Flutter, Google's Vision For Cross-OS App-Making, Hits Release Preview 1

Google has let Flutter Release Preview 1 into the wild, giving developers the chance to get to grips wth its cross-platform mobile SDK for apps that run just as happily on iOS as they do on Android. The goal, Google says, is straightforward: it makes more sense for developers to build a single app and then have that automatically export in versions for iPhone and Android, especially as new platforms come down the pipe.

For example, Google's Fuchsia OS may not be ready for primetime quite yet – you can install it on a Pixelbook, but it might not really be worth it for most people at this stage – but its support for Flutter apps will put the SDK into the spotlight. Apps use Flutter's own rendering engine and framework, with developers creating their software and then exporting it for release on the Google Play or App Store.

Flutter takes care of making the right version for each platform, including the Flutter engine in there too. Importantly, apps made in Flutter meet with the design language and themes of the target platform. That way, an iOS app built in Flutter looks like any other native app when it's on your iPhone.

Until now, it's been in beta, though a surprisingly functional one: sizable companies like Alibaba and Tencent have already released apps they've built in Flutter. The transition from that to Release Preview 1 comes amid new third-party contributions that will help Flutter apps bed down more effectively in their target platforms, too. That includes Flutter Platform Widgets, which promise to automatically adapt to Android or iOS.

Flutter is also looking at how its tech can be integrated with existing mobile apps, which may well help convince developers to at least give the mobile SDK a try. For the moment that means experimental instructions on how Flutter widgets can be baked into existing software.

Though it's not the only project looking to streamline development of apps for multiple platforms, Flutter's big-name backing could well give it the edge it needs. Multiple sessions were devoted to the framework at Google I/O 2018 just a few weeks back, and internal teams at Google itself are already using it too.