Flutter 1.9 Unveiled: New Features, macOS/iOS13 Support, and Web Integration
Google’s Developer Days in Shanghai introduced Flutter 1.9 and Dart 2.5, highlighting macOS Catalina and iOS 13 support, new Material widgets, experimental Bitcode, expanded language packs, improved toolchains, and the integration of Flutter Web into the main repository, signaling a major step toward true cross‑platform development.
Flutter 1.9 Stable Release and Dart 2.5
At Google Developer Days in Shanghai, Google announced the stable release of Flutter 1.9 and Dart 2.5. A major milestone was the integration of Flutter’s Web support into the main repository, enabling a single codebase for mobile, desktop, and web platforms.
Support for macOS Catalina and iOS 13
Flutter now runs smoothly on macOS Catalina and iOS 13. The toolchain has been updated for Xcode 11, 64‑bit support, and the new Xcode build system, while iOS 13 receives a draggable toolbar, vibration feedback, and ongoing dark‑mode work.
Experimental Bitcode Support
Developers can enable experimental Bitcode support, allowing Apple to re‑optimize binaries without resubmission and opening possibilities for watchOS and tvOS.
New Material Widgets
Flutter 1.9 upgrades existing Material components and adds new widgets such as ToggleButtons and ColorFiltered . The following images illustrate these widgets:
Global Language Support
Flutter 1.9 adds support for 24 new languages, including Afrikaans and Zulu.
Dart 2.5 Release
Dart 2.5 introduces a pre‑release external function interface (FFI) for native C calls and machine‑learning‑driven code completion in IDEs. More details are available in the Dart 2.5 release notes.
Toolchain Improvements
New iOS projects now default to Swift, and new Android projects default to Kotlin, reducing app size and simplifying setup. Swift 5 is ABI‑stable, and Kotlin becomes the default language in Android Studio. Error messages have also been made clearer.
Flutter for Web
Flutter’s Web support is now part of the main repository; the old flutter_web repository is deprecated. Developers can run flutter run -d chrome to target the web, and a minimal web/index.html bootstraps the compiled code.
Early‑adopter programs have attracted over 1,000 submissions, and community demos such as Flutter Widget Livebook and Panache showcase web capabilities.
Community and Resources
Hundreds of developers are using Flutter across more than 20 projects. A Flutter Widget Quiz is available via Google Assistant for fun learning. Detailed upgrade instructions and release notes are on the Flutter GitHub wiki.
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