Mobile App Development with Flutter: Get iOS and Android apps from a single codebase
Two apps for the price of one
Building native mobile apps for iOS and Android is a long and costly endeavor, especially for startups who need to move fast. Flutter is the next big thing for startups. Using Flutter, you can share up to 80% of the code for both iOS and Android and this way shorten the time to market. And you need is only one developer to build two applications.
Fast development
Thanks to the hot reload feature, every change developers make to the code can be viewed in the app right away. This makes the app development process more productive – we can experiment with UI, add new features, fix bugs – all without having to wait for several minutes like with native apps. Hot reload also makes our demos with clients much more fun.
UI out of the box
UI customization is always the longest in cross-platform app development. Unlike other hybrid tools, Flutter uses neither WebView nor the OEM widgets shipped with the device. Its UI building blocks are called widgets and they are all written in Dart programming language. With Flutter it's easy to create your own widgets or customize existing.
High application performance
Performance is one of the main disadvantages of most cross-platform frameworks. But not in the Flutter's case. This SDK doesn't use a “bridge” to interact with a device’s native components. Flutter's Dart code compiles directly into the native ARM code. This greatly accelerates performance on devices.
Access to native APIs
Some functionality in mobile apps can only be built using platform-specific functions like a camera or microphone. This requires access to native features. With Flutter, we can access platform-specific code using platform channels. These channels provide a simple mechanism for communicating between the Dart code and the platform-specific code.
What kind of apps we can build with Flutter
Flutter is a new framework but you can already see that it's a great solution for building cross-platform applications. Fast development, flexible UI, and native performance are the main benefits of Flutter. If you're just starting out and don't want to lose half of the market share, we would recommend that you pick Flutter for app development.
Fast prototypes
Flutter is a great tool for making fast prototypes. We can literally build a prototype in a couple of weeks using Flutter. Moreover, when we need to test a prototype in any of the platforms, we can test it across all platforms at once.
Apps with brand-first design
Building an application that looks on iOS exactly iOS-like and on Android Android-like requires writing more code on the developer's part. That's why Flutter is more suited for creating apps with a brand-first design.
Minimum viable products (MVP)
It's a great strategy to build an MVP after testing out any hypotheses through prototyping. Flutter allows us to develop an app with the minimum set of features necessary to engage early adopters and start the learning feedback loop.
Apps with native components
If at some point your app needs specific functionality that can't be implemented with Flutter yet, we can still build it using native code. Flutter/Dart code integrates with native Android/Java and iOS/Swift code, so it won't be a problem to add more advanced functionality to your app.
Need a full-featured app? Use native code
Flutter and other cross-platform frameworks aren't yet perfect for any type of app. For applications that need to interact with operating system features and other software that is installed on the platform, it's still better to use ObjC/Swift for iOS and Java/Kotlin for Android. At SteelKiwi we offer native mobile app development services in addition to cross-platform development.
iOS app development
Our iOS app development services include building applications for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. We provide UI/UX design, app development, testing, and support.
Android app development
We build user-friendly, performant, and secure apps for all wide-spread Android smartphones. We also build applications for Android tablets and wearable devices.
Why hire SteelKiwi to develop a mobile app?
We always pay the closest attention to the requirements and demands of our clients because we care for your time and money. Our advantages include:
Our advantages
- Strict QA process
- On-time delivery
- Experienced team
- Transparent communication
- Relevant experience
- Advanced technologies
- Reasonable budgets
- Passion for technology
Though in its early days, Flutter is already one of the best tools for cross-platform mobile app development
Google plans to make Flutter a native SDK for Fuchsia, its new experimental operating system. These new developments attest to the growing popularity of cross-platform technology, in particular Flutter. Check out our recent articles on this topic:
Talk to us about your cross-platform app
If you're planning to launch an app for both platforms – iOS and Android – at the same time, we can help you do that using Flutter SDK. Tell us about your idea and we’ll contact you very soon to discuss all the nuances of cross-platform mobile application development.