Google’s New Flutter 3: All You Need to Know

Google’s Flutter, incepted a four years ago with the sole aim to build natively compiled applications! Recently, with the release of Flutter 3.0, the cross-platform technology has garnered all the needed attention for one winning reason—its stabilized support for building apps for Linux and macOS—apart from Android, iOS, and web apps already topping the list.

Thus, charting the complete territory that will now allow Flutter Developers to build applications for all major platforms i.e. Android, iOS, Windows, Linux, macOS, and even the web all from the shared codebase. At this year’s Google I/O developer conference, it was the major hit release to delivering the multiplatform UI development across phones, desktops and the web.

The team has also added its support for Apple Silicon, among many other new features (discussed below).On macOS, the apps can run natively on Intel and Apple Silicon chips owing to its support for Universal Binaries.

While for the Linux release as well, Flutter will come full circle in offering a highly integrated, best-of-breed option for application development, as a result of Google’s partnership with Ubuntu’s Canonical.

Google Flutter 3: Set to Cross All Targets

As Flutter is getting whopping cross-platform mobile applications (more than 500,000 apps) developed under its belt, the technology is proving its mettle in many niches. Being a feature-rich and comparatively new SDK, Flutter has helped developers build a range of modern apps belonging to several industries and businesses.

The usage niche scenarios range from eCommerce apps like Shein, eBay motors, Xianyu, and social networking and managing apps like WeChat, Hookle, PostMuse, and Lifestyle apps like My BMW, Fastic, Tabcorp, to name a few. The technology platform has also made its outstanding debut in creating official apps for government and public institutions such as the Brazilian government.

In a nutshell, Flutter was already radiating its brilliance across industries and with the release of Flutter 3.0, it has completed the loop by covering all the missing platforms out of the play.

Flutter app development, like earlier, will allow cross-platform developers to build beautiful app experiences for a total of six platforms with just one codebase. Here we enlist all the fresh features, updates, and development experience, Flutter 3.0 has in store for you.

Read Also: Top 10 Flutter App Development Tools for App Developers

Latest Features: What’s New in Flutter 3?

1. macOS and Linux Support 

Flutter is a most dynamic cross-platform development framework till now, which supports Android and iOS platforms. Now, with Flutter 3, its support has been extended at a great level and can now be officially used to build apps for Web, Windows, Mac, and embedded devices. After the introduction of Flutter 3, the developers who have to put additional efforts into adding platforms or building their apps on other platforms, have now come to ease. Hence, as of now, the flutter developers can build applications for macOS and Linux devices in a hassle-free manner.

2. Firebase Support in Flutter

According to Google, 63% of Flutter Developers use and practice integrating Firebase in their apps. As a result, with Flutter 3 the integration of Firebase with Flutter has become now better than ever. The overall documentation, tooling, and widgets has been improved, for instance, FlutterFire UI- facilitates developers with reusable UI for profile screens and authentication. Overall, Flutter 3 supports app development and maintenance, user analytics, storage, authentication, and cloud functionality, with detailed crash reporting. The services like AppWrite, Sentry, and AWS Amplify have played a vital role in improving the overall functionality.

3. Flutter’s Game Toolkit

It’s been going to be heart-warming news for game developers, as Flutter 3 has goodies for them as well in its basket. Google has provided a casual gaming toolkit that includes guidelines, tutorials, and templates for game developers who are planning or aiming to build a gaming app in Flutter. This has widened the horizon for game developers to design more innovative, and engaging ideas for game enthusiasts. The game developers can have a tour of the Flame Game Engine to gain additional insights into how Flutter works with game app development.

4. Dart 2.17

Flutter 3 has also introduced updates for the Dart SDK, with the new language version 2.17. The developers can now access all the additional benefits of Dart, regardless of whether they use Flutter or not. The Dart 2.17 version’s hallmark features provide the ability for developers to extend enums and override the default function as well. Hence, the enums can act similar to the custom written classes.

Mobile Updates in Flutter 3

1. iOS variable Refresh Rate Support

In iOS devices along with iPhone 13 Pro and iPad Pro, the latest version of Flutter i.e. Flutter 3 supports variable refresh rates with ProMotion displays. Flutter 3 version supports the increase in Hz rate i.e. from the earlier limit of 60 Hz to the latest limit of 120 Hz on devices. This speed increase supports a smooth user experience with animations.

2. Foldable Phone Support

By collaborating with Microsoft, Flutter 3 supports foldable mobile devices. This feature allows developers to infuse dynamic and productive experiences on foldable phone devices.

3. Streamlined iOS Releases

To streamline the release of iOS applications, the Flutter 3 version is available with a new option to build an IPA command (is an integrated security information management solution based on 389 Directory Server).

Web Updates in Flutter 3

1. Web App Lifecycle

With the updated version of Flutter 3, its latest lifecycle API for web applications, can allow developers to have the flexibility and gain control over the bootstrap process of Flutter app development from the hosting HTML page.

2. Image Decoding

The Flutter 3 version in web development can now automatically infer and use the imagecoder API in the browser. This API updation can decode images asynchronously off the core thread by using the browser’s built-in image codecs. With this feature, the speed of images gets increased by 2x without blocking the main thread. Additionally, it removes all the clutter which were earlier generated by images.

Additional Exciting Features in Flutter 3

1. Theme Extensions

By using the Theme Extensions in the Flutter 3 version, now the developers can add anything to the ThemeData of the material library. The developer simply needs to mention ‘ThemeData.extensions’ rather than writing for extending ThemeData and implementing copyWith, lerp, and other methods.

2. Advertisements

To build personalized advertisements and manage Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) requirements, the Flutter 3 app development version supports the publisher’s customized requirements. Google also provides a User Messaging Platform (UMP) SDK, which can efficiently replace the previous open-source Consent SDK.

Big Strengths Never Concludes

If the term “smooth experiences across the platforms” needs to be elaborated with a practical example, then the Flutter App Development and its significant releases would be the perfect one. Evidently, Flutter is the best framework for Cross-platform app development, designed to give a tough battle to its counterparts with its high-end, rich, and naturally immersive user experiences.

Are you ready to burst all its spilling functionality power in your upcoming app? Move ahead with speed and stop crawling with old age technologies. Flutter is the offbeat cross-platform technology to develop and deliver natively-compiled applications.