Introduction
In this technologically advanced world, we can do thousands of tasks with just a tap on our phones, using a plethora of apps. These apps are built using app development frameworks, and Flutter is one of the best among them. The word ‘Flutter’ has been a buzzword in the tech industry for a long time now. According to the official Flutter Website, Flutter is a Google open source framework that allows you to create beautiful, natively built, multi-platform apps from a single codebase. Flutter is a faster application development framework than many others. The Flutter framework is compatible with a variety of applications, including Android Studio and Visual Studio Code. It also allows you to create apps from the command line. Flutter’’s Hot Reload feature is useful not only for creating UIs and adding functionality, but also for addressing bugs. So, if you too want to build and deploy an app that makes our lives easier, learning Flutter is the best way to go about it. Being easy to understand and simple to comprehend, Flutter is the perfect fit for beginners to get a grasp of app development. What better way to learn Flutter, than with a hands on approach? This article maps out some Flutter Projects that you can work on, to learn or practice your app development skills.
Flutter Project Ideas
One of the most difficult things to do after learning the fundamentals of any programming language is to find projects to practise with. Sometimes, this can get really intimidating and confusing. So, this article will give you some project ideas that you can build using Flutter and add to your portfolio. Of course, the projects are grouped by level, from beginner to advanced. It is always advised for newcomers to concentrate on the user interface rather than the activity. A grasp over basics is more important than learning to implement the concepts, in this stage. Many individuals want to build the next Facebook or Whatsapp. While it is great to have big ambitions, it is much better to know how to make them a reality. After understanding flutter’s components and generating some basic layouts, it is sensible to bring them to life with some action, in the intermediate level. Here, implementing the basics we learned about, is essential. The advanced level will teach you how to use APIs, how to make an HTTP request from a rest API, and how to show your data within your app. For this, the best way to go about, is to try and clone pre-existing apps.
So, without further ado, let’s get started.
Best Flutter Projects for Beginners:
Before starting off with projects in Flutter, it is imperative to know and understand the bare basics of what Flutter is, and how to work with it. So, before starting off with these projects, it would be better if you learnt how to create a basic Flutter App, like a simple counter. You will also need to be familiar with concepts like Flutter Packages, Widgets Frameworks, how to build layouts, how to add dependencies, etc. Other than these, you need to first believe in yourself, and over your mastery of the basics, because simply copying code to build a project will get you nowhere. You need to understand the various nuances of the code and only then can you build a project. So, be prepared to fail, to be frustrated, and most importantly, to overcome all the failures you will face.
1. Todo
App: A dynamic todo app is one of the most interesting projects a beginner can work on. Along with learning the basics of widgets and layouts, you can learn how to build a basic flutter application from scratch. To implement this project, you will need to know about concepts like state management frameworks, directories and packages. These are basic concepts that you will need to know about in order to implement any Flutter project, be it beginner level or expert level. With packages like carousel_slider, phot_view, pull_to_refresh, this app will teach you a plethora of useful concepts and how to implement them. In this app, you can add new items to your list, check them off, pick a theme of your choice, and a whole lot more.
Here is the source code for this project.
2. Calculator App
Building your own calculator app from scratch is a simple enough, yet challenging task for a beginner to Flutter. With introduction to classes like rows and columns, this project will be sure to teach you a few new things. This app is functional (does addition, subtraction, multiplication and division operations), however not difficult to develop and is the perfect fit for a beginner. You will need to know how to write functions in Dart, and how to use ‘if else’ loops, in order to build this project. You will also need to know about how to display widgets on the screen and about widgets like Gridview.builder. Just like in the previous project, concepts about directories and packages will take you a long way.
The source code for the same is here.
3. Hangman Game
If you have ever played this game, then you will be thrilled to know that you can develop this app by yourself, without putting in a lot of effort, as a beginner. This app will need you to know languages like Ruby, Java and Objective C. You will also need to know about widgets like the column widget, GestureDetector and others, to work on this project. If you know how to add assets in Dart, it’s a huge bonus. Again, basic concepts of loops, functions, and directories is appreciated.
