Flutter 2: Google's Toolkit For Developers Takes a Big Step Forward

An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: Google has announced Flutter 2, a major upgrade to its framework for building user interfaces for mobile, the web and desktop. Flutter promises to allow developers to use the same codebase to build native apps for iOS, Android, Windows 10, macOS, and Linux and for the web on browsers including Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Edge. It can also be embedded in an IoT device with a screen, such as cars, TVs, and home appliances.

The move to Flutter 2 promises to benefit the over 150,000 Flutter Android apps already available on the Play Store. Every app will get a free upgrade with Flutter 2 allowing developers to target desktop and web without rewriting them. Google apps now built with Flutter include Google Pay, Stadia and Google Nest Hub among others. Flutter 2 also brings production quality support for the web, with a focus on progressive web apps (PWAs) that behave like desktop apps, single page apps, and mobile apps on the web. Google has added a new CanvasKit-powered rendering engine built with WebAssembly. For mobile web apps, in recent months it's added autofill, control over address bar URLs and routing, and PWA manifests.

For desktop browsers, it has added interactive scrollbars and keyboard shortcuts, increased the default content density in desktop modes, and added screen reader support for accessibility on Windows, macOS and ChromeOS. Google has been working with Ubuntu maker Canonical to bring Flutter to the desktop. Canonical will make Flutter the default choice for future desktop and mobile apps it creates. Microsoft is also releasing contributions to the Flutter engine that supports foldable Android devices, such as the Microsoft Surface Duo.

Re:

[h33t l4x0r]

In general, good point. But in this case, flutter is open source so it doesn't really matter.

Re:

[iampiti]

You can of course continue to develop and support an open source project if it loses its majority corporate sponsor. But something as complex as this doesn't usually fare well without a corporation putting a lot of money and devs behind it.

Re:

[h33t l4x0r]

I don't know. If people like it, it will stay alive. If FB dropped react I'm sure react would survive.

When money is on the line, consider long-term

[Somervillain]

I don't know. If people like it, it will stay alive. If FB dropped react I'm sure react would survive.

When investing in a framework, it's not a question of will it work down the road. It's a question on if it's the best choice. You're not saying yes or no to Flutter. You're deciding on Flutter vs the alternatives.

In general, relying on an advertising company with a long history of dropping projects for your mission critical app infrastructure is not an ideal choice. That said, we work in the world we live in, not the world we wished we lived in and most major JavaScript frameworks are maintained by a

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[bjwest]

Google has no financial incentive in ensuring Flutter fits your needs...today, 5 years from now, 10 years from now, or beyond. They make their money off advertising. .

They also make a buttload off Android licensing and app sells. Flutter is becoming the go to language on Android, so I think it'll be around a while.

Re: When money is on the line, consider long-term

[Ronin Developer]

Dart is the language. Flutter is the framework.

So, the question is whether both will survive over the long term.

Still, Flutter is interesting and worth a look.

Flash. Can you say that?

[Latent Heat]

I knew you could!

What are the size of the Flutter apps?

[dhuv]

Nest is ~170MB on iOS, YouTube is 220MB. For comparison, apps like Simplenote are ~18MB, Zoom is ~80 and WhatsApp is ~90.

I realize there is a difference in functionality but it can't be that much. I am shocked at how large some of the banking apps are. I decided to delete them from my phone, I will just sign onto the web. Kinda ridiculous but I guess nobody really cares about the size as long as they have good internet speeds.

Re:

[bjwest]

Once the apps are installed, there's no need to worry about the size, it's not like you're downloading them every time you run the app.

Re:

[thegarbz]

Most of that size is nothing to do with the app or the underlying framework itself. Quite frequently they are shipped with lots of often unused resources such as videos, animations, or other bullshit that's either shown to the user once or not at all.
This bloat is there regardless of what fancy framework a program uses, and the size of Nest and youtube was huge long before flutter came along.

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[WebHikerOriginal]

Flutter runtime is about 8MB. The rest is market wanketeering videos and resources that some suit thought was a good idea.

I worry about vendor lock-in all the time

[davide marney]

On the one hand, who could possibly complain about being able to take advantage of so much expertise and investment -- at virtually zero cost to oneself? In a very real sense, the entire Internet ecosystem is just one ginormous pile of lock-ins. In for a penny as they say...

But this is Google. They have a direct financial interest in everyone adopting their tools not because the tools are merely good for their own sake (which no doubt they are), but because they serve Google's interests over time. Note there's a Google Ads SDK provided as part of the package, so you can seamlessly serve up advertising right in the heart of your apps. Very convenient; and I would expect no less.

This lack of separation of qui bono concerns -- who benefits -- makes me think twice. It is unlike Linux, for example. I don't expect that by adopting Linux I'm going to specifically benefit a particular business. Perhaps that just naivety. Maybe everything is "for sale" and that's OK because people have mortgages to pay.

Still.

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[zawarski]

Lock-in? This is google. You need to worry about being locked-out (when they abandon it).

But will it be optimal across all these platforms?

[iampiti]

"Increasing the default content density in desktop modes" sounds nice, but I bet desktop apps built with this still will look very mobile-y.
Call me old-fashioned if you want but I still think that applications need a specifically designed UI to be the best they can be on desktops.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

Call me old-fashioned if you want but I still think that applications need a specifically designed UI to be the best they can be on desktops.

While you're right, apps don't need to be the best they can be to be useful. Sometimes I just want a simple tool, other times I want a complex one.

Re:

[iampiti]

Right. It's not very important that a calculator has a mobile-first UI but on a complex tool that would be atrocious

How about compatibility?

[Parker Lewis]

In a quick search throw the linked blog post, I cannot find any mention to compatibility with existing Flutter v1 code. Hope it's compatible. If not, they'll repeat same "mistake" as with angular2.

Dart & Flutter had my interest from the beginn

[Qbertino]

Flutter & Dart is the first stack that comes close to what Flash & ActionScript 2 had to offer in terms of zero-fuss cross-platform development. I've been observing this pair for a few years now and it seems that Flutter is only gaining traction. Nice. Like it. Not ready to seriously try it out yet, but it sure looks promising.

Interactive.. Scrollbars

[dinfinity]

Scrollbars being touted as a feature in 2021?
What a time to be alive!

Yes, they mean actual scrollbars
- https://github.com/flutter/flu... [github.com]
- https://hobbister.com/2020/11/... [hobbister.com]

kolonie i obozy modzieowe

[viacamp]

https://viacamp.pl/ [viacamp.pl]