With Flutter’s growing popularity and an immense response through our customer feedback channel, CometChat is excited to finally release the Flutter SDK. 

This is an exciting release as Flutter has become a major trend in application development and we recognize the developer community’s needs at large. Launching this product is a big step toward CometChat’s mission of being technology-oriented. Being able to target flutter developers is a huge opportunity for CometChat to grow in a new direction. We’re excited to serve those customers and the community most of all.

[In order to get an in-depth overview of the Flutter SDK, check out the complete Flutter SDK documentation.]

What’s Flutter?

It’s been almost five years since Google launched Flutter at its alpha stage at the I/O developer conference, and since then, the popularity of Flutter apps grew drastically. Before Google released the Flutter 1.0 version in December 2018, it went through five previews. It was built to compete with other cross-platform frameworks like React Native, etc. 

Now, it’s one of the most popular open-source technologies for developing cross-platform mobile and web applications. It is used to develop cross-platform apps for Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, Windows, Google Fuchsia, and the web from a single codebase. 

Getting Started With the CometChat Flutter SDK

Our current release supports some of CometChat’s core messaging features, including 1-on-1 private conversations and group conversations. Apart from these, the Flutter SDK also supports features like:

• Typing Indicators

The typing indicator feature provides users with real-time visual feedback to let them know when another user is typing a message in a 1-on-1 or group chat. The indicator becomes visible as soon as a user begins typing a message and it disappears when the message is either sent or completely deleted. It helps engage users and creates a superior chat experience. 

• Delivery & Read Receipts

A delivery receipt confirms that a message is delivered and read receipts confirm that a user has read a message or conversation. This feature provides users with a visual feedback - a double tick mark to confirm delivery & blue tick marks for read receipts. 

• Transient Messages

Transient messages are messages that are sent in real-time only and are not saved or tracked anywhere. The receiver of the message will only receive the message if they are online and these messages cannot be retrieved later.

• User and Friend List

See logged-in users and friends, and easily retrieve users based on parameters such as search keyword, set limit, status, role, tags, UID, friend request status, etc.

• Multimedia Attachments

CometChat’s Flutter Chat SDK allows users to send and receive media message, such as files, images, videos, GIFs, URL, etc. along with metadata such as captions, tags, and more in 1-on-1 and group conversations.

• Threaded Messages

Messages that are started from a particular message are called threaded messages or simply threads. Each 'Thread' is attached to a message which is the 'Parent' message for that thread. This feature provides support for all message types - text, audio, video, image, and more for 1-on-1 and group conversations.

• User and Group Management

This feature enables users to create, join or leave group conversations and allows group admins to add, remove and/or ban users from group conversations. This can help in moderating 

• User Authentication

CometChat’s Flutter SDK supports single sign-on, so your users only need to login to your app and they will be automatically authenticated with CometChat. This is done with the CometChat login() method using an Auth Key or Auth Token. 

• Compatible With Our 35+ Extensions

CometChat offers a wide variety of extensions to help you build unparalleled and customized chat experiences for your users. Our Flutter chat SDK supports all the extensions available in our extensions marketplace.

There are a lot of exciting things happening as part of the Flutter SDK release. We are in the process of developing the Flutter UI Kit. Please upvote for the Flutter UI Kit here so that we can notify you of its release.

If you’re interested in learning more, check out our related tutorials, blogs, and guides,

• Here’s our comprehensive guide on everything you need to know about Flutter app development.
• Dive deep into a detailed Flutter vs. React Native comparison and discover what is best for building your cross-platform chat app and why.

Wrapping Up

Given Flutter’s growing demand only in a few years and Google’s constant support, Flutter is definitely here to stay. More and more developers are getting excited to try out the new features, performance, and ease of use.

We have a step-by-step tutorial demonstrating how to build a Flutter chat app with the CometChat SDK, which would be a great start for you to understand how the Flutter Chat SDK works. Hopeful, our tutorial will answer most of your questions regarding the Flutter SDK.

If you still have questions, feel free to talk to our experts and get answers before you get started.

About the Author

Swahani is a marketing specialist at CometChat, joining in May of 2021. She's interested in all things tech, with previous experience writing about the blockchain, data science, and analytics domains. Swahani received a B.Tech degree in Information Technology and Engineering from Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Technological University (Dr. BATU).