Flutter Stable 1.20 | Google Release Most Significant Version Of Flutter
Aakash Soni
22nd Aug, 2020
Flutter Google’s cross-platform development toolkit has reached version 1.2 stable. In its early releases, the tech giant Google introduced some extraordinary performance enhancements, improved support for Metal on iOS, and Material widgets. Recently, Flutter 1.20 stable got released, which includes more performance improvements, including several UI improvements, an update to the Visual Studio code extension, autofill for mobile text fields, and much more.
According to Google, there are now almost 90,000 apps developed with Flutter, and they have seen an increase from 50,000 such apps back in April. According to their stats, much growth in these apps comes from India, and Google says that India is now the top region for Flutter developers.
What are the Performance Improvements in this stable version?
Let’s find out what Google has improved in Flutter 1.20:
- Google has recently included a performance fix for the tree-shake-icons, which now has become the default when developing non-web applications. This reduces the size of the app by removing any icons that are not used. Currently, icon font tree shaking is restricted, but Google says that this restriction will be lifted in the future.
- In case if an app has janky animation during the first run that later become smooth in the following launches, this is due to shader compilation jank. With Skia shading language shader warm-up, the shader compilation jank can be reduced by up to 2x.
- Google has also refactored mouse hit testing, enhancing the performance in web-based microbenchmarks as much as 15x. Consequently, Google has been able to add support for more mouse cursors, which will be displayed in many commonly used widgets.
- Also, the tech giant has improved the decoding speed of the Dart UTF-8 decoder in Dart 2.9. In UTF-8 decoding benchmarks, the company has measured enhancements of approximately 200% for English text and 400% for Chinese text on low-end ARM devices.
Autofill for the mobile text field
This feature was highly requested among developers to get support for text autofill in flutter apps. With this new release Flutter 1.20, basic autofill functionality has been added, though some platform-specific configurations are not supported. Google is also bringing this feature support for web apps.
InteractiveViewer Widget
This latest widget is designed for creating interactive elements in the apps, such as zoom, pan, and more. The API documentation is available, which you can check to delve into the development process of this new widget.
Dart DevTools embedded in Visual Studio Code
A new extension has been added to Visual Studio Code by Google that brings Dart DevTools directly into the Visual Studio Code coding workspace. You can enable this with the dart.previewEmbeddedDevTools setting.
Other Improvements
A lot of new features and developer tools are added in Flutter 1.20 stable. A few are Updated Slider, TimePicker, RangeSlider, and DatePicker widgets. Besides a new responsive licenses page available from the AboutDialog: a new pubspec.YAML format requirement for publishing new or updated Flutter plugins; an updated Network page in Dart DevTools with support for web socket profiling; support for automatically updating import statements when files are moved or renamed in Visual Studio Code; and much more.
As per Google, Flutter 1.20 is the framework’s most significant release yet still has a lot to come. Google developers are still working on implementing sound null safety support, new versions of the Ads, Maps & WebView plugins, and more. They are also working on making better web and desktop support, specifically on Linux.
Why Hire Flutter App Developer From Auxano Global Services?
Want new-generation mobile applications to increase your business benefits? We can help you achieve the best mobile app with our Flutter developers, who can create a cross-platform app and get you a maximum number of users.
We are the prominent flutter app development company that helps businesses of all sizes to take advantage of Flutter.
We have the top Flutter app developers of the industry with the know-how and experience of all the latest technologies. We have tried our hands on trending technologies such as AI and IoT to help businesses reach the peak of success.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why Choose Flutter for Cross-Platform App Development?
What is the Advantage of Flutter?
How much does it cost to hire a Flutter app developer?
How much does it cost to build a Flutter app?
Why should you hire Flutter app developers from Auxano Global Services?
Will I get support after the project is completed?
Where Can I go For more Information?
About The Author
Aakash Soni
Aakash Soni is the Operational Head at Auxano Global Services, a complete Software development company that has been recognized by Clutch for its achievements and client satisfaction. He is a Master in Trending Technologies and has been involved in developing and implementing several innovative projects, including Entrepreneurial Trends, Data Analytics, Retail Technology ecosystems, Internet of Things, and Blockchain. He has an eye for spotting opportunities and is a strong advocate of disruption through technology and innovation. He has worked with Fortune 500 companies and helped many startup firms to rise in the market. He is leading the Auxano Global Services team to help clients leverage disruptive technologies like Blockchain & AI to deliver transformative business outcomes.