Flutter App Development Trends - What's New And Exciting!

• By Johany Wick
• 15-04-2024
• Mobile App Development

After a tumultuous 2023 for technology investment and talent, the first half of 2024 is all set to see a resurgence of enthusiasm about advanced technology’s potential that catalyzes progress in business and society. Experiments around data and AI deserve much of the credit for ushering in this revival. Still, it stands as just one of many advances on the horizon that could drive sustainable, inclusive growth and solve complex global challenges. A huge trend is here to stay.

The best part of this technology adoption is the amalgamation of technology with innovation, and the end result is just as fulfilling for the end user. Speaking of which, this year we’ll get to see the cross-platform framework Flutter run on Fuchsia, an experimental operating system by Google that aims to provide a unified platform for a wide range of devices.

With so much happening on the horizon, this blog represents the Flutter app development trends that are going to reign in the 2024 market for IT and technology.

AI-Powered Flutter Apps

Innovation is key to standing out in a tech-driven world. With Flutter, we expect to see a stride of AI-powered Flutter Apps. With Flutter, AI allows for examining existing codebases, identifying trends, and generating code-plus functionalities to speed up development and reduce errors during the development phase.

Flutter's robust framework is very well-compatible with AI and machine learning systems. Leveraging the two, mobile app development companies are creating sophisticated applications with advanced AI where developers can create products that are not only functional but also groundbreaking, setting new standards for user engagement and satisfaction.

For example, E-commerce apps built with Flutter integrate AI-driven recommendation systems to offer personalized product suggestions based on user preferences, browsing history, and purchase behavior.

Moving forward, Flutter app development companies will be able to use Flutter’s flexibility to create intelligent apps with features such as natural language processing, computer vision, and recommendation algorithms.

These apps are built using machine learning algorithms to analyze data and provide tailored shopping experiences, increasing user engagement and sales conversion rates. Integrating AI in apps built with Flutter would let apps analyze a customer’s previous product purchases and propose products similar to their interests.

An Ode to UI Experiences

With the latest release of Flutter 3.19 on Feb 24, we expect the framework to be more focused on enhancing user experience with better visual effects and transitions.

In Flutter, designers and mobile app developers can explicitly define the state of how the UI should be, while the framework handles updating the UI based on those conditions. Which means that Flutter follows a declarative paradigm as opposed to an imperative approach, where you have to state the steps of how the state should be to update the UI properly.

The set of customizable UI widgets presents a complex UI possibility in the future, giving companies the advantage of offering a more appealing and immersive user interface experience to their users.

DevOps Support for Smooth Development

Flutter’s entire architecture is widget-based, which gives development teamsthe ability to reuse code and UI components easily. This reusability helps enhance the app’s functionality, allowing the DevOps teams to create sustainable and maintainable codebases that are easy to test.

Additionally, Flutter supports the DevOps mindset of rapid development with a feature called “hot reload.” This feature lets the development team iterate within the development cycle in real time and instantly view results without using the entire application. By making the best of hot reload, the DevOps team can refine the code quality.

DevOps promotes rapid development and continuous iteration. Flutter supports this by offering a feature called "hot reload." This feature allows developers to make real-time code changes and see the results instantly without rebuilding the entire application. With hot reloading, DevOps teams can quickly test and refine code, reducing development time with faster testing cycles and accelerating the CI/CD pipeline.

Integration with Fuchsia OS:

Google is currently working on its new operating system, Fuchsia, and its cross-platform framework, Flutter, with many new releases. The new operating system, Fuchsia, can

Google Fuchsia is an open-source project which aims to create a new OS.
Unlike any other OS (including Android and Chrome), Fuchsia is not based on Linux Kernel. The framework of the brand-new OS is based on a microkernel called Zircon.

With Fushcia coming in the public domain, Flutter will gain immense popularity and support in faster cross-platform development. With the Fuchsia OS, Google aims to create a unified development platform where Flutter can be used to build applications across platforms, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, and IoT devices.

The OS also has advanced hardware capabilities and support for modern technologies, such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and machine learning (ML). By integrating with Fuchsia OS, Flutter can leverage these capabilities to build innovative and feature-rich applications that take full advantage of the underlying hardware.

Improved State Management Solutions:

To enhance the overall app’s performance, Flutter leverages June, a lightweight and modern state management library highly focused on providing a pattern similar to Flutter’s built-in state management. State management is primarily a process of modifying and storing the data that your mobile or web app needs to function. This data is stored in components, such as user preferences, real-time data from APIs, or the state of the user interface (UI). In Flutter, state management ensures the user interface is appropriate, reflects the underlying data, and improves efficiency while delivering a seamless and enjoyable user experience.

