Outline

During the Mobile World Congress (MWC) that was held on Feb 26, 2019, Google launched the updated version of Flutter, its open-source mobile UI framework.

A year before at the MWC 2018, the first beta version of this framework was unveiled. This new version is the first feature update of this mobile application development SDK.

Read Here: A Step-by-Step Guide to integrate third-party Native SDKs in Flutter

Along with the release of Flutter’s updated version, the version 2.2 of the Dart programming language was launched at MWC 2019.

Furthermore, Google also previewed Dart DevTools, a web-based suite of programming tools for Flutter developers like us to debug and analyze Flutter apps.

More about Flutter and Dart Programming Language

Flutter, after its initial release, has given us a new way to write code for native iOS and Android mobile applications.

It was first announced at its alpha stage in May 2017 during I/O Developers conferences. Before its version 1.0 was released in December 2018, it went through five previews. It has been developed to compete with other existing frameworks like React Native, etc.

With this library, the performance of native mobile apps is to be combined with the multi-platform reach of UI kits.

It is a cross-platform app development SDK that allows us to use Dart programming language to build great apps for both Android and iOS platforms. With this language, it uses its widgets and hardware acceleration of graphics at the native speed of devices.

Also, its distinguishing feature of ‘stateful hot reload’ allows real-time iteration of the changes made in the app by designers and developers. In the time ahead, Flutter can also be used to develop apps for Fuchsia, Windows, macOS, and the web.

For those who already have Flutter installed for app development, it can be upgraded to the latest version using ‘flutter upgrade’ command.

What are the Latest Updates in Flutter 1.2?

Key Improvements in Flutter 1.2

Flutter 1.2 has been released with improvements in the following vital aspects

Stability
Performance
Core framework quality
The functionality of existing widgets
In-app payments and app bundles
Addition of new web-based tooling for developers
Animation easing functions
Video-player, webview, and maps etc.

Dart DevTools

To make it easy for us to debug and analyze our Flutter apps, Google has also previewed Dart DevTools. It is a new product and is available for installation with extensions and add-ons for Visual Studio code and Android Studio.

This web-based suite of programming tools has the following features –

Widget inspector to enable visualization of Tree hierarchy used by Flutter for rendering
Timeline view to help the developers in diagnosing the app at a frame-by-frame level
Source level debugger
Logging view to show the previous activities done by the developers

With further improvements, Google wants this suite to become a unified debugging tool for Flutter apps. Eventually, this technology company wants to build it into tools like Visual Studio Code.

Flutter 2019 Roadmap

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The Bottom Line

In terms of its features, Flutter is an excellent framework for the development of mobile applications. Since it is still new and is growing with frequent updates, it will take time to become completely mature. As per the Flutter 2019 roadmap which is challenging, Flutter has the potential to become dominant in the field of cross-platform app development.

Are you looking to explore how Flutter can be beneficial for your mobile app development? Send me a quick message here and let’s discuss how to grow your business using Flutter.