Last updated on December 20th, 2023 at 11:29 am
Let’s start our blog with an astonishing fact. You will be amazed to learn that studies show that an average mobile user has around 40-50 apps on their phone. Isn’t it mind-blowing? Apart from being astonishing, this fact also implies the significance of mobile app development.
It makes no difference whether you are planning to launch a startup or already have a developed business; all you need to thrive in modern times is a fantastic mobile app. an app that understands and exhibits the essence of your business, you need to hire mobile app developers who comprehend the actual norms of what your business has to offer.
But developing a mobile app is not as simple as it might sound. It involves various essential tasks, from choosing the right technology for your app to finding the right team of app developers.
In this article, we will primarily focus on flutter. We will discuss flutter architecture patterns, why you choose flutter for your mobile app development, and how to find the right team of flutter app developers. So let’s get started.
What is Flutter?
At this point, you must be wondering what all this fuss is about? What is flutter, and why do you need it for your business? To find answers to all these, we first need to understand the basics of flutter.
Flutter is an open-source framework by Google. One can use this framework to create tremendous interactive apps. As flutter is backed by Google, it’s a trusted framework by many. And, the fun part is that you can develop a multi-platform app from a single codebase.
Also, you can create responsive apps that work on every device and screen size perfectly. So yes, Flutter can make mobile app development more manageable for you.
Why Choose Flutter?
The question that might arise here is why you should choose flutter over any other framework. The answer is quite simple. There is so much you can do with flutter that other frameworks don’t allow you to. But, Its code usability absolutely is a feature that takes the cake. You only need to write one codebase that can be used for everything, including mobile apps and web apps.
It is a huge selling point for flutter as it is the very thing that reduces development time and price significantly. This efficiency and pocket-friendliness is the thing that makes flutter the most preferred choice for everyone. There are many other pros of using flutter. Let us explore them in the next section of our article.
Pros of Using Flutter
It’s now established that flutter is fantastic. But if you are still not convinced, here are some more reasons to convince you of its amazingness:
Same Codebase
The number one selling point of flutter is the same code base for any platform. It means you can use the same business logic and UI for any platform. Flutter can be used on any platform, including Android, iOS, and web.
Hot Reload Feature
Another fantastic feature that flutter has is the hot reload feature. This feature enables you to observe the slightest changes and errors in your code. Not only that, but it also helps you in troubleshooting these errors without compromising speed or efficiency.
High Performance
The reusability of code in flutter boosts its performance big time. Not writing different code for every other platform can save you much time, money, and effort and positively affect your performance.
Flexibility
Flutter also gives you flexibility and freedom to design as per your choice. It’s based on a dart which is an object-oriented, class-defined, and optimizable language. It allows you to customize your design very conveniently. Some remarkable features of darts are:
- Dart uses ahead-of-time (AOT) compilation that promises faster development and more customizable widgets.
- As we have discussed before, hot reload is one of the star features of flutter. Dart also uses just-in-time compilation that enables you to use hot reload.
- Another useful feature that Dart has is the garbage collector. This feature promotes smoother flutter functions and makes it more suitable for development.
Efficient Bug Fixing
Another pro of flutter is efficient bug fixing. Bug fixing in the flutter is more straightforward than in any other framework. It results in highly efficient and feature-rich app development.
Also, it saves you a ton of testing costs as there isn’t any need for separate code testing.
Material Design
Another critical feature of flutter that sets it apart from others is material design. Material design is a fantastic design system by Google that helps develop a top-quality experience for flutter, etc.
It is an excellent feature that provides guidelines throughout the app development. All you have to do is to use this widget. Simple!
Fantastic Developer Community
Lastly, flutter has a wonderful community of developers. You can reach out whenever you face any difficulties or challenges in your development process. So community support is another benefit of using flutter.
Understanding Flutter Architecture Patterns
If you plan on using flutter for your app development, it is necessary to comprehend the basic flutter architecture pattern. But why is it crucial? Understanding flutter’s architecture makes the development process simpler for you. Also, it helps in updating and maintaining the app. So let us get to it.
