That's Why Half a Million Already Use Flutter

Time to Learn Something New

📅 2020.04.24 - 👤 Borbély Viktor

More announcements have been made at Google. The Flutter Spring 2020 Update revealed that more than 500,000 developers are already using the increasingly popular Flutter UI kit. This is not surprising, as it is currently found to be the best solution in cross-platform solutions (Android, iOS, web, desktop, …).

Its advantage is that with one codebase, the code is completed for the above-mentioned platforms, and the build needs to be performed for the appropriate system. For the common code language, Google chose its own Dart language. This also means learning a new language. Although if we have basic object-oriented background, this is not a problem. Comparing, for example, with Java’s completely OOP approach, here there is an opportunity to organize module-level units outside of classes. This is a big advantage and gives flexibility into our hands. Overall, it can be said that this is a simple but modern language.

So much for the technical background, let’s look at the numbers!

60% of developers develop their code on Windows, 27% on macOS, 13% on Linux.

Due to fast UI developability, it’s popular among startups (35%), but corporate use is also significant (26%). In addition, let’s mention that design studios have also started using it (7%). This is mainly due to the fact that Flutter has been consulted with developers from the very beginning by Google, and gave a sufficiently armed arsenal of tools into our hands. (They didn’t want to make the mistake they did, for example, in the case of Android, where only after years did they manage to give somewhat well-usable tools into developers’ hands.)

Flutter’s five most widespread areas are India, China, the United States, the EU, and Brazil.

Flutter in companies

Flutter’s growth is expanding rapidly among corporate clients, and Google’s research shows that the main reason for this is that a completely custom identity can be quickly created while supporting multi-platform solutions. The development team can be unified at the front-end design on a common framework, while functions are completed quickly for Android and iOS simultaneously.

It’s important that many and very good quality, professional building blocks are available from which interfaces or wireframes can be created.

Release of new versions was reconsidered

The stability of successive versions of the framework and the predictability of a new release date were important steps. With this in mind, great emphasis is placed on making the stability of different versions even clearer. In a solution requiring fast development, it’s essential that the release of new versions doesn’t disrupt the development company’s life. These modifications will already be palpable in the April releases.

Conclusion

It’s visible then that Google mobilizes great forces to make the general public love its new system more. Using Flutter, my experience is that the question is not how, but what I want to do. Based on my years of Android development experience, I can say that here the building blocks are really well thought out. Applications can be easily assembled. The use of tools (which is constantly expanding) makes me think that even a wireframe is worth preparing at the code level (or generating, e.g., in Adobe XD). In this case, half the code is already there, the UI.

You yourself can be convinced of its simplicity if you want to get your hands dirty. In this writing I present some basic things with a downloadable code example.

Particularly sympathetic is Google’s aspiration that from “regular” developers, designers can become in one fell swoop. Of course, each is a separate profession, but it can certainly help in developing a common language.

If you liked my writing, share it with me. If you find something to improve, don’t keep it to yourself. I look forward to your comments on the topic.