Flutter 2: Expanding Beyond Mobile

During a recent online event, Google unveiled Flutter 2, the latest iteration of its open-source UI toolkit designed for creating applications that can run on multiple platforms. Initially focused on mobile development upon its launch two years ago, Flutter has broadened its capabilities. Now, with version 2, it natively supports web and desktop application development.

Unified Codebase for Multiple Platforms

This advancement allows developers utilizing Flutter to employ a single codebase for building applications compatible with iOS, Android, Windows, MacOS, Linux, and the web. This represents a significant step forward in cross-platform development efficiency.

According to Tim Sneath, Flutter product lead, the inclusion of web and desktop support is the primary justification for the major version number update. He described it as a “profound pivot,” noting that it’s uncommon for a product to suddenly gain support for so many additional platforms.

The development of web and desktop support has been transparent due to Flutter’s open-source nature. Much effort was dedicated to optimizing performance on these new platforms to ensure a smooth user experience.

Desktop and Web Support Status

While web support has transitioned from beta to stable and is now a standard build target, Flutter’s desktop support remains behind an early-release flag within the stable channel. Google advises developers to consider desktop support as a “beta snapshot” at this time.

The web platform implementation initially adopted a standard, DOM-centric approach. However, this approach limited performance, particularly for complex features. To address this, the team developed Canvas Kit.

Canvas Kit and WebAssembly

Canvas Kit, a WebAssembly-based project, brings the Skia graphics engine – the same engine powering Android and Chrome – to web applications. This allows Flutter to bypass the traditional HTML structure and leverage the app-centric capabilities of the web platform.

Sneath explained that this allows the preservation of essential web features like auto-completion for text and passwords, while still delivering a high-performance application experience.

Industry Support and Ecosystem Growth

Google announced that Canonical is fully committed to Flutter, designating it as the default choice for all future desktop and mobile applications. Furthermore, Microsoft is expanding its Flutter support and collaborating with Google on Windows compatibility.

This collaboration is unsurprising given Microsoft’s existing interest in Android. Microsoft is also releasing contributions to the Flutter engine to enhance support for foldable Android devices.

Currently, the Flutter and Dart ecosystems boast over 15,000 packages from prominent companies including Amazon, Microsoft, Adobe, Huawei, Alibaba, eBay, and Square.

Future Directions

Looking forward, the Flutter team intends to focus on expanding Flutter’s capabilities for embedded devices and other unconventional platforms. They are also exploring how Flutter can contribute to ambient computing experiences.

Sneath highlighted the team’s focus on enabling features crucial for ambient computing, such as searchability, monetization opportunities for developers, and responsible app development practices.

This includes improved analytics, enhanced advertising frameworks, and integration with services like Firebase and Google Cloud, allowing developers to leverage the broader Google ecosystem alongside Flutter.

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