Flutter is Google’s mobile UI framework that aims at helping developers to make high-quality apps that work on both Android and iOS as easily and seamlessly as possible. Post the Google’s I/O 2018 presentation back in May it has seen a 50% increase in active Flutter users.
The Google’s Flutter SDK preview one is available right away, and the shift from beta to release preview signals our confidence in the stability and quality of the company’s focus on bug fixing and stabilization. It also announced that Alibaba has now deployed their Flutter-based app to millions of devices, and Tencent is currently rolling out their NOW app with Flutter.
The Release Preview 1 includes Flutter support for hardware keyboard and barcode scanners, video recording, and including a folder of image or font assets. Also, it will also include many new packages that are contributed to package sites, such as Flutter Platform Widgets, a set of widgets that automatically adapt for iOS or Android. It also further extended the Firebase support to include Firebase Dynamic Links, an app solution for creating and handling links across multiple platforms.
It is also broadening the support to include 32-bit iOS devices with ARMv7 chips, enabling apps written with Flutter to run on older devices. It says that it is working on improving the documentation and tooling to make it much easier to develop a mixed app. The company also announced that a Flutter in China website is now available