Ask HN: Anyone Here Using Flutter?

[fakedang]

I just got started with making apps using Flutter, sort of as a tutorial to the app-building process, yet searching online, the resources are far too few, and its presence on HN jobs almost negligible. Correct me if I'm wrong, but as I understand, React Native/Expo is the most popular cross-platform app-building framework, while Xamarin is steadily increasing its share among bigger firms who can spare the buck. Which leaves flutter, the more convenient of the three for MVP (strictly my opinion), between a rock and a hard place. Do you think Flutter has a future in app building, or is it going to go the way of other Google relics into the abyss?

[isoos]

HN can be hostile against Dart and Flutter (and Java, C# and other non-hipster languages), but there is no technical reason for it. JavaScript is a mediocre tool for software development, but for some reason people think they will be using it until the end of times.

If Flutter works for you, keep using it. It is open source (!= Google service), it is productive, and there are no signs that Google is abandoning it; on the contrary, it seems that more efforts are put behind: Dart language and tooling improved a lot since 2.0 (+ non-nullable types coming soon), Flutter getting support for Web, Mac and potentially other platforms...

[sudo_kaizen]

As far as I know, Flutter dev evangelists are trying trying their best to push it into massive adoption. One thing you may fail to see is the reason for RN's massive adoption, and those are

1. It was released before Flutter, 2015 compared to Flutter's 2017

2. No need to learn a new language. JavaScript is JavaScript. The initial thought of having to learn Dart (which is very similar to JavaScript and Java, but who'll know till they use it?) is a push back

3. RN's similarity to React. It is easier for devs who'd been using React to jump into it, and React has more adoption than Angular

In the end, users don't really care whatever you use. Does your app do what they want/expect?

[_bxg1 → sudo_kaizen]

Yeah, JavaScript and even React have such a critical mass of developer familiarity at this point that I don't see how they could be unseated without some really killer new advantage. Flutter's advantage is... it's a bit faster? Maybe? Maybe the warts when it comes to spanning the platform gap aren't quite as bad? I think it's going to take more than that.

One opportunity could be desktop. If Flutter can beat React Native to that (doesn't really look like it will so far), that could be a killer app. Right now people use Electron, which carries a couple of significant downsides.