Google has announced Flutter 2. With this second version of the development platform, the company promises that developers can easily create applications for all platforms with a single tool.
The tech giant announced the new platform in a blog post on its website. The company claims that Flutter 2 can be used to build applications for iOS, Android, Windows, macOS and Linux using the same codebase. Building web apps that run in browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge is also possible. The platform can also be used to develop apps for cars, TVs, and smart home products. Google claims to be already using the development platform extensively, such as Google Pay and Stadia.
Still in beta
Flutter 2 is still far from a definitive version of the development tool. The development of desktop apps is a new addition that has not yet been fully worked out. However, Google considers the tool far enough advanced to label it as beta and believes the software is certainly suitable for serious development.
“We’re still rounding off a few rough edges including some important work around accessibility and internationalization. Some customers who are more tolerant of being at the cutting edge are already shipping with it, and now with beta we expect that number to grow”, Google’s Tim Sneath told ZDNet.
New features
The focus of Flutter 2 is primarily on progressive web apps, single-page apps and making mobile apps work on the web. New features for desktop apps include interactive scroll bars, support for keyboard shortcuts, increasing information density and support for screen readers in Windows, macOS and ChromeOS.
Any of the 150,000 Android apps that are based on Flutter should already be seeing the benefits of Flutter 2. Developers can easily adapt their apps to work on fixed computers or via the web without writing them again from scratch.
Google isn’t sharing its timeline for Flutter 2 but promises that a final version of the development tool will be released in a few months.
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