On 3rd March 2021, Google launched Flutter 2.0 in the event named Flutter Engage. There’s a lot of talk about this launch as many IT experts and experienced developers are terming it as a landmark launch. This new update comes with features and fixes which are extraordinary in their own way.
Earlier, developers used Flutter for Android and iOS app development. But with the latest version update, it has extended its mobile app development services to other platforms such as mac, windows, Linux, and embedded devices. Furthermore, developers now can also use Flutter for web app development, i.e., applications that are used on the browser.
This has brought a huge relief to developers across the world since it’s a tedious task to work on different platforms for the same project as the logic needs to be changed as per how the operating system adopts it.
Not only this, but the stable update version also boasts of closing 24,541 issues, merging 17,039 PRs from 765 contributors. Furthermore, the volunteer PR reviews have given their contribution to review 1525 PRs.
Flutter 2.0: What’s new?
There’s a lot that the new Flutter version has to offer and in this blog, we will try to mention the major highlights about the new Flutter update.
Web
The most exciting part of this stable release is Flutter’s support for the web. By offering support for the web platform, Flutter has pushed the reusability of code to another level. The release is very crucial as it has moved its approach from document-centric to the app-centric framework. With this, the web has just become an option for Flutter developers to build apps on.
By using much strength of web platforms, Flutter has built a foundation for developers to build interactive web applications. Furthermore, it has enhanced the platform with APIs for building flexible & interactive 2D & 3D graphics.
In addition to the HTML renderer, Flutter 2.0 has also come up with a Canvas-Kit-based renderer. Moreover, it also comes up with a Link widget which enables developers to give a web-app-like feel in the browser.
Sound Null Safety
Sound null safety is a notable addition to the Dart language. It enables developers to distinguish between non-nullable and nullable types. With this in place, developers can prevent null error crashes during the course of development.
Desktop
Similar to the web, Flutter has also extended its support to Desktop applications. Now, Flutter enables developers to offer a native-like experience on each of the platforms. This experience includes several key things like accurate mouse dragging, text selection pivot points, built-in context menu, etc.
This latest version enables the developers to stop the keyboard events even once they have been initiated. Furthermore, developers can move items in the ReorderableListView widget effortlessly.
The updated scrollbar widget is another addition that offers top-notch interactiveness in the desktop app as developers can now use their thumb. Furthermore, the desktop-flutter app shows page and down tracks. Also, the mouse hovers in the scroll bar. Moreover, the customize the app as their desire via the new ScrollbarTheme class.
The latest Flutter release also helps developers in the smoother resizing for macOS and Windows.
Secondly, the Flutter community has moved forward as far as the production-quality release is concerned. Now, you can expect support for various things such as native-like text editing, native top-level menus, and accessibility support.
Google Mobile Ads
Flutter’s new version has also come up with Google Mobile Ads SDK beta version. This helps developers to include native ads and inline banners with the existing overlay formats. Developers can easily customize advertisements with the help of Admob and Ad Manager.
Platform adaptive apps
As we already discussed above that Flutter now supports Linux, macOS, and Linux as well. Although, many developers have a question as to how can you write an application that can adapt itself to different screens such as small, medium, and large.
The screen is not the only factor in question, developers also wonder about different idioms (mobile, web, and desktop) and input modes (keyboard, touch, and mouse).
To find answers to these questions, you can watch the Flutter Folio sample video below:
Latest iOS features
Flutter with its 2.0 version is further strengthening its iOS support with its latest iOS features. It has come up with 17039 PRs, out of which 178 PRs are iOS related. It also includes 23495 which have State Restoration to iOS. Also, 67781 enable developers to build an IPA directly without opening Xcode.
Furthermore, 69809, updates the CocoaPods version in order to match with the latest tooling. Not only this but also the new version comes with new iOS widgets in the Cupertino design language implementation. Let’s have a look at these widgets one by one:
CupertinoSearchTextField provides iOS search bar UI. Similarly, CupertinoFormRow, CupertinoFormSection, and CupertinoTextFormFieldRow widgets help in generating validated form fields with sectioned visual aesthetics of iOS.
Autocomplete and ScaffoldMessenger
With the launch of the latest Flutter update, developers can access two new widgets which are Autocomplete and ScaffoldMessenger.
If we talk about Autocompletecore, then it represents the minimal functionality that is required to get auto-complete functionality into your Flutter app.
Autocomplete feature was demanded quite long. If we have to describe it in one line then this feature allows inducing auto-complete features in your native apps that are built using Flutter.
If we talk about ScaffoldMessenger then it helps in the easy creation of SnackBar for the action between the Scaffold transitions.
Multiple Flutter instances with Add-to-App
Flutter has become the first choice for many developers as it enables them to reuse the same code for developing mobile applications for both Android and iOS.
Furthermore, you can add Flutter to an existing application by using the App-to-App feature. This feature is crucial as it saves the native-code base and enables developers to execute the code for both platforms.
FlutterDevTools
The launch of the Flutter 2.0 release has also changed the name of the community from DevTools to FlutterDevTools especially when it comes to debugging.
The new FlutterDevTool will enable Visual Studio Code, IntelliJ, and AndroidStudio to help developers with debugging by checking for exceptions. Furthermore, the new FlutterDevTool has the ability to identify images that have a higher resolution.
In a Nutshell
I hope this blog served you well to understand everything about the Flutter 2.0 release. However, one must remember that there have been many things introduced in the Flutter 2.0 release note and one should consider talking to an expert to understand it well.
Also, if you’re looking to hire Flutter app developers for your next project then you can contact Peerbits which is a leading software development company. Peerbits is known for providing offshore remote developers of the highest quality and at the lowest possible rate.
