Introduction
The future belongs to cross-platform development, and Flutter is one of the most popular and fastest application development platforms. Supported by Google, Flutter was first released in 2017 and has risen through the ranks to become the most sought-after hybrid development framework. So far, more than half a million applications have been built using Flutter, which is based on the Dart programming language, highlighting the ever-growing acceptance of this platform.
Since its first release, Google has unveiled several versions of Flutter in an attempt to eradicate the issues and introduce salient features. At the beginning of this year, Flutter 3.7 was launched at the Flutter Forward Event, enabling a host of valuable features for the developers.
Let’s find out what Flutter 3.7 means for the future of this framework and the developers’ community.
Optimized Material 3
Material 3, or “Material You,” was introduced in Flutter 3.0 and has quickly gained immense popularity. In the latest version of Flutter, various new widgets have been added, with some previous ones updated. Following is the list of brand-new widgets incorporated in Flutter 3.7:
- Banner
- Menus
- Divider
- Bottom
- Checkbox
- SegmentedButton
- Progress Indicator
One Step Closer To Dart 3
The much-anticipated 3.0 version of the Dart language is expected to be released later this year. It is widely believed that the upcoming update of Dart will be the most productive and fastest one.
While the stable version is set to be launched in the near future, the alpha version has been integrated into Flutter 3.7 to give a sneak peek of the platform’s future. Dart 3.0 supports a handful of useful properties like returning multiple values and types, 100% null safety, the introduction of patterns, and the removal of discontinued libraries.
Element Embedding
It is pertinent to mention that Flutter is not only used for mobile app development but web apps are also built using this framework. In order to further improve web integration, a new feature named “Element Embedding” has been integrated into Flutter 3.7. It allows the content to be smoothly embedded into the website elements, enabling Flutter to operate as a web component. It is a particularly useful feature for developers who create websites and web apps using this famed framework.
News Toolkit
The days of printed newspapers and magazines are long gone, as nowadays, almost everyone prefers digital applications for the latest news. Flutter 3.7 comes with a dedicated, built-in news toolkit to help the developers in creating efficient news app. With its variety of productive characteristics, this news toolkit enables rapid development of any news-related application using Flutter.
Summary
Flutter is the go-to language for the developers for building smooth cross-platform applications in quick time. With the ever-increasing demand of hybrid apps, Flutter 3.7 has introduced a host of useful features to make the life of developers much easier.
