Developer productivity & delight

The joy of using technology and tooling that just works for a developer is not to be underestimated. Being able to work with the system versus fighting against it greatly impacts the final product. 

When Google introduced Flutter to the world it was very clear that they understood this very well. Flutter integrates with numerous IDEs, allowing the developer to work within the environment he is comfortable with.

Rapid development

A lot of modern frameworks offer the ability to rapidly iterate on changes by introducing the concept of hot reloading, which offers the developer the ability to see his changes reflected faster than the traditional way of working. 

Because Flutter was created with this in mind - instead of being an afterthought - this works brilliantly compared to other technologies that have added this ability later on.

Debugging and inspection tools

Flutter offers numerous tools to aid developers in debugging and inspecting the app they are developing. All of these tools integrate seamlessly with the supported IDE of choice. Fine-tuning and aligning a UI design to what the designer has envisioned is much easier because of the UI inspection tools that Flutter has available. 

Combined with the hot reloading feature this often results in a collaboration with design and development to align design and final product. This is not only a time gain as well, it allows us to go that extra mile again in terms of quality for those high-fidelity UI designs.

Platform alignment

Compared to other frameworks, Flutter has a very high percentage of code shared between platforms. There is no need to have multiple dedicated teams for the various specific platforms. This keeps platforms aligned and greatly simplifies managing the development lifecycle of a product.

Design and Branding

Flutter doesn’t use native platform elements. Instead, apps ship with their own highly customisable UI. This makes it perfect for apps that want a similar experience across platforms. There is no need to worry about platform intricacies but the focus can be on delivering a design that is recognisable across all platforms. 

Performance

Building UIs without the need to use native platform elements also comes with some benefits in terms of performance. Hybrid app development used to come with a trade-off. Usually, it meant that you had to sacrifice some performance for the convenience that hybrid app development offers. 

Flutter doesn’t need to translate the developed UI to whatever the native platform offers, but it offers its own rendering engine which is comparable in performance to what native apps have to offer.

Keeping things stable

Long-term projects which evolve over time need to have the ability to keep regression to a minimum. Flutter offers some splendid automated testing tools that help with this. The various tools on offer can test every aspect of a project allowing you to automate regression testing for UI designs, business logic, performance and full end-to-end flows. This allows the development team to focus on progressing rather than fearing those dreaded regressions.

Community acceptance and Google support

Flutter has been here for a few years now and it is here to stay. The developer community has embraced the technology and its contributions to the framework are part of the framework's success. 

It also allows In The Pocket to tap into the huge amount of open-source plugins to simplify its development and tap into platform capabilities. Google regularly introduces new language and framework features to keep it modern and relevant.

Native capabilities

There is an enormous amount of plugins available that help Flutter apps add native capabilities to your app. However, when Flutter plugins don’t cover the needs of native functionalities, there is always the option to develop these plugins yourself. This is where our seasoned software engineers can leverage their years of knowledge in native development to deliver the best experience possible.

Closing thoughts

Flutter has become a mature and powerful app development framework and we’re convinced it’s a strong tool to deliver high-quality applications. If your goal is to deliver a high-performant and stable app, with a need for recognisable and consistent design across platforms, Flutter should be at the top of your list. 

If you’re willing to try it out or if you have an application rehaul coming your way, do not hesitate to ask our technology advice. We’re always happy to help.

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