Flutter already offers a variety of choices in Dart objects for state management, like Provider, Riverpod, and MobX. However, future state management systems are likely to evolve, making it simpler for developers to manage complicated app states and data flows.
As we already mentioned, Flutter is declarative. The UI is built to reflect the current state of the application, making it easier for developers to make complicated and large-scale apps simpler.

AR/VR Integration

Flutter can be well used to integrate augmented reality features into mobile apps and elevate the user experience to new heights. For example, Flutter is gaining traction in the gaming industry as a viable framework for developing mobile games, particularly casual and 2D games with graphics and visual effects.

Since Flutter allows for the creation of immersive user experiences and animations, it’s a good platform for integrating AR and VR while developing apps.

As of now, Flutter itself does not provide built-in support for AR/VR. However, developers can integrate AR/VR capabilities into Flutter apps using various third-party libraries and plugins.

• ARCore and ARKit: Google's ARCore and Apple's ARKit are popular AR frameworks for Android and iOS. For Android, developers can use arcore_flutter_plugin and arkit_flutter_plugin for iOS to integrate AR capabilities into Flutter apps.
• WebAR/WebVR: For Flutter apps built for the web, developers can leverage WebAR and WebVR libraries to deliver AR/VR experiences directly in the browser.
• Flutter Unity Widget: The Flutter Unity Widget allows developers to embed Unity3D content directly into Flutter apps using a platform view. This approach enables seamless integration of Unity3D-based AR/VR experiences with Flutter UI components, providing a unified user experience within the app.
• Custom Plugins and APIs: Developers can also create custom plugins or utilize platform-specific APIs to integrate AR and VR features into Flutter apps. There are some AR/VR app development companies that build custom plugins to help you offer a custom immersive experience.

Benefits of Flutter

Flutter is already gaining so much prominence in the tech industry and offers several benefits that align with current trends and facilitate scalability for enterprises.

Single Codebase For All Platforms:

Flutter simplifies the development process by enabling the creation of one codebase for multiple platforms, such as Android and iOS. This unified approach ensures consistent user experiences across diverse devices, saving engineering resources and reducing the likelihood of platform-specific bugs.

Faster Time To Market:

Leveraging Flutter's multi-layered architecture and replaceable independent libraries, developers can expedite app development. Let's take Alibaba as an example. Alibaba's Xianyu app was developed in a significant 60% less time by adopting Flutter. Additionally, Flutter offers state management solutions like BLoC and Redux, enhancing predictability in managing app states.

Increased Productivity With The Hot Reload Feature:

Flutter's Hot Reload feature is a game-changer, as it offers a collaborative development environment by facilitating real-time iteration. With hot relead, developers benefit from instant visibility into code changes without restarting the entire application. This fosters efficient collaboration, experimentation, debugging, and fine-tuning of the overall application. Hot reloading also helps in reducing the

Improved User Experience:

Due to Flutter’s frontend capabilities, the framework is known for enhancing the user experience as it lets developers craft visually appealing and interactive experiences.

Flutter has a set of customizable widgets and rich motion APIs, which enable the easy creation of engaging animations and transitions. Moreover, Flutter's reactive programming model ensures seamless and responsive interfaces, enhancing user satisfaction.

Workflow Transformation With Automated Development:

Flutter automates development workflows, reducing the manual efforts associated with cross-platform app development. This transformation streamlines processes, minimizes errors, and fosters cohesion among application components, enhancing overall efficiency and communication.

MVP Development:

For enterprises seeking rapid app concept validation, Flutter is an ideal choice for MVP development. With faster development, you can build the MVP of your app idea and get it validated with the real public. Even with the hot reload, you can get the iterations done in real time.

Flutter's agility allows for quick beta app deployment, enabling real-world testing and iteration before extensive investment, ensuring the release of a refined final product.

Time-Efficient Testing:

Flutter's cross-platform nature minimized the need for redundant testing on multiple platforms, as the single codebase can run on multiple OS systems. This time-efficient testing process simplifies quality assurance, ensuring the delivery of robust and reliable applications using Flutter.

Final Words

What makes Flutter stand out is its approach to app development, which is different from that of other mobile SDKs. With Flutter, you can create a single codebase that runs on iOS and Android, making writing, testing, and deploying code across multiple platforms easier.

Flutter is here to stay for longer, especially with Fuscia OS; Flutter will emerge as a stronger, more potent, and reliable framework for cross-platform app development and offering customer-centric experiences.

However, organizations shouldn’t focus too heavily on the trends that are garnering the most attention. Implementing these is a game of the long run; hence, companies seeking longer-term growth should focus on portfolio-oriented app development companies across these tech trends most important to their business.