Digital transformation of an enterprise means utilizing various digital technology tools to engage with customers, marketing, and managing business operations. Digital technology drastically enhances customer experience, provides insight into data for making crucial business decisions, expands the reach of the enterprise to customers across the globe, and increases the efficiency of business operations by automating them. An important component of digital transformation for both enterprises of all sizes and scales is the mobile application. This is because mobile apps have become the main source for customers to purchase products and services. The boom in smartphones all over the world has accelerated this trend. There are close to 3 million apps in Google Play Store and almost 2 million apps in Apple Store with downloads numbering in billions each year. Thus, having a dedicated mobile app is not a luxury but a necessity for enterprises.
Flutter has recently become the favorite of app developers to make mobile apps for enterprises. Both new start-ups and established businesses are using Flutter application development for their mobile apps.
What is Flutter?
Flutter is an open-source Software Development Kit or SDK by Google. This framework is widely used to make cross-platform apps which means both Android and iOS apps. The apps are made using a single code base. Flutter is based on a simple object-oriented programming language called Dart. Thus, developers knowing Java and JavaScript programming languages are able to use Dart easily to develop apps. Many leading brands have started using Flutter to develop their apps.
There are multiple reasons why Flutter is very popular among app developers to create apps for enterprises.
Good productivity
Flutter is a cross-platform framework. This means the same code can be reused to make both Android and iOS apps. This feature saves a lot of resources and also enhances the productivity of app developers.
Plethora of Widgets
The performance of the app is a crucial aspect and start-ups and enterprises have to be concerned about the performance of their app in which they have invested. Flutter does not need OEM widgets because it has its own complement of widgets which ensure the native performance of the application irrespective of whether it is an Android or iOS app. The collection of widgets provide a wide range of options to the android developers regarding icons, fonts, navigation, and scrolling. The result is an application with fast startup time and good performance.
Fast app development
There is no scope for delay for any enterprise wanting to launch a dedicated mobile application. To this end, Flutter is very beneficial for app developers. The hot reload feature of Flutter enables the developer to view changes made to the coding in real-time. The changed code is reloaded without the need to restart the app even while the app is running. The hot reload feature is very beneficial for incorporating features, building the user interface, and removing bugs.
Time taken to test an app developed using Flutter is also less. This is because there is only a single code base that is tested. The same code base for both Android and iOS apps also decreases the chances of bugs.
High Compatibility
Android application developers using Flutter face minimal or even zero compatibility problems. The reason is that the widgets belong to the application itself and not the operating system. This is beneficial for enterprises since customers use many types of operating systems to access apps.
Integration into Progressive Web App
Flutter apps can be easily integrated into Progressing Web Apps. This is because Flutter enables developers to create dynamic UI components that can be added to existing apps with ease.
