Framework for building mobile, web, and desktop applications from a shared codebase adds stable support for two key platforms. Credit: Thinkstock Google has launched Flutter 3, a major release of the cross-platform development toolkit that adds stable support for building macOS and Linux desktop apps. Flutter already provided stable support for iOS, Android, web, and Windows targets. Unveiled May 11, Flutter 3 features new interaction and input models, compilation and build support, and platform-specific integration for macOS and Linux. For macOS, Flutter backs both Intel and Apple Silicon processors, with Universal Binary support allowing apps to package executables running natively on both architectures. Flutter also takes advantage of the Dart language’s support for Apple Silicon. For Linux, Canonical and Google collaborated on creating an integrated, best-of-breed development option, Google said. The framework enables iterative live coding, allowing developers to reload changes without restarting an app. Flutter 3 also supports the Material You design paradigm for Android. Work on Material Design 3 is largely complete in Flutter 3, Google said, enabling developers to leverage a cross-platform design system featuring color schemes and updated visual components. Flutter 3 can be downloaded from the project website. Flutter is powered by Google’s Dart programming language, now in version 2.17. New Dart features include capabilities to reduce boilerplate and aid readability, an upgraded linter, and experimental RISC-V architecture support. Google also announced integration of Flutter with the Firebase app development platform as a fully supported core part of Firebase. Moving forward, Firebase support for Flutter will evolve in lockstep with iOS and Android. Additionally, improvements have been made to support Flutter apps using Crashlytics, which is Firebase’s real-time crash reporting service. Libraries and FrameworksSoftware DevelopmentMobile DevelopmentWeb Development