10 Secret Tips To Choose Best App Development Company

 

The need for enterprise software solutions, specially from mobile app development companies has increased tremendously in the last one decade. To provide seamless user experience, startups and independent organizations are leaving no stone unturned. Effective mobile app plays an important role in any company’s success and so it is necessary to invest in a good mobile app development company. Each year many organizations invest a big amount just to develop enterprise mobile apps. 

App development is not only about designing an app and uploading it on store, so before going to hire an app development team, you must know some key points. Let us see the tips to choose best app development company.

Tips To Choose Best App Development Company–

1. Check Out Their Portfolio-

An experienced app development company has a rich portfolio with various applications they have worked on. You can ask for the mobile apps built by company to analyze their domain skill, UI/UX expertise and app building experience, which reflect in their apps automatically and that can be favorable for the app developers. Also check the previous clients of the company and see their feedback. By doing so, you’ll get to know whether the company is enough to deliver high quality projects.

2. Security Of The App Idea-

Leaking of the application concept and idea is the greatest danger to the organizations and entrepreneurs today. These days, numerous low quality replicas hit the application stores before the original one just because of the poor safety measures taken by mobile applications development companies. So you must ensure that the IT company that you’re using must follow some strict security measures. Application concept and idea must remain confidential before it reaches the app stores. You can ask a development company to sign a non-disclosure agreement to ensure the security of the app idea and concept.  

3. Long Term Relationship-

Most of you may think that once the app development is done, you’ll not need a development company. But it is not true. Not only app development is an important phase but also maintenance too. Building apps and then maintaining them is a long term activity and the organization that you choose should fulfill your needs in future. So ensure that app development company should be able to stick to you through the lifecycle of the product and will not leave just after the launch of app.

4. Prioritize On Design-

Design is the first thing about an app that users see. So it should be attractive enough to catch the user’s attention. Ensure that the company that is going to choose has a skilled designers team and ready to invest sufficient time on design. 

Also know- Top 11 UX Design Mistakes In App Development

5. Platform-

You must know the platform that you want to build your application for. Can app development company develop apps for various OS types? If you want to develop app for different platforms, select an organization that is capable of doing so and has experience in developing cross-platform applications.

6. Effective Management-

Most of the companies have an issue that their development company didn’t give them updates about the progress of the mobile app development cycle. In some cases clients didn’t find their mobile app relevant to their requirements due to the communication gap between them and the development company. For effective app development, company must regularly update the details about app development progress. So you must ensure that the development company follows the effective delivery management service guidelines. 

Know the difference between Onshore and Offshore App Development Services at- Onshore Vs Offshore App Development Services- Which One To Choose?

7. Data Security-

There can be security issues like insecure deployment, insecure storage, system data leaks and privacy violations that can adversely affect your app. So it is important to choose an app development company that develops apps with secure code. Also ensure that the one you choose understands your data’s value and take necessary actions to secure it. They should provide a multi-layered security solution to secure data from threats like insecure data storage, device and user authentication, insufficient cryptography, SMS based attacks etc.

Also know the- How you can avoid security issues in app development?

8. Trusted QA And Testing Measures-

Obviously, you don’t need to market your application with dozens of crash problems, bugs and broken features. So development companies must follow some latest manual and automation quality assurance and testing measures to ensure that the final product doesn’t have technical errors or bugs when it arrives in the stores. You can ask your app development team for the testing strategies that should be used and they will beta test your app to assure the app wins users’ hearts when they use it. Apps should be tested on the device for which it is developed and if the bugs are discovered, check how rapidly and effectively the team will resolve it.

9. App Submission-

After completing the app testing, you should submit the app to the app store. Then the store approves your product selling. You must review the app store guidelines and human interface before submission of the app. It’s a lengthy process which includes many things and only an esteemed  application development team can complete this process. So ensure that app partner’s portfolio includes sufficient experience in app uploading to the app stores.

10. Maintenance And Support-

You will consistently have the support of the development partner. If you find a bug or need help, you can take help from them. Also, they are responsible for helping you as and when required. So you must discuss with the development partner about the maintenance and support for mobile apps.

Wrap Up-

Selecting an appropriate mobile app development company is a crucial decision. An effective development partner will consider your expectations, deliver products on time and keep your app upgraded. So, one must consider the above points before selecting the app development partner. 

If you are still confused to choose the best app development company, consult with Solace. We are here to help you through consultation and development. You can also hire android developers, ios developers, flutter developers of solace team for an effective and secure mobile app development. Connect with solace and get a free quote for app development. We will be happy to help you.

Top 10 Flutter Libraries And Plugins To Use In 2020

 

Open-source has changed the manner in which software is written and distributed. It has played a significant role in making software development simple, fun and more approachable. Flutter is an open-source cross-platform mobile app development platform having a wide developer’s community that puts efforts to make it successful. Mobile application developer community grasped Flutter so rapidly that there are a lot of open-source packages for it in an extremely short timespan.

