Flutter Applications Can Now Be Released for Windows 10

Google Presents Its Flutter Application for Windows 10 with New Photo Search

📅 2020.11.30 - 👤 Borbély Viktor

The Flutter framework launched with full force by Google in 2019 is slowly fulfilling its promises. On their own Roadmap, they constantly keep their fan base up to date. It looks like by the end of the year, another platform came together: Windows 10.

As reported by the windowslatest.com article, in November 2020, Microsoft announced that their first Windows application written in the Flutter framework was completed.

Like Microsoft, Google is also actively working on its cross-platform UI solutions. Flutter is an open-source UI framework for mobile, web, and desktop. Google’s apps written in Flutter are already available for web and mobile, and they are working with great force on implementing Windows 10 support.

There were attempts

A few months ago, Google announced that UWP support is on track, and to prove this (proof-of-concept (PoC)) they presented an application under laboratory conditions.

Google’s framework allows developers to create applications for Android, iOS, and now Windows 10 with one codebase. The Flutter team at Google believes in cross-platform and this vision is similar to Microsoft’s Universal Windows Platform ( UWP).

The first swallow

UWP support means for developers that it can facilitate bringing their mobile applications to Windows 10. On November 25, 2020, Google released a UWP Flutter application in the Windows Store that uses the Unsplash API and provides a new photo search experience. The Unsplash API uses a modern JSON-based data format for displaying content, and the end result is surprisingly seamless.

Photo: https://www.windowslatest.com

The application was named “Flutter Desktop Photo Search” and is another proof (PoC) for now (its use is not recommended). Google targeted desktop PCs with it for now, but the application performed well on other mobile devices as well, such as the Surface Go with and without touchscreen.

It’s worth noting that the demo app fishes images from the net, yet provides a native experience with an adaptive user interface, which is quite amazing.

What does the future bring?

Using Google Flutter, developers will soon be able to create wallpaper and photo viewer applications that work on all platforms, including Windows 10.

It’s not yet clear when Google plans to release its own mass-market applications in the Windows Store, but we can expect that next year third-party applications written in Flutter will appear.

Developers can already start writing applications in Flutter that will be available for both mobile and desktop. According to Google, 100,000 applications have already been written in Flutter that are available on the Google Play Store.

Developer knowledge will appreciate

Adding the other two desktop platforms, Linux and MacOS, the opportunities of a developer who previously only thought in mobile development multiply. Of course, it’s also necessary that this not just be a flare-up on Google’s part and that they mow down the platform. Due to the hype formed around it, this is not expected, at least not anytime soon.

Flutter’s wagon is now moving upward, unstoppably.

Cover image: Johny vino / Unsplash