Multi-Platform Mobile Apps Fast and Easy with Flutter

We use mobile applications every day. Companies seeking to engage and empower their client base find them indispensable. The potential user base continues to expand as more and more citizens acquire smartphones worldwide. A custom mobile app might just be your ticket to tap into that market – but you’ll be one among many. Recent statistics show that new application submissions on the Android platform have exceeded 100,000 per month, while Apple’s iOS platform receives, on average, more than 30,000 per month. Of course, not all are going to be wildly successful – the quality of the application and the ongoing improvements affect the success over time. The app development framework that you choose in the beginning can also affect your ability to achieve those goals, contributing to the success – or demise – of your project.

What Framework Should I Choose?

You can choose to develop an application in the native environment for each platform. So that means writing it in Java/Kotlin for Android, and Objective-C/Swift for iOS. Writing your application from scratch twice doesn’t sound very efficient, does it?

That’s why cross-platform application frameworks have become popular. Some popular choices are Xamarin, React Native, and Flutter, and of course there are others. These attempt to remove the language and technology barrier between iOS and Android by allowing you to create applications for multiple platforms (even reaching the web, Windows, macOS, and Linux in some cases) using a single code base. Each framework has its own positives and negatives.

We find that Flutter is a powerful candidate for new app projects. It provides a great experience for the developer and reaches from mobile to desktop to the web. Thus, there is great flexibility to accommodate project requirements while reducing the time and cost of feature updates and maintenance releases.

Does Anyone Use Flutter?

When choosing a framework for a new project, one often wonders if they’re going to find suitable developers, whether the framework will impose unforeseen limitations on the project, or any number of other pitfalls. Knowing that big players are using it inspires confidence that it will work for you too.

• Google. While this one may seem obvious (they created the Flutter framework), it’s important to note that they depend heavily on their advertising for revenue… and the Google Ads application was developed using Flutter. They’re also using Flutter as a key component of Fuchsia, their new operating system for a wide range of devices.
• Alibaba. A major player in the Asian financial and consumer sector, their Xianyu application, developed using Flutter, is helping them to engage with customers and drive sales. It is used by hundreds of millions of monthly users, and really delivers on performance.
• Toyota. The well-established car company is using Flutter to create a smartphone-like user experience (with a genuine Toyota look and feel) for their next-generation infotainment systems. Coming soon to a dealership near you!

These are but a few of the many big names that are committing to the Flutter framework to achieve their grand visions. There’s a growing list of adopters – and there are thousands of Flutter apps already on the market!

How Flutter Gives You a Competitive Edge

These are some of the real-world advantages to developing an app with Flutter:

1. A single code base. It can be a real challenge to maintain feature parity and patch security holes for two separate applications (Android and iOS). Having all platforms stem from one source equals fewer bugs to squash, less maintenance, and reduced development time. Moreover, having access to other platforms can open up new opportunities to expand your app user base to the desktop and the web.
2. Fast. Very fast. The latest version of Flutter is boasting a 60fps animation rate – that is to say, smooth animations and an excellent user experience. The code is compiled to a native app for each platform – not interpreted or sandboxed – allowing the application to perform at the full potential of the user’s hardware. And the speed doesn’t stop there – development speed is greatly increased by Hot Reload, allowing developers to make small, incremental changes and see their effect instantly. Prototyping an application or hunting down an elusive bug becomes much easier and lightning quick.
3. Breathes new life into old hardware. While we’re all impressed by the power of flagship devices from the likes of Apple, Samsung, and others, the fact is most users have lower-spec hardware and older devices. Some apps are so demanding that this segment of the user base often can’t run the app, or the experience is severely impaired and users uninstall it. On the other hand, Flutter is performant, and is optimized to minimize resource usage. It outperforms other popular frameworks, such as React Native and Xamarin. And you have complete control over the interface; the user experience is not affected by the UI language of older platforms.
4. Flutter is not going anywhere. As we’ve mentioned, Flutter is being actively developed by Google and being put into production use for several of their own applications. However, even if Google decided to drop Flutter (which seems very unlikely), it’s been released in its entirety as open-source software. It already has a vibrant and passionate community surrounding it, so support and improvement will continue for the foreseeable future.
5. MVPs made easy. No, not a “most valuable player (or professional).” Rather, this MVP is a Minimum Viable Product – an app that has the minimum functionality needed to begin testing the market for user adoption. Startups need this style of development to ensure that the efforts they will invest in the application’s continued development will be viable, and satisfy the needs and wants of their growing user base. With rapid prototyping and development, combined with a wide range of platform availability, Flutter is ideal for startups.

As you can see, basing your app on the Flutter framework can pay off in a big way over the long haul.

Why CogentNext?

We love software development, plain and simple. If you have an idea for an app, we want to help you make it a reality. Do you want it to integrate with other software you’re using, such as your ERP solution? We can do that. We have in-depth knowledge and experience in app development, working with companies large and small to achieve their visions. And we leverage the latest technologies, such as Flutter, to bring your app to market in record time.

Would you like to learn more? We’d love to hear from you. Please contact us now to start the conversation.

By Chandra Subramanian, CogentNext Technologies