Exciting Updates from Flutter and Dart at Google I/O 2023

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. I/O Flip: An AI Card Game
3. Flutter Forward and Flutter's Vision
4. Flutter 3.10 Release
5. Impeller for iOS
6. Jnigen for Android APIs
7. Material 3 Updates
8. Flutter on the Web
9. Dart 3 Release
10. Pub.dev and SLSA
11. WebAssembly Preview
12. Conclusion

Introduction

Flutter and Dart have been making waves in the tech industry for their innovative approach to app development. At Google I/O this year, there were several exciting announcements and updates that developers should be aware of. In this article, we'll cover the biggest news from Flutter and Dart at Google I/O, including the release of Flutter 3.10, updates to Material 3, and a preview of WebAssembly.

I/O Flip: An AI Card Game

If You're a fan of AI and card games, then I/O Flip is the game for you. Built for I/O 2023, I/O Flip is an AI card game that generates a HAND of cards Based on a prompt you help put together. You can then use those cards to battle other players in a race to the top of a worldwide leaderboard. To play or learn more about I/O Flip, head to Flutter.dev/flip.

Flutter Forward and Flutter's Vision

Earlier this year at Flutter Forward, Flutter said karibu to their friends in Nairobi and set out their vision for the next few years. This vision can be summed up into four themes: continued focus on developer experience, breakthrough graphics performance, seamless integration for web desktop and mobile, and early arrival to new and emerging architectures.

Flutter 3.10 Release

Flutter 3.10 is the latest release focused on helping developers more productively build engaging, smooth, and expressive experiences, regardless of target platform. On mobile, Impeller is now turned on by default, which is a new rendering engine built for Flutter to maximize performance and quality. Impeller should help with complex animations that experience shake. For a deep dive of Impeller, check out Leah and Brendon's talk.

Impeller for iOS

Impeller is now available for iOS, providing support for complex animations that experience shake. This new rendering engine built for Flutter maximizes performance and quality, making it easier for developers to build engaging, smooth, and expressive experiences.

Jnigen for Android APIs

Jnigen is a new tool that can automatically generate dart bindings for Android APIs available in Java or call in code. After generating the bindings, you can go ahead and call the API like any other dart code. Use this alongside ffigen for iOS and macOS for easy interop across Flutter's most popular build targets. To learn more about jnigen, check out our Google I/O talk, "Rethinking Dart Interop with Android", for more details.

Material 3 Updates

Material 3 now supports algorithmic color schemes, so you can generate a complete and accessible color scheme from an image. There's also a fresh new dropdown menu, navigation drawer, secondary tabs, and a brand new search bar widget. To learn more about all the new Material updates, check out Rody's talk on "Designing for Every Device with Flutter and Material 3."

Flutter on the Web

The number one request from Flutter web users has been apps that load faster and perform better. To help, Flutter has reduced the size of the CanvasKit rendering engine, the largest component inside of Flutter app, by about one third. And they now use static analysis information from the Dart compiler to tree shake unused icons from the Material font during compilation. Both things together reduce the load time of the standard counter app by 40%. There are also features like full support for element embedding and custom shaders on the web, which will make you more productive and help your apps shine.

Dart 3 Release

Google I/O marked the official release of Dart 3, which includes three major improvements. First, the culmination of the multi-year Journey towards 100% null safety, which means all code now has sound in all safety, reducing runtime errors and improving performance. Second, the introduction of language features like records for quickly building structure data and Patterns, which make it easier to write code that is conditional on the structure or values of data, and then destructure it back down into its individual parts. Third, we added class modifiers to give Dart developers more control over class capabilities.

Pub.dev and SLSA

In the packages space, we announced that pub.dev search results can now include screenshots as declared by package. Package authors can add up to five categories to make their packages more searchable. In the world of security, we announced that our entire build infrastructure supports SLSA, a vendor-neutral initiative supported by Google to provide a set of standards and technical controls to help ensure Artifact integrity. There are three security levels for SLSA, and we're happy to announce that we've cleared the first level and we're working on achieving all three levels soon.

WebAssembly Preview

Flutter is previewing the ability to compile Dart and Flutter code to WebAssembly, or WASM for short, via the new standards track garbage collection feature. We believe this will lead to faster load times and more responsiveness for everyone, among other benefits. To learn more about WASM, check out Flutter.dev/WASM.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Flutter and Dart Continue to innovate and provide developers with the tools they need to build engaging, smooth, and expressive experiences. From I/O Flip to the release of Flutter 3.10 and updates to Material 3, there's a lot to be excited about. And with a preview of WebAssembly, the future looks bright for Flutter and Dart. Head over to the Google I/O Website and check the Flutter and Dart boxes to find more exciting demos and tech Talks.

Highlights

• Flutter 3.10 is the latest release focused on helping developers more productively build engaging, smooth, and expressive experiences, regardless of target platform.
• Impeller is now available for iOS, providing support for complex animations that experience shake.
• Jnigen is a new tool that can automatically generate dart bindings for Android APIs available in Java or call in code.
• Material 3 now supports algorithmic color schemes, so you can generate a complete and accessible color scheme from an image.
• Google I/O marked the official release of Dart 3, which includes three major improvements: 100% null safety, language features like records and patterns, and class modifiers.
• Flutter is previewing the ability to compile Dart and Flutter code to WebAssembly, or WASM for short, via the new standards track garbage collection feature.

FAQ

Q: What is I/O Flip? A: I/O Flip is an AI card game built for I/O 2023. It generates a hand of cards based on a prompt you help put together, and you can use those cards to battle other players in a race to the top of a worldwide leaderboard.

Q: What is Impeller? A: Impeller is a new rendering engine built for Flutter to maximize performance and quality. It provides support for complex animations that experience shake.

Q: What is Jnigen? A: Jnigen is a new tool that can automatically generate dart bindings for Android APIs available in Java or call in code.

Q: What is Material 3? A: Material 3 is an update to the Material Design system that includes algorithmic color schemes, a fresh new dropdown menu, navigation drawer, secondary tabs, and a brand new search bar widget.

Q: What is Dart 3? A: Dart 3 is the latest release of the Dart programming language, which includes three major improvements: 100% null safety, language features like records and patterns, and class modifiers.

Q: What is WebAssembly? A: WebAssembly is a new binary format for the web that allows developers to compile code written in languages like C, C++, and Rust to run in the browser. Flutter is previewing the ability to compile Dart and Flutter code to WebAssembly via the new standards track garbage collection feature.