Flutter 3.0 Released by Google: Top 10 New Features You Should Know

During the recently concluded Google I/O 2022 event, Flutter 3.0 was released by Google for empowering mobile app developers to develop better, more robust mobile apps.

Flutter’s latest version has caused quite a stir among the developers’ community, and the talking point has been the latest, new features being added in this version of Flutter.

In this blog, we will discuss the top 10 new and exciting features of Flutter 3.0, that mobile app developers should know.

But before, let’s understand how Flutter 3.0 happened?

How did Flutter 3.0 happen?

Ever since Flutter 1.0 was launched 4 years back, Google’s team has been enhancing and adding new features to the platform, to provide mobile app developers with an enriching experience of developing new apps.

During the later versions of Flutter 1.0, Google added new development tools, and support for Metal, for improving the iOS user experience.

In version 2.0 of Flutter, Google added features such as Native Platform views, Sound null safety by default, web support along with a desktop preview.

In the later versions of 2.0, such as 2.5, Google added Material You, the next generation of Material design.

And now, we have arrived at Flutter 3.0, which provides even better and more powerful development tools, for creating a delightful user experience.

Top 10 highlights of Flutter 3.0

Firebase support

Firebase is a Backend-As-A-Service for Flutter developers, providing them with hosted backend services such as Cloud storage, real-time database, crash reporting, and more. With Flutter 3.0, the Firebase’s core integration with the platform becomes more robust and more powerful.

Google has now moved the source code and documentation into the core part of the Firebase offering, which is the main Firebase repository and site, thereby providing Flutter developers with a powerful backend service for creating better and more feature-rich mobile apps.

Google is also developing a suite of Flutter plugins that will make it easier to use Firebase. Firebase Crashlytics is another new update, wherein developers can checkout errors and crash in real-time.

Flutter casual games toolkit

With Flutter 3.0, Google has introduced the Casual Games Toolkit, which will enable developers to create and launch casual games from scratch.

Since its open-source, Flutter developers will be now able to integrate several new and exciting features via this games toolkit, and with integration-ready features (in-app purchases, play services, Firebase, and more) and a single codebase, developers will be able to seamlessly create new games using Flutter platform.

Since Flutter already supports hardware-accelerated graphics, creating future-ready games on Flutter has become more exciting, and seamless.

MacOS & Linux support

With Flutter 3.0, developers can now create apps for macOS and Linux operating systems as well. When Flutter was initially launched, it supports Android and iOS platforms, which gradually expanded to Windows, Web, and embedded devices.

With MacOS and Linux support, the spectrum and reach of Flutter have now further expanded.

Dart 2.17

Dart SDK within Flutter gets a new update with Flutter 3.0. The new Dart language: 2.17 will be now accessible to all Flutter developers (and also to those who don’t use Flutter!)

Dart 2.17 has several new features such as using enums and override as default functions, deploying and testing custom-written classes, using API sample code, and more.

Foldable phone support

Flutter 3.0 will now support programming for foldable devices and phones, and this has been made possible after a collaboration with Microsoft. Developers on Flutter can now use MediaQuery class and assign rules for DisplayFeatures, detailing the information about device elements such as hinges, folds, cutouts, and more.

iOS variable refresh rate support

For iOS-based mobile apps, there is some exciting news coming in from Flutter 3.0 updates. From now on, developers will get support for variable refresh rates on iOS devices, especially those having a ProMotion display, and iPhone 13 pro and iPad Pro devices.

With this update, iOS mobile apps built on Flutter will support 120 Hz refresh rates on these devices, which was limited to 60Hz earlier.

Streamlined iOS Releases

iOS releases have now become easier and seamless with Flutter 3.0.

With the IPA command (flutter build IPA —-export-method ad-hoc / development/enterprise), developers can directly upload iOS releases, without opening X-code.

Web app lifecycle

Flutter 3.0 now has a new feature called Webapp Lifecycle: This new Lifecycle API for web applications will provide developers with more flexibility and control over the bootstrap process of the Flutter app, when hosted via an HTML page.

Besides, Lighthouse can now analyze the app’s performance in real-time and provide valuable inputs as needed.

Image decoding

This is an important update for the Flutter web version.

With the Flutter 3.0 version, the Flutter Web interface will be automatically able to perceive and deploy imagecoder API, right through the browser.

By leveraging the browser’s built-in image codecs, Flutter web will be able to decode images asynchronously, which will result in upto 2X improvement in loading images.

Fundamental enhancements

Besides these updates, a lot of fundamental elements and features within Flutter have been updated and enhanced with Flutter 3.0.

Flutter’s latest version will now support Material Design 3, which will make the UI of the mobile apps more polished, intuitive, and user-friendly.

Additionally, Flutter 3.0 is now fully native to Apple’s M1 processor, which translates to faster speed and seamless compilation.

If you are planning to develop a new mobile app using Flutter 3.0’s amazing capabilities, then look no further!

Our Mobile App Engineering team at TechAhead has dedicated and passionate Flutter developers, and they are ready to leverage the new features and capabilities of Flutter 3.0 to provide you with excellent results.

Consult with us today to know more about Flutter 3.0, and how our Flutter app development services can transform your business.

Originally published here