Google’s Flutter framework has been forked

Flutter, the Google-led development environment for building multi-device UIs from a single codebase, has been forked. The intention behind the fork is to expand Flutter’s available labor and accelerate development, said developer Matt Carroll.

In an October 27  Flutter Foundation blog post, Carroll described himself as a former member of the Flutter team. On X (formerly Twitter), Carroll is also described as chief  of Flutter bounty hunters, a “Flutter maximalist,” and a “SuperDeclarative” Flutter developer.

According to Carroll, Flutter has a labor shortage, which Flock helps to address. In explaining the forking, Carroll pointed to Google, saying there must be about a million Flutter developers while the Flutter team itself is only about 50 people. “That’s 50 people serving the needs of 1,000,000,” Carroll wrote. “Doing a little bit of division, that means that every single member of the Flutter team is responsible for the needs of 20,000 Flutter developers! That ratio is clearly unworkable for any semblance of customer support.” Flutter and accompanying Dart language team members  were laid off this year.

Carroll also claimed that Google’s focus on AI caused the Flutter team to deprioritize desktop platforms, and he stressed the difficulty of working with the current Flutter team. However, because Flutter is open source, Flutter app developers and package developers can contribute to the Flutter framework, he said.

Described as “Flutter+” by Carroll, Flock “will remain constantly up to date with Flutter, he said. Flock will add important bug fixes, and popular community features, which the Flutter team either can’t, or won’t implement.” As Flock ships bug fixes and features, the Flutter team then can choose to add them to Flutter or not. Carroll emphasized that Flock is “Flutter, by the community for the community.”

Developers are provided instructions on getting started with Flock. Reviewers also are sought. Along with Flock, Carroll introduced Nest, described as a collection of scripts, extensions, and education designed to help anyone create and maintain a Flutter fork. Nest tools have not yet arrived.