Flutter, a framework for mobile app development, announced a series of updates at the Flutter Forward 2023 conference.
Key announcements include performance improvements, the ability to embed Flutter code in apps and support for new architectures such as WebAssembly and RISC-V.
Flutter is an open-source framework maintained by Google. Developers use the framework to quickly and easily develop apps for multiple platforms, including desktops, Android and iOS. The native programming language is Dart, a user-friendly alternative to traditional mobile languages.
Flutter’s team recently demonstrated a series of updates at Flutter Forward 2023, a conference for partners and users. Most of the updates are in the experimental phase. The announcements give an impression of the features users can expect in the coming months.
News apps and embedding
First, the team announced that Impeller (Flutter’s rendering runtime) has been rewritten. The new version reduces bugs and improves performance. The update focuses on mobile apps developed with Flutter, but macOS and Windows applications benefit as well.
Second, the team is launching a toolkit for news apps: Flutter Forward. The toolkit lends itself to users looking to deliver news through mobile apps. Pre-built modules for authentication, advertising and push notifications speed up the development process.
Third, the team is tinkering with a feature that helps users embed Flutter code into other apps. Developers will be able to insert code with a simple <div> element.
WebAssembly and RISC-V
Fourth, the team is working on ways to compile Flutter to WebAssembly. Team member Tim Sneath expects the move to bring performance improvements.
“WebAssembly looks like it’s going to give us some improved time to load and reduce the size and number of megabytes transferred over the wire”, Sneath told TechCrunch.
Lastly, Flutter is taking steps to support RISC-V, an emerging chip architecture. This project is in its early stages. It may be some time before the first updates appear.
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