Flutter 3.7: The Future of App Development

Flutter 3.7 is officially here and its the most powerful version yet. The Flutter community continues to improve the Flutter SDK (software development kit) in version 3.7, adding some great new features.

This version includes impressive new features like custom menu bars, cascading menus, and internationalisation capabilities to help you get your app up and running faster than ever, plus enhanced debugging tools so developers can effectively identify any issues. Additionally, these include the faster global selection tool, the Impeller rendering system, and the ability to share resources across platforms.

This blog allows developers and tech savvy website owners to discover the powerful capabilities of Flutter 3.7. With its latest updates, you’ll be able to unlock never before seen possibilities in mobile app development.

What is Flutter?

Flutter is a powerful mobile app SDK from Google that allows developers to create high-quality, feature-rich native experiences for both Android and iOS devices. Its versatility allows developers to access existing code bases or develop a new project from scratch, and it is free and open source.

What’s New in Flutter 3.7?

• Enhanced Material 3 support

Material 3 support has been added to the new version of Flutter. You can use the material components given by the most recent Android version.  An advanced new theme in the Material Pack will make your content stand out boldly and prominently. With Flutter’s latest update, developers can leverage the powerful design capabilities of Material 3 components for iOS and Android.

You need a full M3 colour scheme to take full advantage of M3 support. Visit the umbrella issue on GitHub for the most recent information regarding Material 3 support for Flutter.

• Menu bars and cascading menus

With the newest Flutter update, developers now have access to two powerful menu widgets: PlatformMenuBar and Material Design Menu. PlatformMenuBar is designed specifically for macOS, generating native menu bars and providing customization options to match your brand identity. The Material Design Menu also offers cascading menus (Menu Bar) and individual cascading menus triggered by another UI element (MenuAnchor). These menus are fully customisable, and menu items can be custom widgets, or you can use the new menu item widgets (MenuItemButton, SubmenuButton). With these customisable widgets, Flutter has created an optimised user interface solution.

• Updated DevTools

With this release, developers can explore several new tooling features and overall improvements. The DevTools Memory debugging tool has been completely redesigned with improved functionality. This Flutter upgrade offers three new feature tabs, Profile, Trace, and Diff, which support all previously supported memory debugging features and adds more for ease of debugging. The added features enable you to analyse current memory allocation by class & type and investigate code paths allocating your app’s memory at runtime.

• Scrolling improvements

You can enhance your user experience with the latest scrolling improvements in this Flutter upgrade. Several scrolling updates have arrived with this release, i.e., polish and refinement for trackpad interactions. This allows you to discover two dynamic widgets, Scrollbars and DraggableScrollableSheet, to streamline your journey and improve handling for text selection within scrolling contexts.

MacOS users can experience higher fidelity by adding new scrolling physics to match the desktop platform. New AnimatedGrid and SliverAnimatedGrid widgets animate items added/ removed from a list.

• Internationalisation Tools

The internationalisation capabilities have been upgraded. The new system simplifies translation and localisation for Flutter apps with a descriptive syntax that makes understanding errors much more accessible, regardless of coding ability. Additionally, the gen-l10n tool has undergone significant changes to provide support for complicated messages involving plurals, selects, placeholders, and more.

• Impeller preview

Impeller is a new rendering engine for preview on iOS on the stable channel. This state-of-the-art technology offers performance comparable to or superior to the Skia renderer. Although Impeller on iOS will meet the rendering needs of nearly all existing Flutter apps, there could still be gaps in terms of API coverage. Impeller on Android is not yet ready for preview.

• iOS release validation

You can ensure your iOS app is ready for submission to the App Store with a quick and easy validation. The Flutter build ipa command now provides you with a checklist of settings. This useful tool evaluates necessary settings and notifies you of any needed adjustments, assuring that your submission to the App Store will succeed.

•  Text Magnifier

With its built-in magnifier, Flutter now allows users to conveniently and precisely select text. This feature is enabled by default for all apps on Android and iOS. However, if you wish to disable or customise it, further options are available through the versatile magnifierConfiguration property.

How to Upgrade to the Flutter SDK?

Use the flutter upgrade command to update the Flutter SDK:

flutter upgrade

This Flutter upgrade command retrieves the most recent Flutter SDK version accessible on your active Flutter channel.

If you want a recent version of the Flutter SDK, switch to a less stable Flutter channel and then run the flutter upgrade.

If you want to update only the packages your app depends upon (instead of both the packages and Flutter itself), use one of the flutter pub commands.

Summing Up Flutter 3.7

The previous updates before Flutter 3.7 were more focused on compatibility and performance, but this one is all about simplifying it to create apps. The developer tools have received a lot of helpful changes, including new functionality and enhanced navigation.

If you haven’t already, it would be a fantastic idea to consider Flutter right away. While being less well-known than rivals like React Native in the mobile development framework market, the Flutter engine is steadily gaining ground thanks to its incredibly advantageous simplicity and all-around usability.

Develop rich mobile apps with the latest version of the Flutter framework. chilliapple, a renowned Flutter App Development agency, builds rich and user-centric applications that are future-proof. Consult our Flutter team who will provide high-quality, user-focused apps tailored perfectly to your vision and needs. Get in touch with our Flutter experts today.