Why Flutter is the Future of Mobile App Development
Table of Content
1. Introduction
3. Why is Flutter the Future of Mobile App Development?
- Faster app development
- Ideal for MVP
- Cross-Platform Application Development
- Performance Boost
- Easy to Adapt
4. Top 3 Apps that were developed Using Flutter
- Alibaba Group
- Reflectly
- eBay Motors
Introduction
Flutter was published several years ago, but the amazing toolkit for developing various Google platforms has come a long way. It is a comprehensive and operative mobile user interface platform that helps to develop single-code applications for both Android and iOS. The speed at which Flutter is gaining popularity on both market presence and features front will make it the future of cross-platform app development.
As you’ll know, there were a lot of cross-platform technologies such as Xamarin, PhoneGap, Ionic, Sencha, Cordova, and many more. Most of them are already dead because they were insufficient and required knowledge from various sectors including the framework itself and platforms natively. Currently, only Flutter and React Native are at the top for most of the new hybrid projects.
Flutter is a perfect fit for businesses looking to invest in mobile apps. More than anything else, businesses and organizers have discovered that Flutter will be part of the mobile app development phase.
In this article, we’re going to discuss why Flutter is the future of mobile application development. But before that, let’s revise what exactly flutter is?
What is Flutter?
Flutter is Google’s portable UI toolkit used to develop cross-platform applications for Android, iOS, Linux, Windows, Google Fuchsia, and Mac. It is an open-source toolkit that allows you to create beautiful, natively compiled applications for mobile, web, and desktop from a single codebase.
The initial version of Flutter was known as Sky and it ran on the Android operating system. It works with existing code which is used by developers around the world.
There are two major components of Flutter, that are:
SDK (Software Development Kit): There are a series of tools that will allow you to develop applications and translate the code into native machine code for both iOS and Android code.
Framework: A set of reusable UI elements such as sliders, buttons, text inputs, and much more allows you to customize according to your own needs.
If you’re having any doubt related to Flutter setup and installation you can find more information here.
Why is Flutter the Future of Mobile App Development?
1. Faster app development
As we discussed earlier, the main benefit of using Flutter for app development is the single codebase. Despite that, there is a hot reload feature that allows developers to create a working app in a short time.
Businesses and entrepreneurs who are planning to create a minimum viable product for their own business can use Flutter to create a working prototype to reach the market.
Another great thing about Flutter is, the ability to expedite the development and testing process which makes the app development process fast and simple. Developing a cross-platform application from a single codebase added to the hot reload facility makes it easy for you to create an app in real-time. However, it plays an essential role in decreasing the cost of mobile app development as well.
2. Ideal for MVP
The minimum viable product is the product that requires minimum functionality to identify the requirements of your target audience and get enough validation for further iteration of the product. The MVP prototype expresses the core of the business idea that is designed to carry out the main business goal. MVP is preferred when you want to grow your business faster in the market and show your investors your working prototype.
Flutter is a perfect choice that allows you to build a minimum viable product as it speeds up the development process and adds an attractive user interface design layout to your app.
With Flutter, you’re not required to develop two separate apps for Android and iOS. The same codebase can work for both platforms. It will save a lot of time and resources for developers and boost the development process. Additionally, Flutter is also compatible with Firebase which means you don’t need to separate backends for developing simple MVP. It benefits developers in implementing services like crash reporting, databases, analytics, and messaging for focusing users. You can easily integrate Firebase into the Flutter platform.
3. Cross-Platform Application Development
A Cross-platform application is a type of software application that can run on various platforms and devices without facing any difficulty.
When the stable version of Flutter was released, it was a popular and successful tool for cross-platform application development. Once the code gets developed into a thoroughly workable app, it is implementable on any platform such as iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac OS.
4. Performance Boost
Performance is one of the main reasons why developers prefer Flutter for mobile application development. To understand the performance of Flutter in a better way, let’s compare it with its closest competitor — React Native.
As we all know that React Native uses key UI building blocks to run JavaScript in another thread. So, a bridge is required to establish communication between native modules. This process is time-consuming and requires more resources.
Also, Flutter compiles everything and consolidates the app logic and UI modules into machine code so that your app can run faster as well as boost its performance. Through this, we can say that apps built using Flutter are faster compared to others.
5. Easy to Adapt
Compared to other development platforms, Flutter is far way easier to adapt because it uses Google’s programming language, Dart. Dart is not as popular as Java, C++, or Python; but the best thing about this programming language is its simple nature. Developers who are not aware of the Dart programming language need to learn this language before starting any project. But after that, there’s no looking back. This performance and uncomplicated landscape of Flutter make it the topmost preference amongst developers. The Flutter documentation process is much simpler.
Top 3 Apps that were developed Using Flutter
1. Alibaba Group
Alibaba Group, also known as Alibaba.com, is a Chinese multinational company specializing in retail, e-commerce, technology, and the Internet. The three main sites owned by Alibaba are Tmall, Taobao, and Alibaba.com that have millions of users, and host millions of merchants and businesses.
2. Reflectly
Reflectly is an intelligent journal app that uses artificial intelligence to help the user structure and it is available in the iOS version only. It is the number one journaling app that helps you to track your mood & increase happiness.
3. eBay Motors
eBay Motors offers an easy-to-use search tool that you can utilize to refine cars by model, year, distance from you, price range, and much more. Once you locate an automobile that you are satisfied with, you are then able to either buy it now or place a bid.
Final Thoughts
Here we discussed the major reasons that make Flutter the top-most choice for mobile application development. Businesses are benefited from using Flutter and it will be the indisputable king of mobile apps in the near future. Organizations and entrepreneurs can get their products to the market quickly. Target multiple platforms, and reduce development cost, and hence gain more customers, at once.
Are you planning to develop a mobile app using Flutter after reading this post? If so, then do let us know your favorite reason behind using the Flutter platform and also here are some tips to grow your mobile app considering user psychology. Please share your thoughts in the comment section.
