Every year, mobile applications continued to be increasingly popular. Fortunately, there are many programming tools available for developers to create mobile apps. Flutter is one tool among those, which has been noted for its greater acceptance.
What is Flutter?
Flutter is a free and open-source mobile UI cross-platform SDK framework created by Google and released in May 2017. It allows developers to build native mobile apps with a single code. That means developers can use a programming language and a codebase to create two different applications, for two different operating systems (IOS and Android).
Flutter is a modern framework, and it is much easier to create mobile applications with it. If you have previously worked on Java, Swift, or React Native, you will notice how different Flutter is.
Flutter consists of two important parts:
- An SDK (Software Development Kit) – A collection of tools to help developers in developing applications. This includes tools to compile the code into native machine code (code for iOS and Android).
- A Framework (widget-based UI Library) – A collection of reusable UI elements (buttons, text inputs, sliders, etc.) which developers can use for their own customization.
To develop with Flutter, developers use Dart programming language. Dart programming language was created by Google in October 2011, but it has improved a lot in recent years. Dart is an object-oriented single-inheritance language for front-end development, and developers use it to build mobile and web applications.
Also Read: What Exactly is Xamarin? Native Cross-Platform Development
Why Developers Use Flutter?
Here we have selected few reasons why developers like Flutter for mobile application development.
1. Flutter is simple to learn and use
Flutter is a modern mobile application development framework that is easy to learn and use. Developers can create real native apps without writing tons of code.
2. Fast compilation and maximum productivity
Thanks to Flutter, developers can change their code and see the results in real time with “Hot-Reload”. It only takes a little time after saving the code, and the application will update itself.
Significant modifications can reload the application from scratch; Also for developers who work on the design or size changes of the elements can see the changes in real-time.
3. Ideal for startup MVP
It’s cheaper to develop a mobile app with Flutter because developers don’t need to create and maintain two mobile apps (one for iOS and one for Android). One developer can create MVP and there is no difference between a native app and a Flutter app.
Developers can easily use Flutter widgets and customize them to create a valuable user interface for clients.
4. Compatible with Android Studio and Visual Studio Code
Flutter is available in different IDEs and is compatible with both Android Studio and Visual Studio Code. Android Studio is a complete software with everything already integrated; Visual Studio Code is a lightweight tool in which everything is configurable through add-ons from its market. Developers just need to download the Flutter and Dart plugins to get started.
