Flutter

Flutter is Google's UI framework for crafting high-quality native interfaces on iOS, Android, web, and desktop. Flutter works with existing code, is used by developers and organizations around the world, and is free and open source. Learn more at https://flutter.dev

Announcing Flutter for Windows

Tim Sneath
Flutter
Published in
7 min readFeb 3, 2022

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An image of a laptop with two light blue birds, representing Dash, the mascot of Flutter and Dart, hovering over the keyboard. The text in the image says, “Flutter + Windows”.

Nearly half a million apps use Flutter…

Extracts from studies by Statista (“Flutter is the most popular cross-platform mobile framework used by global developers… 42% of software developers used Flutter”), SlashData (“The most popular cross-platform frameworks for development include Google’s Flutter (44%)”), JetBrains (“The popularity of Flutter continues to grow. This year it has surpassed React Native to become the most popular…”) and StackOverflow (“Flutter is the #2 loved framework”).

Today, we’re thrilled to announce the full availability of support for Windows apps for Flutter in stable builds.

Windows and Flutter

An architectural diagram showing the Flutter architecture: at the top is the Flutter framework, built in Dart, which comprises building blocks like Material, the widgets system, rendering objects, animation, gestures, and painting primitives. Below that is the Flutter engine, written in C++, as well as the Skia and text rendering libraries; lastly, the Windows embedder which interoperates with the underlying operating system and passes Win32 messages to the engine.
On Windows, Flutter uses exactly the same Dart code, but takes advantage of native Windows APIs.
A list of some Windows packages, including USB support, maps, web, serial port, file selection, window management, TensorFlow, credential management, battery, WMI, printer, screen capture and network connectivity.
There are already hundreds of packages that have been adapted to support Flutter apps built for Windows.
Some early community examples of Windows apps built with Flutter, including Harmonoid and Rows.

Microsoft and Flutter

A diagram showing how accessibility aids can be of use to a wide audience, in three categories: permanent impairments such as blindness or deafness; temporary conditions such as an arm injury or cataract; or situational needs such as a new parent who is holding a baby with one arm, or a driver who is unable to look at a screen.
Narrator, a screen reader app built into Windows, works well with Flutter apps.

An ecosystem of tools for Windows development

A screenshot of Rive, a motion design tool that is written in Flutter and produces output that can be embedded into any Flutter app.
Rive, coming soon to the Microsoft Store on Windows.

Windows support arrives in Flutter 2.10

An image of the Dart mascot, Dash. She is sitting behind a laptop computer with a Flutter logo. We can’t see it, but she’s looking at a Windows app built in Flutter!

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Flutter
Flutter

Published in Flutter

Flutter is Google's UI framework for crafting high-quality native interfaces on iOS, Android, web, and desktop. Flutter works with existing code, is used by developers and organizations around the world, and is free and open source. Learn more at https://flutter.dev

Tim Sneath
Tim Sneath

Written by Tim Sneath

Director for Developer Tools and Frameworks at Apple. I used to run Flutter and Dart at Google.