Libraries and packages reduce the time required for development as developers don’t need to develop from scratch for trivial functionalities. Use of right packages eases the things like HTTP calls and image caching. Here we’ll see top 10 libraries and packages for flutter app development. 

Top 10 Libraries For Flutter Development-

1. GetIt-

It is one of the most preferred and useful Flutter libraries that implements the service locator pattern and makes dependency injection breeze. Also it is necessary to follow a fixed pattern and also run through the same package frequently to make it unique, and the software does not get confused with file segregation.

Most Common Usage:

• To access service objects like REST API clients, databases
• Access View/AppModels/Managers/BLoCs from Flutter Views

2. rxdart-

It is a reactive functional programming library for Google Dart based on ReactiveX. Google Dart has come up with amazing Streams API to provide alternative API to add ExDart functionality on top of it.

How to use RxDart-

import 'package:rxdart/rxdart.dart';
void main() {
  const konamiKeyCodes = const [
    KeyCode.UP,
    KeyCode.UP,
     KeyCode.DOWN, 
    KeyCode.DOWN,
    KeyCode.LEFT,
    KeyCode.RIGHT,
    KeyCode.LEFT,
    KeyCode.RIGHT,
    KeyCode.B,
    KeyCode.A,
  ];
  final result = querySelector('#result');
  document.onKeyUp
    .map((event) => event.keyCode)
    .bufferCount(10, 1) // An extension method provided by rxdart
    .where((lastTenKeyCodes) => const IterableEquality().equals(lastTenKeyCodes, konamiKeyCodes))
    .listen((_) => result.innerHtml = 'KONAMI!');

3. URL Launcher-

It helps to add plugin to every page. While building up a website or program there are some predefined schemas that perform various functions through it in a mobile software that is activated by ios and android too. These codes help to operate the page through a programming language. It is more useful when you want the OS to handle the URL for you. It supports multiple URL schemas like HTTP, mailto, SMS and so on.

4. package_info-

Package info plugin is used to fetch the data about the application’s version and other related things. This package is useful to check the app’s version at runtime and perform some tasks accordingly.

Usage-

import 'package:package_info/package_info.dart';
PackageInfo packageInfo = await PackageInfo.fromPlatform();
String appName = packageInfo.appName;
String packageName = packageInfo.packageName;
String version = packageInfo.version;
String buildNumber = packageInfo.buildNumber;

5. Cached network image-

This flutter library helps to save the image information in the cache when it is viewed on the Internet from your device. It is created to use with placeholder and error widgets. It comes with sane-defaults along with many customization options so that you can start to use it right away. It is highly recommended for building eCommerce and similar apps.

How to use-

The CachedNetworkImage can be used directly or through the ImageProvider. With a placeholder.

 CachedNetworkImage(
       imageUrl: "http://via.placeholder.com/350x150"'
       placeholder: (context, url) => CircularProgressIndicator(),
       errorWidget: (context, url, error) => Icon(Icons.error),
   ),

6. LocalAuth-

It provides ways to perform local and on-device authentication. These authentication methods refer to biometric authentication i.e. Touch ID APIs for iOS and fingerprint APIs for Android. It is beneficial to secure the app and its data. It has support for two types of biometric authentication.

• Face biometric authentication
• Fingerprint biometric authentication

7. Path Provider-

This plugin is useful to find commonly used locations on the filesystem. When using SQFlite library, this plugin can be used to get the database path. It supports both internal and external storage and provides seamless methods to get the desired directories like private and documents. It must be used with the permissions handler package to check for authorizations prior to getting to the filesystem. 

8. Intro slider-

You can use this plugin to build an interactive and impactful introduction Flutter app. With this plugin, Flutter developers can build an appealing introductory section using various animations and patterns. With various parameters, you can easily customize the look and feel of the slider. It is useful flutter library that helps to design and develop the introductory section easy and fast.

9. FL chart-

Know more at- https://solaceinfotech.com/blog/top-10-flutter-libraries-and-plugins-to-use-in-2020/

Flutter 1.12 features that will rule 2020

Flutter came up with its newest stable version Flutter 1.12 on December  11, 2019. Developers incline toward Flutter for its smart features and the latest Flutter 1.12 supports some efficient functionality and features. Since its Flutter 1.0 version released in December 2018, Google Flutter has been developing and now, it has made a 5 stable releases. Flutter developers team, included high level functionalities and also features in flutter framework with support  for Game Controller and Android App Bundles, and launch of RangeSlider control feature. Also, from event highlights, Flutter for web goes for the beta, support for Adobe XD, MacOS to Flutter plugin for supernova, designer, and significantly more has declared in the Flutter Interactive event. Know the basics of Flutter at- What is Flutter? An about the joy of flutter.

Before exploring what’s new in the Flutter 1.12 version, we should discuss what Ambient Computing is:

What is Ambient Computing?

