FLUTTERING UP

Flutter 2021: The State of Cross-Platform

What was, is, and will be possible with Flutter.

If Flutter is something new to you, then you should know that Flutter is a Google-backed cross-platform software development framework. A Flutter app can be developed, built for, and deployed on multiple platforms from a single codebase.

Currently, the supported platforms are Android, iOS, web, macOS, Linux, and Windows.

Almost a year ago I was taking a look at what Flutter was capable of in terms of cross-platform and why cross-platform might be a good choice. The points I made there are still valid.

Here, we'll go through a short timeline of Flutter, its current state, run a test app on all supported platforms (after a bit of setup), draw some insights and improvement ideas, and take a look at what the future might bring.

The past

Flutter started out targeting mobile platforms.

Codenamed Sky at its first version, it was working "only" on the Android operating system. In 2015, Android had over 60% mobile OS market share.

Already named Flutter, in 2016, it could be used to build apps for iOS too.