Flutter has three layers:
1. Embedder layer
The first layer is the embedded layer. Embedder is usually written in languages specific to the platform. These languages could be java, C++, or objective-c++. Embedder corresponds with the operating system to access various services like input, accessibility, rendering surfaces, etc.
We also use the embedder to embed flutter code into the existing app as a module or complete app content.
2. Engine Layer
The purpose of this layer is to manage input, output, network requests, etc. It also takes care of the challenging rendering translation whenever needed. Here is all you need to know about this layer:
- It is written in C/C++.
- Skia is the rendering engine of flutter.
- The rendering engine is revealed to the flutter framework through Dart.UI.
3. Framework Layer
The layer where the flutter app developers can interact with flutter the most is the framework layer. Flutter has a sophisticated and modern framework written in Dart.
This layer is subdivided into:
- Widgets
- Rendering
- Material
- Building block services like animation, gesture, drawings, etc
- Foundational classes
An interesting thing to note here is that everything in flutter is a widget. A widget is a set of instructions that you put into your code, and it handles the basic building of the app UI.
How to Find the Right Team of Flutter App Developers?
Flutter is a relatively new framework, therefore it might be challenging to find the right team for flutter app development. But, looking out for some essential elements when you plan to hire flutter app developers can help you build an awesome app development team. Let’s examine some of these components:
Understanding of Agile Development
Understanding the agile model is essential for any developer. Most software or app development projects prefer and practice the agile development model. This model engages all the stakeholders of a project in each stage of the development process. It helps reduce the time and cost of development and hence boosts the efficiency of the project.
Developers unfamiliar with the agile development model may take longer to achieve the goal and might not be a good fit for the team. So the first thing you need to consider when planning to hire mobile app developers, you need to focus on their understanding of agile.
Polished Coding Skills
Another crucial thing to look out for in a flutter app developer is their ability to write readable code. As codes are not irrelevant to time, you might need to upgrade the app code. For that, you need a code that can be easily updated with changing times and situations. It is simpler to upgrade and modify code that is easily readable, sophisticated, and well-documented.
So go for the app developers having polished coding skills enabling them not just to write well-documented code but, also to upgrade the already written code when necessary.
Ability to Optimize Code
Code optimization involves improving code quality and efficiency. Right optimization techniques help reduce the program size, so it consumes less memory, performs lesser input/output operations, and runs swiftly.
As most of the flutter applications are designed for iOS and Android devices, their performance greatly depends on short battery lives with the added pressure of animations, etc. It is why code optimization comes in handy for flutter app development.
Expertise in Dart Language
Flutter developers should be highly adept in Dart programming language as the flutter framework is established on it.
Dart is an object-oriented and highly scalable programming language. A Flutter developer should be familiar with Dart to create powerful, dynamic, and fantastic applications.
Social Skills
Social skills might not seem like an essential skill to possess by a flutter developer. But, take our words on it, social skills are crucial to being a successful flutter developer. Flutter developers usually have to work as a part of big teams, so they have to interact with clients and team members. It is why positive communication and social skill should be the vital pursuit of a flutter developer.
Conclusion
Developing an interactive, engaging, and functional mobile app is daunting. But, hiring mobile app developers is an even more challenging task. Flutter is a relatively new application development framework. but it is becoming everyone’s favorite in no time.
We hope that this article has helped you understand the basic flutter architecture patterns and also has made the task of hiring flutter developers easier for you. Good luck!
Naveen Khanna is the CEO of eBizneeds, a company renowned for its bespoke web and mobile app development. By delivering high-end modern solutions all over the globe, Naveen takes pleasure in sharing his rich experiences and views on emerging technological trends. He has worked in many domains, from education, entertainment, banking, manufacturing, healthcare, and real estate, sharing rich experience in delivering innovative solutions.