Knowing the fact that we interact with various ‘internet-connected’ devices daily, the Flutter development team has chosen to provide an environment that makes all services accessible across all devices. They switched from the concept of ‘Write Once, Run Anywhere’ to Ambient Computing. Ambient Computing is characterized as the collective devices that can be treated as an extension of one another for delivering a seamless experience. With this concept, the developers will no further need to choose which device to focus before starting with Flutter application development. They can create user experience that fits to every one of the devices and platforms also– be it mobile, desktop, smart homes, embedded devices, or smart watches. Now, as the core Ambient computing vision for Flutter 1.12 is clarified, let’s go to the announcements.

What’s New in Flutter 1.12 Version?

1. Dart 2.7-

The basic change that this Flutter version is bringing is the release of Dart 2.7. This programming language update, will take the experience of working with Dart 2.5 to the next level, as Extension methods and Safe string handling capabilities. It will allow developers to do things like parse integers in a string, and prevent errors when variables have a null value.

2. Beta Web Support-

Flutter for web is one of the significant Flutter 1.5 features. It additionally got an upgrade in this update. The Flutter’s web support reached beta version; making it simpler for developers to use a Dart compiler and the Flutter architecture effectively.

3. macOS Desktop Support-

Assistance for macOS desktop changes from a technical preview to alpha. Now you can build a Flutter project that effectively runs on macOS using ‘Flutter Create’. Desktop application support gets numerous upgrades, developing menu dropdown keyboard navigation, visual density assistance, radio buttons, checkboxes, etc. Upgrades in Linux and Windows are still continue in the tech preview stage.

4. iOS 13 Dark Mode-

For the individuals who like to go with consistent development, the greatest upgrade coming with Flutter 1.12 is complete support for dark mode in iOS 13. This year, Flutter select appropriate support for auto toggling to dark mode on Android 10, with less efforts for developers to engage, if they use stock Material Design widgets of Flutter. As of Flutter 1.12 introduction, all the iOS-like widgets, named Cupertino, are now similarly available in a dark theme that can be enabled automatically on the dark mode settings of a device.

5. Add-to-app-

Another new feature of Flutter 1.12 is stable, official help for adding Flutter to any current Android or iOS application. This is more helpful in the migration of an application to the Flutter once, rather than requiring starting from the beginning. In addition, Android application developers can experience the benefits of recently included ‘Flutter Module’ option in the New Module perspective on Android Studio to easily add Flutter to the Android projects they are working on.

6. Updated DartPad-

The updated DartPad has incorporated the strength of not entirely changing Flutter code, but also evaluating the rendered UI and running the Flutter code efficiently.

7. Adobe XD to Flutter Plugin-

Now Flutter has tied up with Adobe XD and the XD is accessible to the Flutter plugins. The goal of Flutter to make simple designs and more efficient for helping developers and designers in working together appearing as accomplished with Adobe XD partnership. The latest XD in Flutter changes the XD designs automatically into code and makes a usable part of Flutter application development. In addition, it helps product designers to design and prototype simple user experience for desktop, web, mobile, and so on.

8. Google Fonts Package-

The Flutter development team introduced new Google Fonts package. This benefits an access to almost 1,000 open sourced fonts families. The ones that will allow designers to include attractive typography in the development environment within reach in just a line of code.

9. Create Widgets inline with Hot UI-

If you install the Flutter tools on your device locally, you will find another feature previewed in the Android Studio/IntelliJ plugin for Flutter. It allows you to see and coordinate with your widgets in your IDE as you are creating them. This feature is called Hot UI that makes changes in your code and updates the hosted UI.

10. Improvements in Android Build-

To upgrade Android, Flutter recognized some build issues in this release. They made the Android application development more unique, particularly around integrating plugins using Support Libraries and those using AndroidX. They moved the plugins of the Flutter team to AndroidX and propose all applications and plugins moving to AndroidX also. For plugins that haven’t yet switched, if there is a development issue, they have an alternative code path in their platform that uses Jetifier and Android Archive files. Slower platform is the reason of not being the main development framework, nut it fixes about 95% of the development issues the team has experienced.

11. Golden Image Testing-

The term Golden Image alludes to a prime image file that is considered the genuine rendering of a provided state, widget, application or other visual representation you have chosen to capture. In Flutter 1.12, the team has applications of the LocalFileComparator and GoldenFileComparator classes that compare by pixels instead of bits, reducing false positives. These latest applications feature visual differences for clarifying when there are difference between the updates under testing and your golden image.

Final Words-

Flutter is the new face of cross-platform development industry. But, it has not yet showed itself as the best choice for game development. Similarly, it has not yet offered any way to push code updated to the designed applications directly. In any case, it is normal that every one of these issues will be fixed in the coming years. The future of Flutter will acquire better alternatives in the form of Flutter 1.13 version or more updates.

If you are facing any difficulty to develop apps with Flutter, consult with Solace team. Solace developers are well experienced in Flutter development to provide you the best solution. Develop your Flutter app with Solace for more effectivity. We will be happy to help you.