How to Build Augmented Reality (AR) Apps in Flutter?

With the advent of powerful smartphones and sophisticated computer vision technologies, augmented reality (AR) has become more and more prevalent in the world of app development. The ability to overlay digital information onto the real world offers a myriad of possibilities for both app developers and users. One platform that has been making a name for itself in this realm is Flutter. So, if you're wondering "how to build AR apps in Flutter?", you've come to the right place.

Introduction to Flutter

Flutter is an open-source UI toolkit developed by Google, which is designed to facilitate the process of building visually appealing, high-performance applications for mobile, web, and desktop from a single codebase. It is built on the Dart programming language and emphasizes reusable widgets, which allows developers to create a flexible UI with smooth animations. This dramatically reduces development time and encourages a more efficient code structure. Moreover, the hot reload feature, which applies changes to the source code in real-time, further bolsters the development process. Owing to these attributes, Flutter has been increasingly gaining recognition as a go-to solution for developers and businesses seeking robust, scalable, and feature-rich applications. As a result, Flutter development services are in high demand, empowering developers to craft applications that deliver a native-like performance while ensuring faster development, reduced cost, and the ability to serve multiple platforms simultaneously.

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Understanding Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality (AR) is an innovative technology that enhances the way we interact with the real world. Unlike Virtual Reality (VR), which creates a completely digital environment, AR overlays digitally created content like text, images, and even complex 3D models and animations onto our existing environment. This technology achieves its function by utilizing a device (such as a smartphone or smart glasses) equipped with sensors and advanced computer vision algorithms that capture the real-world view, interpret it, and track the user's interaction with the environment. This digital content is then superimposed onto the user's view in real-time, creating a seamless blend between the physical world and digital enhancements. This AR technology has found applications far beyond entertainment, extending to fields like education, healthcare, retail, and manufacturing, transforming the way we learn, work, and interact with the physical world.

Why Choose Flutter for AR App Development?

Before we delve into how to build AR apps in Flutter, let's look at why you might want to choose Flutter for AR app development:

Cross-platform Development:

Flutter allows you to develop AR apps in Flutter for both iOS and Android platforms simultaneously. This can drastically reduce development time and costs.

Hot Reload:

Flutter's hot reload functionality facilitates quick and easy experimentation, building UIs, adding features, and fixing bugs.

Customizable and Extensible:

Flutter has a rich set of fully-customizable widgets and allows you to incorporate other technologies such as ARCore and ARKit to create AR apps using Flutter.

Performance:

Flutter compiles directly into the native code for both iOS and Android, which ensures the high performance of AR applications built with Flutter.

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Preparing the Environment

Before you start to build AR applications with Flutter, you need to prepare your environment. Flutter is compatible with both iOS and Android, so you need to have the respective SDKs installed on your system. For iOS, you need Xcode and for Android, you'll need the Android SDK which comes with Android Studio.

Flutter also relies on Dart as its programming language. Once you have these dependencies sorted, you can download and install Flutter on your machine.

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Building an AR App in Flutter

Step 1: Set Up Your Flutter Project

Firstly, you need to create a new Flutter project. This can be done easily through the command line. Run the following command to create a new Flutter project:

flutter create ar_flutter_app

Then, navigate into your newly created project:

cdar_flutter_app

Step 2: Integrating ARCore/ARKit

For Android, Google offers a platform called ARCore for AR app development. For iOS, Apple has ARKit. Flutter has plugins for both of these platforms, allowing you to develop AR apps in Flutter.

To integrate ARCore, add this line to your pubspec.yaml file under dependencies:

arcore_flutter_plugin:<latest_version>

For ARKit, add:

arkit_plugin:<latest_version>

Then, run the following command to install these dependencies:

flutter packages get

Update android’s app level build.gradle file as following

android {

defaultConfig {

…

minSdkVersion 24

}

}

Step 3: Building Your AR Experience

The way you build your AR experience will depend on the specific requirements of your app. However, the basic process involves placing AR objects into the real world, reacting to user input, and updating the state of AR objects.

For example, to build an AR experience in

Flutter with ARCore, you could create an ARCoreView widget and then use ARCoreNode objects to place 3D objects into the world:

ARCoreView(

onARViewCreated: _onARViewCreated,

)

void _onARViewCreated(ARCoreController arCoreController) {

_addCube(arCoreController);

}

void _addCube(ARCoreController arCoreController) {

final node = ARCoreNode(

shape: ARCoreCube(size: Vector3(0.1, 0.1, 0.1), materials: [ARCoreMaterial(color: Colors.red)]),

position: Vector3(0, 0, -1),

);

arCoreController.addArCoreNode(node);

}

In the above example, a red cube is placed one meter away from the user when the AR view is created.

Similarly, with ARKit, you'd use an ARKitSceneView widget and ARKitNode objects:

ARKitSceneView(

onARKitViewCreated: _onARKitViewCreated,

)

void _onARKitViewCreated(ARKitController arKitController) {

_addSphere(arKitController);

}

void _addSphere(ARKitController arKitController) {

final node = ARKitNode(

geometry: ARKitSphere(radius: 0.1),

position: Vector3(0, 0, -1),

);

arKitController.add(node);

}

In this case, a sphere is placed one meter away from the user when the AR view is created.

For more information, you can check here.

Step 4: Testing Your AR App

Once you've built your AR experience, it's time to test it. Flutter has a powerful testing framework that allows you to write unit tests, widget tests, and integration tests.

Remember, though, that AR functionality is dependent on the hardware and sensors in a device, so while you can do a lot of testing in Flutter, it's crucial to test AR apps on actual devices to make sure they work as expected.

Step 5: Building and Deploying Your AR App

Flutter makes it easy to build and deploy your AR app to both the iOS App Store and the Google Play Store. The flutter build command generates a release build for your app, which you can then distribute.

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Conclusion

Flutter has emerged as an exciting and viable option for AR app development, thanks to its unique features and capabilities. As you've seen, creating an AR app in Flutter is not as daunting as it may seem, and the potential it offers is immense. At SoluteLabs, we understand the power of Flutter and have a skilled team of developers ready to assist you on your journey. If you're considering building an AR app, we invite you to explore the advantages of our Flutter app development services. With our expertise, we can help you craft a compelling, interactive, and powerful AR experience that meets your specific needs, without making the process feel overwhelming. Reach out to us to learn more, and let's together uncover the possibilities that Flutter and AR can bring to your app development project.