Tracy Watson 27/05/2019 #Popular #Tips 8 min read Flutter is quickly gaining a reputation as a great tool that allows you to create a great app on all kinds of platforms. However, the platform has recently grown and now allows developers to build for web and desktops. The goal that Flutter has placed in front of themselves is to be the top framework for developing outstanding quality experiences regardless of the screen. Flutter has come a long way since it was first launched in May of 2017 and the increasing developments are in part due to Google’s internal teams relying on this technology as well as the slow performance of the Dart platform. With all of this in mind, let’s take a closer look at the newest versions that are now available. However, previously if developers created an app on: Android iOS Windows Web IoT then they needed to adjust the codebase to work on each platform, and it was causing a lot of hassle. As we will see later on, thanks to Flutter, developers can now write code just once, and it will work on all of these platforms. This is something that they have been dreaming about for a long time now, and it is a very much welcomed advancement. Needless to say, this opens up a lot of opportunities since it can also be used to build intuitive user interfaces. On that note, let’s take a look at all of the advancements that have been made in Flutter. Flutter Web When Google unveiled the preview of Flutter for the web, it immediately set high expectations when they decided to start enhancing performance right away and focus mainly on making sure that the codebase is in perfect harmony with everything else. The desired outcome would be to create content that included cool graphics and experiences that are very interactive. If you are an early adopter, go ahead and try it out and be sure to offer Google your feedback since they are asking for it. To show everybody what Flutter is capable of Google created a puzzle game called Kenken that was available for a mass audience to play on the New York Times website. This game utilizes one code base for all platforms. Thanks to all these developments, it is now easy to develop a website, even from scratch, with the help of Flutter. It can also be used to create web apps and easily compile it to a standards web project. Flutter for Desktops What once used to be an experimental project has evolved into a Flutter engine. While the targets cannot yet be used for production, some instructions have been made available on creating Flutter apps regardless of what the desktop operates on. As we stand today, Flutter for the web is more developed than the desktop version since the later still requires a lot of work. Having said this, neither the web nor the desktop versions can be deployed for production even though Google teams are working tirelessly to make sure everything will be ready in the not too distant future because they are eager for this technology to become mainstream. Embedded ServicesGoogle has made it possible for Flutter to be embedded on other devices. In fact, they have already shown everybody in some limited samples how Flutter can work on some smaller devices such as Raspberry Pi. At a recent event, Google unveiled the Next Hub Max, and we found out that Flutter is already working on the smart display OS. Google has very ambitious plans for Flutter, such as having most of its services powered by it. This is something you can expect to happen soon. Challenges Met In order to make Flutter available for the web, there were certain obstacles in the way that needed to be overcome. One of the problems was making sure that the engine responsible for producing all of the text and graphics packed the desired performance levels and was capable of supporting basic web features across all of the various browsers out there. They also wanted the architecture to be platform agnostic. This is made possible because when you are creating a Flutter web app, the entire framework is compiled to JavaScript so that it can run in the browser. Flutter for Web Devs With all of the developments made in Flutter, it can now be used by developers to alleviate the headaches involved when trying to provide the users with a consistent experience across devices. After the disconnection between iOS and Android has been dealt with, we are now one step closer to the dream of write once and work everywhere. Google has made a lot of effort recently to dispel the notion that Flutter is just for mobile development by showcasing how you can use it build for the web and desktop as well. A Flutter desktop app now includes a new and improved keyboard and mouse support, which are part of an overall effort to make the apps work on PCs that run on all kinds of operating systems. While a Flutter website is easy to create with tools such as Hummingbird, it will be just as simple to develop apps that work pretty much anywhere. As technology becomes more developed, you can expect it to compete with more established frameworks.