Google’s Flutter SDK Moves Out of Beta With Release Preview 1

The announcement of Release Preview 1 of Flutter by Google unlocks a new, exciting way to make apps, as it is especially well-suited for creating intuitive user interfaces.

The question is, "Google just announced Kotlin support for Android development — then, why Flutter?” And that’s a very good question. 

There are two main approaches for an app development. One method is native development, where you can use the default tools and languages provided by Apple or Google for their respective platforms. Another is making apps for Android and iOS in C# using Microsoft’s Xamarin, HTML, and JavaScript in Apache Cordova, or JavaScript with Facebook’s React Native framework. If you have the expertise, you can also mix and match these frameworks.

Now, Google is offering an alternative to its existing Android tools with a cross-platform framework of its own. Flutter is a completely new framework with a forward-thinking design in its reactive UI model for making a cross-platform native app. Flutter's flexible language, stateful Hot Reload, and integrated tooling offer less pain for developers developing high-performance apps on both iOS and Android. 

Flutter is an app SDK backed by Google to build modern mobile apps. It is based on Google’s own Dart programming language, which is popular within Google and a direct competitor for JavaScript. It has a rendering engine based on the Skia Graphics Library, which Chrome uses to draw pixels on a screen. There’s an IntelliJ IDEA for Flutter, just like Google with Android Studio, and Google is also using Flutter in its upcoming Fuchsia OS.   

Instead of wiring up to native Android and iOS components, Flutter paints every single pixel on the screen. Flutter has pixel-perfect replications of the iOS UI and Android’s Material UI, so developers can build familiar experiences out-of-the-box. Flutter’s real power is in creating custom interfaces and animations. 

Google understands how stressful app development is and wants to make it better, which has resulted in Flutter. To make developers' tasks straightforward, Flutter generates Ahead of Time (AoT) machine code. With Flutter, it is easier to pre-compile the code before making it live, which also decreases the chances of rejection. Flutter’s code is written in such a way that more than half of the code is common for all the platforms; only 15-20% changes need to be made compared to Java and Swift. 

These are enough to differentiate Flutter from other frameworks, but what makes it more usable is its Layout Widgets, as it uses an "Everything is a Widget" approach. They are intended to perform more smoothly for a faster app development process. They are attractive as well as customizable. You can customize your app with rich, composable widgets, built-in animations, and a layered, extensible architecture.

Another drastic add-on in Flutter is Flutter Layout. With Flutter Layout, its simple to instruct the position, state, and size of the widgets depending on pre-defined rules and regulations. 

In short, Flutter is one of the most anticipated trends in the world of cross-platform development. It is sure that Flutter will give a good edge to UI and mobile apps.  

The world is changing and Flutter is definitely an alternative to the current status quo. The latest Release Preview 1 SDK is available on Flutter's site, and users wondering what all the fuss is about should check out the Flutter app showcase.