This possibility exists, and not only with flutter, React-Native, Weex, Uni-app, Taro, Hippy, etc. Although some frameworks have existed for a little longer than others, But there’s no denying that they’ve always been there.

As long as the platform is not its own son, there must be a risk of being restricted to the development, so this is a game between risk and benefit, which is a “tai chi between stepmother and predecessor.”

First said the status quo

Platforms such as: Xianyu, Bytedance, Tencent, Meituan, etc., have all invested a lot in cross-platform development, and even wechat has made efforts in small program engine. This shows that Flutter is currently recognized in this game, and more and more platforms have been connected to Flutter in 2019. I believe that big companies have taken this issue into consideration.

Besides, the risk

1. Unlike react-Native, Weex, Uni-App, taro and other platforms, most of the controls of the Flutter framework are independent of the iOS native platform. Instead, they are compiled into the framework and drawn using SKia. This means that Flutter is less dependent on native platforms, so iOS may “do some restrictions” to maintain the ecosystem. But Flutter doesn’t pose much of an ecological threat to iOS, at least because Flutter is currently just a “naive” UI framework.

2. Until now, Flutter has not officially supported hot updates. This is probably because Flutter applications are not subject to Apple’s approval rules. So “hot update” is an important factor in the survival of Flutter on iOS.

3. The interpretation of the terms can only be explained by the platform itself. The following picture shows the explanation of the H5 on iOS platform, which made a lot of noise in the past. For a while, everyone was excited that Apple was going to attack frameworks like Uni-App. Most platforms interpreted this as: Apple will strictly restrict the use of apps developed by H5,webApp and Hybrids from the Market after March.

If so, is binary Flutter more futuristic anyway?

In addition, as explained to me by DCloud, the appeal is a misunderstanding: As long as your app experience is good, Apple mobile phone users like it, and does not violate the law or infringe Apple’s interests, Appstore will not reject you… Of course, DCloud, as the maintainer of UNI-App, may explain in favor of its own interests, but it is undeniable that it is easy for different people to read the results they want, and the platform has the power of life and death.

Of course, these are my personal guesses, and the big factory does not “put all eggs in one cage” when integrating Flutter. Most of them start with a page or section, and generally have redundant measures for them.

The development of Flutter is not limited to iOS either:

  • Android platform brother;
  • MacOS and the Web are on track;
  • Linux and Win followed;
  • Fuchsia looks on;

After all, Google is also one of the platform vendors. If all platforms stick to it, it is not conducive to development. Blocking each other will only benefit others in the end, unless the benefits are really great.