Everything you need to know about the latest Flutter 3

Google I/O event means getting booming news for a technology-driven world. This time, Flutter 3 release is the talk of the show with improved support for different platforms and performance upgrades. Flutter framework is well-famous for building quality mobile applications at speed. Its glorious present and promising future with continuous updates have made it the favorite of developers and businesses.

Now, the new version of flutter supports Apple silicon and all set for desktop app development is now turned into a multi-platform framework. It’s more than a Google product now. With open-source in nature, the cross multi-stage UI tool allows everyone to get built natively compiled apps, contribute codes, or build package systems that support the core systems.

It signals flutter has a lot in the bucket to offer with continuous upgrades and improvements brought in the last couple of years. Take a quick look at the history of a flutter from the day it was developed and officially released.

Timeline of flutter

Flutter- the UI software development kit was unveiled at Dart developers summit 2015, and then officially launched by Google in 2017 that ran on Android OS. In 2018, flutter 1.0 was released as a stable version of the framework. A year after flutter 1.0, flutter 1.12 launched at the flutter interactive event in 2019.

Flutter 1.17 was released in 2020 with added support for Metal API, Material widgets, and network tracking development tools that have improved the iOS apps’ performance. In 2021, the flutter 2.0 release steal the show with improved support for web-based applications and desktop applications. Also, the null-safety feature is utilized to bring amazing changes.

In the flutter 2.5 update, Android full-screen mode and Google’s material design get improvements in 2021. Now, in May 2022, flutter 3 was released which has enabled the app development for 6 platforms using a single codebase with as much as UI and logic that developers can share.

The regular upgrades in the direction of making flutter, a stable and mature framework have brought incredible benefits to organizations looking for cross-platform development. Hire flutter developers to explore the limitless opportunities that bespoke flutter solutions are offering.

Flutter 3: Top New Features and Updates You Need to Know

What’s newly added?

Support for Firebase enabled

The developers not only leverage Flutter for UI development, but it’s used for coding, deploying and authentication, cloud functionality, and data storage as well. With flutter 3.0, firebase’s core integration has simplified the app distribution by providing a range of tools that helps from flutter app operation to its launch.

Firebase is a backend-as-a-service that facilitates hosted backend services including- cloud storage, crash reporting, device testing, validation, and others. The developers can build feature-rich apps as source code and documentation are moved into the Firebase core part.

A range of flutter plugins was developed by Google to make using flutter easier. Flutter crashlytics is one such plugin that enables tracking mistakes and crashes in real-time with a similar arrangement of elements.

Casual games toolkit

The developers who are keenly interested in flutter can now build casual games from scratch with a casual game toolkit introduction. The toolkit has templates, guidelines, and tutorials that allow developers to integrate exciting features such as firebase, in-app purchase, play services, and other features in the game app that work on multiple platforms.

Flutter developers have presented a pinball game app as an example that works well on mobile apps and web apps seamlessly.

macOS and Linux support gets more stabilized

The most dynamic cross-platform development framework gets officially support for Windows, web, and embedded devices after Android and iOS development and is now enabling flutter developers to create apps for Linux and macOS devices glitch-free.

With improved support for more platforms, the flutter framework can access services such as inverted colors, navigation, and screen-readers. Flutter MacOS apps are developed as universal binaries and provide native support for Apple Silicon devices and Intel-based Macs.

Dart 2.17

Flutter is a dart-based language that enables developers to implement advanced features and material widgets in the Dart language. With Dart 2.5 update, ML for code completion, support for C calling, and constant expression usage are enabled that has modernized flutter app development. Now, it’s again upgraded with the Flutter 3.0 launch. Dart 2.17 has come along with a series of improvements that are a boon for the developers. Here are the updates-

• The need to enhance Enumerations usability with influence extensions is eliminated. Also, there’s no need for using older models when working with enum.
• Super constructors have shorthand coding by passing constructor arguments to the superclass.
• The named arguments are placed anywhere in the constructor in the dart 2.17 release.

Material 3

Google’s in-house design language, that’s Material 3 also known as Material You is released with massive changes such as new buttons, app menu, adaptive colors, and variable font support. Leveraging Material Design 3 in flutter added wings to the developers’ creativity that allows them to build a user-friendly and intuitive product.

When the developers complement the material library’s ThemeData, theme extension helps. It eliminates the need to expand ThemeData and execute CopyWith and various strategies at once.

What’s updated?

Phone updates

Under the mobile phone updates umbrella, flutter 3 rendered significant updates for Android and iOS devices. They are-

Foldable phone support

Flutter 3.0 now supports programming for foldable phones with Microsoft collaboration. Leveraging MediaQuery class, the developers can assign rules for providing information about device elements, Display features, and others. Now, building dynamic and engaging UIs with widgets have become possible.

iOS variable refresh rate support

Variable refresh rate support in iOS mobile apps improves the user experience while scrolling or other types of fast animations in the latest flutter 3 update. The flutter latest version support variable refresh rate and ProMotion for iPad Pro and iPhone 13 Pro devices. The delivery ability on iOS devices which was previously restricted to 60 Hz is now increased to 120 Hz.

Gradle version update

when new flutter-based projects are created, the files are generated using the latest Gradle and Android Gradle plugin versions. For already built projects, the files need to be manually bumped to Gradle 7.4 and Android Gradle 7.1.2 versions.

Streamlined iOS release

The new options added to the flutter ipa command have simplified the iOS app launching. When you are all set to distribute the app on the App Store, you need to run ipa command to build the app bundle and Xcode archive file. When the app bundle is built, it’s uploaded to Apple and then released on the app store.

Flutter web updates

Flutter web received a lot of redesigns to ramp up the web app performance. The flutter updates include the following:

Web app lifecycle

The new web app lifecycle API released in the recent upgrade provides the freedom and flexibility to control the bootstrap process right from the hosting HTML page and assess performance at speed. Flutter can be run in headless mode for loading indicator, splash screen, and HTML interactive landing page.

Image decoding

With the addition of ImageDecoder API, flutter web apps automatically identify the API in the browsers for image decoding. The browsers’ built-in image codecs decode the image asynchronously with double speed as it continuously removes all jank created by previous images.

Conclusion

With the growing popularity of cross-platform app development, flutter has gained high traction in the minimal period due to its resilient SDK. As an entrepreneur, if you want to avail yourself of the flutter framework that debuts near-native performance, this flutter app development guide will help you.

Major organizations such as Alibaba, Square, Groupon, and Google choose the framework for the app development because of its continued growth with regular updates. The recent flutter 3 is the best instance of the same, which has brought a bouquet of additions and updations.

With increased support for six extensive platforms, Flutter 3 has revamped developers’ productivity and delivered a wow experience to the users with dynamic app development. Let’s wait and watch how developers play with the new version and bring something to the world. Stay tuned to us for knowing- What’s next?

Mitesh Gosai

He loves challenges and adept at finding tech-solutions that complement business ideas. Working in the capacity of Project Manager at Prismetric he strives to leave no chance for glitches in his implementation. He incorporates his extensive experience in his writings about new gadgets, tech stories, updates and innovations in technology, management tips, and inspiring app technology related information.