DiscoverFlutter, its features, advantages and disadvantages compared to React Native.

Over time, the use of mobile devices is consolidated worldwide. It is estimated that users spend more than a third of their waking hours immersed in them.

This provides all kinds of opportunities for the business sector, as some sources indicate that During 2021, more than 230,000 million apps were downloaded.

But because technologies change frequently, taking advantage of opportunities also means good time management.

Hence, finding ways of working that help save time with optimal results is a priority for those who want to commercially exploit the market through mobile applications.

Flutter It is a solution that has been positioning itself assertively for this purpose. So below you will learn what it is, what its most important features are, as well as its advantages and disadvantages compared to React Native.

What is Flutter?

It is an SDK (Software Development Kit) or software development kit, created by Google as a solution to internal problems. But, thanks to the potentialities observed, the company decided to transform it into open source in 2018.

The project initially allowed the creation of mobile applications supported by the iOS and Android operating systems. But today, it is possible to develop software solutions for the web and desktop operating systems such as Windows, Linux, Chrome OS, and macOS.

Flutter allows you to create beautiful and fast applications without affecting performance, since it uses native compilation. In addition, it makes it possible to implement these applications on multiple platforms with the help of a single code.

Work with DART, a programming language created by Google itself, free and open source, which is easy to learn for those who have worked with Java, JavaScript or C #.

It is used by many well-known companies in the world, such as WeChat, Nubank, Shein, MyBMW, Alibaba and the Brazilian government.

Flutter Features

Among the most outstanding features of Flutter are:

It's fast

Because your code is compiled to machine code on ARM or Intel processors, as well as JavaScript. In addition, it renders its interface itself, allowing applications with high use of frames per second.

Maintain productivity

This is because it uses a hot reload method, with which you can make changes to the code and observe the changes directly, without affecting the productivity of the application.

It is flexible

Since it allows you to control each pixel of the screen to your liking, for the creation of impressive and personalized designs.

It is based on Widgets

These are temporary created objects, with which the entire user interface of the application is built. It includes some by default for the incorporation of texts, rows, columns, containers, among other elements.

It has a large community.

The flutter community It has documentation, social networks, blogs and even a youtube channel that allows to know the operation of this SDK in detail.

You should consider that this tool is relatively new, so the community is still growing.

How to Install and Configure Flutter?

Getting started with Flutter requires a desktop computer running Windows, Linux, macOS, or Chrome OS. You should also check if your computer meets the system requirements.

The steps to install Flutter are:

1. Download Flutter according to the operating system you are using.
2. Extract the files to a folder accessible to all users in terms of privileges and whose name does not have special characters or blanks.
3. Add Flutter to the PATH environment variable with the value “flutter\bin” separated by a “;”. If the PATH variable does not exist, you must create it.
4. Close console windows and reopen if you have any open.
5. Install Android Studio on your desktop computer.
6. Configure the Android device or in an emulator of this operating system, with which you will carry out the respective tests.
7. Accept the Android licenses.
8. Install Visual Studio 2022 with all the C++ desktop development components.

The latest versions of Flutter include the Dart programming language, so you will not have to do additional configuration if you do it this way and not through the Github repository.

It is also necessary to know that Flutter uses Google Analytics, for which it can collect information to generate usage statistics and crash reports. If you don't want this to happen, you'll need to disable the option.

Scans are not run on first run, so there will be time to disable the functionality.

Dart can also send metrics and crash reports to Google servers, which can also be disabled.

If you want the application to have a web version, you can do additional configuration and use Chrome.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Flutter over React Native

Flutter is often compared to React Native and it is sometimes believed that one can replace the other. Both have many things in common, such as the fact that they are open source and have the support of two large companies, since Flutter is from Google and React Native from Meta (formerly Facebook).

However, development with Flutter is easier due not only to the qualities of the programming language it uses, but also because it resists operating system updates.

This means that if iOS or Android is updated, the app you create will continue to work. Instead, React binds to native skins that may fail in this event.

With Flutter it is also possible to easily integrate Google tools such as its maps or geolocation. In contrast, with Reactive Native you will only be able to get a single location without tracking.

But, Flutter also has drawbacks like the code can get garbled on each widget inclusion, it's not as widespread as a tool, and its community is still growing.

Conclusion

Flutter is a development kit that allows the creation of Apps, under a single code and with functionality on various platforms such as mobile devices, desktops and web browsers.

It was created by Google, it is open source, it uses Dart as a programming language which also belongs to Google and, if you know something about Java or C#, it will be very intuitive for you as a programmer.

It has interface functionalities which allow you to create very attractive applications that will adjust to your particular requirements. In addition, it has a good performance since it applies its own rendering and its compilation is native.

Flutter has been gaining a lot of strength in the field of programming and it is possible that it will consolidate itself as the great leader in the sector, thanks to its updates.

Thanks for your time ;-)