The source code for this project is here.
4. BMI Calculator
This project will teach you how to create multi-page apps using Navigator and Flutter Routes. You will also learn to use widgets like GestureDetect and about concepts like inheritance. At the end of this project, you will have a multi screen Body Mass Index calculator app with a simple functionality and full-on customisable styling options. You need to know about Flutter Routes and Navigator, along with Dart Enums and Ternary operators. You will also need to know about how to pass functions as parameters and fields. This project will help you understand the difference between const and final and when to use each of them.
Here is the code for the same.
5. Tic Tac Toe Game
Building a game app is a very efficient way to learn new concepts, while having fun. Just like the Hangman game app, the tic tac toe app is also aimed at solidifying your basics in Flutter and giving you a deeper understanding of widgets. Knowledge about languages like Swift and Kotlin will help you work on this project. You will need to know about widgets like builder, function writing, and loops like ‘if else’, to work on this project.
The source code for this app is here.
Intermediate Flutter Projects
Knowing basic concepts and implementing them is what happened in the previous section of this article. This section deals with furthering your knowledge and testing your mettle with projects that are of a higher difficulty level. These projects need you to be well versed in all the basic concepts mentioned previously, along with knowledge on BLoC architecture, UI designs and widgets that help in developing attractive, responsive pages.
6. Habit Tracker
Building upon the concepts used in the Todo App, this app tracks your habits and monitors the completion of your tasks. It also provides you with overall stats regarding your consistency. This is the perfect app to test your knowledge of flutter on, if you have mastered the basics. This project will familiarize you with CustomPainters, Path, BezierCurve and other widgets. You will be required to know about RichText and when to use it in a project, along with a detailed knowledge on how to add dependencies.
The source code to this app is here.
7. Candy Crush Clone
With a relatively simple UI, and logic focused coding, this app will not only let you create your own version of Candy Crush, but also learn to use BLoC architecture. You will need to know how to write algorithms based on the knowledge of how candy crush is played. This involves writing algorithms for starting the game, making a move and ending the game. These algorithms will then be used to write functions that prevent you from making the wrong move in the game. This project requires you to know about streams and how to implement them in Dart.
Here is the app’s source code.
8. Pokedex App
If you want to fine tune your UI and animation skills, then this project is exactly what you were looking for. Create your own version of a Pokedex, containing every detail you’d need to know about any Pokemon, using Dart. You will need to have detailed knowledge on Flutter Libraries, in order to implement this project. You will learn how to implement audio players in an app, along with mobile libraries like Lottie for animation effects.
The source code for this project is here.
9. Netflix Clone
In this project, you will learn how to use Flutter to create Netflix’s gorgeous, responsive user interface. You’ll learn how to make reusable and responsive widgets, along with how to use the video player package to include a video player into your app’s web version. You will be expected to know about state management packages, especially the flutter_bloc package, and about cubits as well.
Here is the source code for the same.
10. E-Commerce App
Right from sign in to check out, you can build your own E-Commerce App from scratch, to apply your Flutter knowledge to the test. You need to know about the flutter_svg package in order to implement this project. A detailed knowledge of how the navigator class works, along with its various methods is required. You will learn how to build a project that needs OTP verification, in this app.
Check out the source code for this project here.
Advanced Flutter Projects
The advanced flutter projects are the ones that will help bring an edge to your portfolio, as a Flutter Developer. These are the projects that showcase your talent and mastery over Flutter. These projects are difficult and require you to know other languages like Ruby in detail, unlike their basic knowledge required by the previous projects.
11. Instagram Clone
Try your hand at cloning one of the most popular social media applications in the world, using Flutter. With features to Follow/ Unfollow, Like, Comment and so much more, at the end of this project, you will have successfully mastered Flutter. This app needs you to know what Firebase is, and how to use it. You will also need to know about Firestore, Firebase Auth and Firestore Storage. A basic knowledge about Providers is also necessary.
The whole project Try out the source code here.
