Google adopted the ‘new year, new me’ trend and released an improved version of Flutter at the beginning of 2023. Flutter is a free and open mobile app SDK from Google. The framework allows developers to build high-quality native interfaces for iOS and Android using the Dart programming language.
BMW, Toyota, eBay, Google Pay and more brands have utilized Flutter app development for better user experience and scalability.
The Flutter community continues to improve the framework with the addition of some great new features. These include the ability to create custom menu bars, cascading menus, tools to better support internationalization, new debugging tools and more.
Learn more about why Flutter is one of the best frameworks for hybrid app development.
Improved features of Flutter 3.7
These new features in this version are accompanied by enhancements to existing features. Let’s explore the new developments:
Menu Bars and Cascading Menus
Google has introduced two new menu widgets in the latest Flutter update:
- PlatformMenuBar – This is available on macOS and renders native menu bars instead of being rendered by Flutter.
- Material Design – You can define a Material Design menu for all platforms. It provides cascading menu bars (MenuBar) or individual cascading menus triggered by another UI element (MenuAnchor).These are fully customizable. The menu items can be custom widgets, or you can use the new menu item widgets like MenuItemButton, SubmenuButton, etc.
Updated DevTools
DevTools is a suite used for debugging for Dart and Flutter. There is a major update in Flutter 3.7 regarding the memory debugging feature and several new tools you can use to debug your application. The first version of the snapshot analysis tool highlights areas in your application that need improvements.
Improved material 3 support
Support for Material 3 is now available in this new update. The Material Pack features a new theme that makes your content stand out prominently. It also allows you to leverage the material components offered by the latest version of Android.
Updates to many components (colors, text styles and shapes, etc.):
- Color system improvements
- Typography improvements
- Elevation refinements
To see all the latest Material 3 updates, check out a sample app in Flutter. It allows you to interact with all the widgets in real-time. This app demonstrates the updated components and lets you toggle between Material 2 and Material 3 in light mode and dark mode and try out different color schemes.
Improved scrolling
Google made the process of migrating to Flutter easy by introducing several scrolling updates. New changes include the latest scrolling physics on the Mac platform, the addition of an animated grid and improved handling of text selection in scrolling contexts.
Internationalization tools
Your app needs to be internationalized if you want to deploy it to users who speak another language. You need to localize values like text and layouts for each language or locale that the app supports. The Flutter libraries are internationalized. Moreover, Flutter provides widgets and classes that help with internationalization.
A new internationalization system in Flutter 3.7 makes it easier to translate and localize your Flutter app. The descriptive syntax allows people with limited coding experience to understand error messages.
See the updated Internationalizing Flutter apps page for more information.
Other notable feature updates
Another major update is related to iOS. Google included a preview of the Impeller rendering engine for iOS. It is still in preview for Android. Flutter 3.7 also comes with release verification – a checklist of settings to ensure your app is ready to be submitted to the App Store. It also comes with a text magnifier to make reading small text on smartphones easy.
Adopt the new features and enhancements of Flutter 3.7
Fast-paced technology advancements have led developers to look forward to adopting technologies that meet users’ needs. Flutter is one such framework that is trusted by modern developers. With new improvements, Flutter 3.7 offers optimized app performance, better UI and scalability. Although it is not as popular as its competitors in the market, it surely has remarkable advantages that you can leverage. Also, Google is constantly updating Flutter to meet customers’ and developers’ demands.
For more information view the release notes or Flutter’s Medium page.
If you are looking to develop robust applications, hire Flutter developers from Softweb Solutions. We have hands-on experience of providing Flutter app development services for faster and secure deployment.
