Flutter web and Google Maps

Bypass the App Store for your Maps app!

I made an Android app using Flutter and Google Maps and published it to the Google Play Store. Many iPhone users asked for a version for their phones. Building an iOS version and publishing it to the App Store seemed much more complex than building and hosting a web app (and I don’t even own a Mac). So that is what I decided to do. In this post, I will tell you about my experience. In summary, it was more difficult than expected, but I still think I made the right decision, and the iPhone users are happy.

Even if your app is not using Maps, the article could be of interest to you. Skip to the sections on building, debugging, and hosting a web app.

The reader is assumed to have basic knowledge of Flutter and Maps.

My app shows the location of 26 public artworks in Stockholm, Sweden on a map. The app has images and text describing them. A dashed line on the map shows a suggested walk which leads you to all artworks. The user’s position is also continuously shown on the map.

This is what I did, the problems I ran into, and how I solved them: