WHAT IS FLUTTER?
When Objective C/Swift and Java/Kotlin were the two most popular mobile development languages, creating apps was costly. You had to complete the task twice since you had to make two distinct apps. To solve this problem, a number of frameworks for creating hybrid (or cross-platform) apps in JavaScript and HTML5 have been created. Among cross-platform toolkits such as PhoneGap, Xamarin, React Native, and others, the Flutter framework has fast garnered popularity among developers, enterprises, entrepreneurs, and users.
With the help of the portable UI toolkit Flutter, you can produce native-looking apps for desktop, mobile, and the web with a single codebase. It makes use of Cupertino widgets, Material Design, and the Dart programming language. Flutter programmers can design beautiful user interfaces that feel and look native. Despite employing a single codebase, it functions normally across all platforms.
WHY FLUTTER AND WINDOWS?
A bold plan to spread Flutter beyond iOS and Android mobile apps to additional platforms including the web and desktop was outlined a couple of years ago.
Desktop applications aren't just mobile applications with a bigger screen. They are designed to work with a variety of input methods, including a keyboard and mouse. They typically appear on a widescreen monitor and have resizable windows. Important concepts like accessibility, input method editors, and visual styling all have their own conventions. Desktop apps support anything from file system selections to device hardware to data stores like the Windows registry, in addition to interacting with numerous APIs in the underlying operating system.
So, while we've been introduced to Flutter for Windows, we've also noticed that it's designed for Windows.
The Windows team was approached and asked to say a few words about Flutter's support. According to Kevin Gallo, Microsoft's Corporate Vice President of Windows Developer Platform:
“We’re delighted to see Flutter adding support for creating Windows apps. Windows is an open platform, and we welcome all developers. We’re excited to see Flutter developers bring their experiences to Windows and also publish to the Microsoft Store. Flutter support for Windows is a big step for the community, and we can’t wait to see what you’ll bring to Windows!”
TOOLS FOR FLUTTER TO DEVELOP WINDOWS APP
To enable seamless integration, Google's tooling partners have started including support for Windows in the updated Flutter. It's incredibly encouraging to see how Flutter has developed into a mature ecosystem, and if you want to use Flutter to build Windows apps, you should have a look at each of these tooling partners. Here are a few examples:
FlutterFlow:
It is a low-code application development tool for Flutter. With FlutterFlow's features, developers can now create Windows apps that are optimised for desktop use.
Codemagic:
This CI/CD solution has been improved by Never Code to support creating, testing, and automatically releasing Windows apps to the Microsoft Store while also enabling cloud-based development.
Realm:
You may now create desktop apps for Windows using the most recent version of this Flutter utility. With the aid of Dart FFI, it's a blazing-fast local data storage that offers quick access to the main database.
Apart from these there are other tools as well.
CONCLUSION
Flutter 2.10 includes stable, production-quality support for building Windows apps, as well as a slew of other features, performance enhancements and bug fixes that shall be detailed in the future.
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