportunities for you in the fast-evolving world of mobile development.
An Aligned Path Forward
The similarities between Android Jetpack Compose and Flutter are not just coincidences. They reflect the industry’s shift towards more efficient, developer-friendly approaches to UI development.
For developers contemplating a switch between Android/Kotlin and Flutter/Dart, the shared principles of declarative UI, component-based architecture, hot reload, reactive programming and a rich widget/composable ecosystem create a bridge of familiarity and synergy.
While Android Jetpack Compose is explicitly tailored for native Android applications and Flutter offers cross-platform capabilities, the similarities in their core concepts can make the transition easy for developers.
For example, both Flutter and Android share similar/same architecture design patterns, using the most popular patterns like MVVM and MVI and having tools and guidance for the usage of the same principle in the projects.
More on their common architectural design patterns coming up in the next article.
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