12. Google Clone
A search engine that is responsive, fetches results and is accurate. If building such an app interests you, then this is the perfect project for you. You need to know the basics of API and how to implement them using Dart, because that is what will be used here to fetch results for our searches. The API we will be using here is the Google Custom Search API. You will also be expected to know about Pagination in Flutter as well.
Refer to the source code here.
13. TikTok Clone
A short video app that was recently released shot to fame in a very short period of time and became infamous immediately, is the app TikTok. To build your own version of TikTok, you will need to know about Firebase, Firestore, and the State Management tool – GetX. You will also be expected to know about MVC architecture to implement this project. HTML and Ruby languages are used in this project, along with Dart. So, their knowledge is also a prerequisite.
Here is the code for the same.
14. Podcast Player
This is the project for you if you wish to make your own podcast player like Google Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIN, Apple Podcasts, and so on. Built completely using Dart, this app will allow you to skip silence, boost the volume, download for offline play and a whole lot more. In order to work on this project, you will need to know about plugins like webfeed, Just_Audio and Provider. These are the plugins on which the whole app is based. You will also be expected to know about integrating search engines into your dart app.
The source code used for this app is here.
15. EBook App
To create this eBook Reader and Downloader app, you will be expected to know Ruby, along with Dart. This app expects you to know about APIs and how to use them, in order to fetch the books featured in this app. You will also need to know about plugins like Provider for state management, Object DB to store favorites and downloads in the NoSQL Database, XML2JSON, DIO for network calls and downloads, along with EPub Viewer plugin for Folioreader.
The code to implement this app can be accessed here.
Flutter Projects: Why Are They So Important?
Ever since Flutter was released in 2018, it has been a raging success. Flutter has a lot of advantages to its name. As a library or module, Flutter can be partially integrated into an existing application. The Flutter module can then be imported into your Android or iOS (currently supported platforms) app to generate a portion of the UI. Or simply to execute shared Dart logic. Flutter can be developed using a variety of IDEs. It has a full set of web-based debugging and inspection tools for its applications. It is optimized for client development using HOT RELOAD, which is powered by the DART VM and allows developers to make changes iteratively and view changes or results in the app immediately.
Flutter is extremely fast. Skia, the same hardware-accelerated 2D graphics package that powers Chrome and Android, is at the heart of it. Flutter is designed to deliver smooth, jank-free graphics at your device’s native speed. The world-class Dart platform powers Flutter code, allowing it to be compiled into 32-bit and 64-bit ARM machine code for iOS and Android, as well as JavaScript for the web and Intel x64 for desktop computers.
Due to all these reasons, Flutter has become the industry favorite in app development. Flutter for Web and Flutter Desktop Embeddings are also now available. The tech industry is actively on the lookout for Flutter developers and what better way to prove you are one, than with a set of Flutter projects in your portfolio?
Conclusion
In this article, we have explored the importance of Flutter and how you can start working on projects at your own pace, depending on your knowledge of Flutter, along with some sample projects to get you started. Hopefully, we have motivated you enough to get started on your Flutter journey.
FAQs
Is flutter good for big projects?
Definitely. Flutter has features like single code base, application testing, framework maturity and support, third party support, efficient performance, etc which make it suitable for handling projects of any size – be it big or small.
Is flutter easy to learn?
Flutter is significantly easier to learn and use than its competitors like React Native, Swift, and Java. Google has included Dart in the Flutter installation package, ensuring that all components are installed at the same time, to make the installation process easy. Flutter makes use of ‘widgets,’ which make the user interface simple to use. This allows developers to have complete control over app creation while still keeping the process simple. Developers who want to see the source code will need to master the fundamentals of Dart, which are simple to pick up if you’ve worked with any OOP language (Java, JS, C#, etc.).
Does Flutter have a future?
Flutter is one of the largest growing repositories on Github. Despite being relatively new, it is gaining popularity among developers and businesses alike. Employers will need to hire experienced Flutter developers as a result of this transition, which will result in an increase in Flutter jobs. As a result, learning Flutter now will benefit you because you’ll be ahead of the game.
