What Is The Future of Flutter: An Insider's Perspective - Craig Labenz (Google)

Summary

In this interview, Flutter’s continued evolution and its growing role in both startups and large enterprises are discussed. The focus is on how Flutter allows rapid development across multiple platforms, including web and mobile. Insights are shared on the adoption strategies, whether through complete rewrites or gradual integration. The conversation highlights Flutter's strengths in performance, tools like hot reload, and static analysis with Dart. The future of Flutter, especially in areas like WebAssembly for fast, performant web apps, is also explored, underscoring its strong potential for both current and future projects.

Takeaways

• 😀 Flutter allows developers to build robust, cross-platform apps with a single codebase, significantly saving time and resources.
• 😀 For startups, Flutter is a highly recommended choice due to its ability to quickly ship apps across multiple platforms (iOS, Android, Web, Desktop).
• 😀 Enterprises like YouTube, Google, and BMW are successfully using Flutter for large, scalable apps, proving its enterprise readiness.
• 😀 One major challenge with adopting Flutter is the resistance from developers who are accustomed to native development environments.
• 😀 Companies have two main paths for adopting Flutter: wholesale rewrites of legacy code or an incremental approach by integrating Flutter into existing projects.
• 😀 Google’s commitment to Flutter is strong, with internal use across various products, ensuring the framework's continued support and growth.
• 😀 Concerns about Google abandoning Flutter are addressed, with the CTO reassuring that Flutter's internal use at Google ensures long-term viability.
• 😀 Flutter leads in the competitive landscape of cross-platform frameworks, offering superior developer experience with features like hot reload.
• 😀 WebAssembly (WASM) is a promising future development for Flutter, enabling web apps to run with impressive performance and speed.
• 😀 Notable Flutter-powered apps, like YouTube Create and the WebAssembly-based apps, demonstrate the framework's ability to deliver unique, high-performance user experiences.

Q & A

Why does the Flutter CTO recommend Flutter for startups?

Flutter is recommended for startups because it allows teams to build apps for iOS, Android, web, and desktop from a single codebase. It speeds up development with features like hot reload, static analysis in Dart, and a pleasant developer experience, which makes it ideal for small teams aiming to ship products quickly.

Is Flutter suitable for large enterprises and complex apps?

Yes. Flutter has proven its enterprise readiness through its use in major Google applications such as YouTube Create, Google Classroom, Google Earth, and Google Pay. These are complex, large-scale apps demonstrating Flutter’s stability, scalability, and performance for enterprise-level software.

What are some common objections companies have when adopting Flutter?

Common objections come mainly from native developers who are comfortable with their existing toolchains or who had poor experiences with earlier cross-platform frameworks. Enterprises also worry about the complexity of migrating massive codebases and the cost of rebuilding CI/CD pipelines and testing frameworks.

What are the two main strategies for migrating to Flutter?

The two main strategies are the 'wholesale rewrite'—where the entire app is rebuilt in Flutter—and the 'incremental add-to-app' approach, which integrates Flutter gradually into existing native apps. The wholesale rewrite is simpler technically but requires a temporary feature freeze, while the incremental approach is more complex but allows continued development.

Can you provide a real-world example of a successful migration to Flutter?

The Google Classroom team is a notable example. They rewrote their app in Flutter and reported developing new features three times faster than before. Within a few months of release, they had already recouped 40% of the investment made in the rewrite due to higher development efficiency.

How does Google internally benefit from using Flutter?

Each time a Google team uses Flutter, the required developer headcount decreases, saving time and costs. Flutter effectively provides 'negative headcount' by enabling teams to build software faster and with fewer resources, resulting in significant productivity and financial benefits for Google.

How does Google respond to concerns that it might abandon Flutter?

Flutter is deeply integrated into Google’s ecosystem, saving the company significant resources and supporting many of its key apps. Because Flutter generates cost savings and contributes to Google’s revenue indirectly through increased use of Android, Firebase, and Google Cloud, it is highly unlikely to be discontinued.

What makes Flutter stand out from other cross-platform frameworks today?

Flutter’s major competitive advantage lies in its developer experience, especially its stateful hot reload and performance. The Dart language also continues to evolve, incorporating features that enhance developer productivity. Studies show Flutter teams experience up to a 3x productivity boost compared to native development.

What are the main focus areas for Flutter’s future development?

Future development focuses on improving the add-to-app experience for enterprises, enhancing web performance—particularly through WebAssembly (Wasm) integration—and continuing to refine developer tools and language features in Dart.

Why is WebAssembly (Wasm) important for Flutter’s future on the web?

WebAssembly allows Flutter apps to compile directly into highly efficient machine code for the web, drastically improving performance. Early benchmarks show frame times as low as 2–3 milliseconds, indicating smooth rendering and high responsiveness. This makes Flutter a strong contender to become a default web runtime.

Which recent Flutter projects have impressed the CTO the most?

The CTO highlighted YouTube Create and the performance of Flutter apps running with WebAssembly as particularly impressive examples. These demonstrate Flutter’s ability to build rich, performant, and visually engaging experiences across platforms.