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    Eugene Saturow Head of Flutter

    How Does Flutter Benefit Your Chat Application?

    The demand for chat Flutter  app development has seen a surge recently, as the mobile chat market is projected to rise from $87.5 billion in 2022 to $384 billion by 2032 and due to the benefits Flutter offers. Aiming to fill a niche, generate revenue, or meet their business needs, a lot of companies are building their own chat apps.

    In this article, we have described the main features of Flutter chats. You will find out how Flutter benefits will help you cut costs by 40% — 60% while getting high quality. 

    Here at Surf, we have vast experience in delivering Flutter applications, including messengers. We also make open-source software that facilitates the work of Flutter developers. To learn more about our contributions, check out Surf’s profile on GitHub.

    Top 6 features of a Flutter chat app to benefit from

    A messenger is an app that provides real-time text/file transmission over the Internet. Every messaging solution has basic functionality you should develop to address user needs. Have a look at the key features of a chat application.

    1. Sign up and log in

    When creating a web or mobile messenger with Flutter, it is crucial to offer users the benefits of setting up personal accounts, in which they will add their photos and information. 

    2. Synchronization of contacts

    A messenger should access the existing contacts in a phone book and suggest importing them to the app.

    3. File sharing

    While chatting, people share not just text messages but files, images, videos, GIFs, stickers, and documents.

    4. Voice and video calling

    Audio and video calls are among the main features of web and mobile messengers that let users communicate with friends, relatives, and colleagues regardless of their location.

    5. Cloud data storage

    Text and media files have to be accessed by users at any time. For this purpose, you can enable cloud synchronization. If a user loses the device or deletes a messenger, all the information will still be available.

    6. Push notifications

    As people want to be automatically informed about incoming messages, push notifications are a key feature of a Flutter chat application. Users should be able to mute them, either completely or partially. To implement this functionality, you can use Firebase.

    Understanding Flutter development

    Created and maintained by Google, Flutter is a cross-platform software development kit (SDK) allowing software engineers to build apps for different operating systems that involve iOS, 

    Android, macOS, Linux, and Windows. 

    Although Flutter was released just in 2017, it soon became one of the most popular technologies. According to Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2021, Flutter is the second most loved framework globally. 

    Have a look at our expertise in building Flutter projects

    Read our case studies

    The main benefits of Flutter chat app development

    In terms of developing chat apps Flutter offers multiple benefits as it works well not only from the point of view of UI and coding but also allows for saving time and money. With the latest Flutter capabilities the project budget can be reduced by up to 60% due to building applications for mobile, web and desktop versions with a single code base. This means, with a single code base you can create native looking and running apps where you need only to finalize platform-specific features and UX solutions.

    One more of the benefits is that the app UI adapts to different devices. For example, when exiting the full-screen version of the browser, a tab bar appears at the bottom of the screen as in mobile interfaces.   

    1. Performance 

    When messages come with a delay and files are loaded slowly, people tend to stop using a chat. By creating a Flutter messaging app, you will achieve fast performance. Technically, Flutter has 60 fps performance and programmers can increase this figure to 120 fps, which is equal to the metrics of native solutions. 

    2. Time & cost savings

    With Flutter, engineers write a single code base that can run on different platforms. So, QA engineers can test the application much faster. You do not have to hire several chat app development teams to launch a project. 

    Additionally, Flutter has a Hot Reload feature that enables programmers to introduce code changes to the front-end/back-end and instantly see them without the need to reload the app.

    3. Native-like UX

    Flutter has numerous widgets that can be easily customized to create a great user interface. The technology supports iOS-native Cupertino and Android-native Material Design visual styles, which will help your team build a Flutter messaging app with a native-like UX.

    Designs created by our team for native apps

    Final words

    With Flutter and its benefits, it is possible to make a quality chat app providing a native-like UX and stable performance. You will also significantly cut costs and time to market. Many companies used Flutter to make their chats, for instance, Enigma Chat, HighSide, Whatifi, and BaBu Messenger. So, let’s get down to making yours! 

    Do not miss a chance to use Flutter benefits for chat apps!

    Get a consultation for free!