How to Convert iOS/Android App into Flutter: A Detailed Guide
Since the debut of Flutter in 2017, its popularity among the development community has grown substantially. Flutter is one of the most intriguing technologies for designing mobile apps with a single codebase for iOS and Android. The first thing that springs to mind is the fact that app development existed long before Flutter was created. Given its benefits, is it possible to convert the existing app to Flutter?
Well, with the rise of cross-platform app development frameworks, converting existing iOS and Android apps to Flutter has become a popular choice for developers. Flutter provides a fast and efficient way to develop high-quality, native mobile apps for both platforms using a single codebase. This not only saves time and money but also ensures consistency across platforms, resulting in a better user experience.
Converting an existing app into Flutter: Business Cases
Let’s examine a few scenarios that will benefit from converting an existing app into Flutter may be your top choice.
- To revamp your iOS and Android applications
You have both an Android and iOS app, and it’s time for a significant update. This is the optimal moment to convert your existing app into Flutter. Using this cross-platform development solution, you may halve your development resources, since you will only require one development and QA team, rather than two.
This will allow your second resource team to focus on other tasks. Moreover, cross-platform app development resources are about 10% more productive than a native language development platform. This represents a savings of 55% in comparison to the standard native language strategy. Performance and code size are comparable to native language applications.
The main disadvantage is the need to learn Dart, a new programming language. For this purpose, you can hire dedicated Flutter developers or outsource the project to an experienced Flutter development company.
- To redesign one of your current applications
You have an Android and iOS app, and you need to revamp one of them. You can easily choose to convert the existing app to Flutter. Redesigning your app in Flutter will automatically cover the other platform as well. For example, you redesign your existing iOS app using Flutter, which is cross-platform technology. So, if it succeeds, you can quickly convert your Android app to Flutter as well using the same code you use in the iOS app.
- To include some new features or tools into one or both applications
You wish to add a feature to two applications built in their original languages that do not need replacements or large updates. However, you can still choose to convert the existing app to Flutter. While developing new features in Flutter, you may use all of your current native-language code.
Reasons to convert your existing app to Flutter
- Own Rendering Engine
Flutter mobile applications can achieve things other platforms can’t. Flutter developers are responsible for every pixel on the device’s display. This is accomplished with the assistance of Flutter’s engine. It is responsible for translating Flutter code into the actual image displayed on the device’s screen. The Flutter engine is sufficiently robust that it can re-render user interfaces at a rate of 60 frames per second (60 fps). When there are UI modifications or animations, the engine executes them as quickly as a native application.
- Similar to the Native App Performance
After converting an existing app to Flutter, the performance does not decline. It is so because Flutter doesn’t use intermediate code representations like other cross-platform frameworks. Converting an existing app into Flutter integrates your app directly into the machine code, eliminating performance problems. You may rebuild and release your app early.
- Ability to go beyond mobile
Flutter Desktop Em-bedder and Flutter for Web are now available. With this change, you can leverage Flutter app development to extend your platform available to the web and desktop as well. Hire a Flutter developer from india to make a pure Flutter program that works on all major platforms, including Android, iOS, Web browsers, Windows, macOS, Linux, and embedded devices, even though everything saves the mobile component of Flutter is not nearly ready for general deployment. Without modifying the Dart code, the application will function perfectly.
How to convert the app to Flutter?
If you wish to take use of Flutter’s cross-platform capabilities, you may integrate it into your current project as a library or module. Then, you can import this module into your app and convert iOS/Android app to Flutter to render a portion of the app’s user interface in Flutter.
In just a few clicks, you can increase expressiveness and efficiency by converting an existing app to Flutter. Now, let’s get a little more into how to convert the app to Flutter.
Convert iOS/Android app into Flutter
Android->Flutter
Step 1: Launch an existing project
Step 2: New Flutter module installation
Step 3: Use Flutter Android APIs
Step 4: Utilize the Flutter iOS APIs, develop the app, and then execute it.
Step 5: Attach and hot reload.
You may add a Flutter SDK hook to your Gradle script so that the Flutter module is automatically built and imported. It allows you to use the FlutterEngine API to independently begin and continue your Flutter environment. Additionally, Android Studio’s module import/creation wizard enables concurrent editing of Android and Flutter projects.
It supports both Java and Kotlin applications. Nevertheless, Flutter plugins may be implemented into an existing platform to allow Flutter modules to interface with it. Not only this, utilizing the Flutter attach method from an IDE or the command line, you may debug or reload an app incorporating Flutter using stateful hot reload.
iOS-> Flutter
Step 1: Launch an existing project
Step 2: Create Flutter Module
Step 3: Setup CocoaPods
Step 4: Use Flutter iOS APIs
Step 5: Build & run
Step 6: Connect & hot reload.
Add a Flutter SDK hook to your CocoaPods and Xcode builds phase so that the Flutter module is automatically built and imported. It enables the creation of a Flutter module inside a generic iOS Framework, allowing the module to be integrated into your own development system. In addition, FlutterEngine API is available for initiating and persisting the Flutter environment without requiring a FlutterViewController. It also supports both Objective-C and Swift iOS app types.
Conclusion
Flutter should be your first option for designing a new mobile application for several reasons. However, if your app was not developed using the Flutter framework, you can easily convert your existing app into Flutter. As a result, it will ensure that your app would stay safe from accidents and security difficulties without causing long-term damage to the organization.
We are always eager to develop and explore the Flutter domain. Schedule an appointment with us now to hire flutter developers and convert your iOS/Android app to Flutter, and see how we can help your business become digitally savvy in several ways.
