Flutter, Google’s framework for building multi-device UIs from a single codebase, has been forked in an effort to expand its development capacity and accelerate progress. The fork, which is called “Flock,” was initiated by developer Matt Carroll, a former member of the Flutter team. Carroll, who also describes himself as a “Flutter maximalist” and the chief of the “Flutter bounty hunters,” aims to address the growing labor shortage within the Flutter ecosystem and improve the framework’s responsiveness to developers’ needs.
In a blog post published on October 27 by the Flutter Foundation, Carroll highlighted the challenges facing the Flutter team. While there are reportedly about a million Flutter developers, the team itself consists of only around 50 people. Carroll pointed out that this imbalance creates a significant strain on the team, with each member responsible for the needs of roughly 20,000 developers. He argued that this overwhelming ratio makes it difficult to provide adequate customer support or quickly address the community’s concerns, especially considering that the Flutter and Dart teams have also faced layoffs this year.
Carroll’s decision to fork Flutter stems from his belief that Google’s shifting focus on artificial intelligence has led to the deprioritization of desktop platform support in Flutter. In his post, he emphasized the frustration many developers feel when working with the current Flutter team, especially regarding the lack of attention to some key areas. Despite these challenges, Carroll noted that Flutter is an open-source project, meaning that developers can still contribute to the framework and its ecosystem.
Flock, which Carroll refers to as “Flutter+,” will continue to evolve alongside the official Flutter framework. Flock will focus on providing important bug fixes and features that the Flutter team either can’t or won’t implement, allowing the community to take charge of the project’s development. As Flock pushes out updates, the Flutter team will have the option to adopt these changes or not, with Carroll emphasizing that Flock represents “Flutter, by the community for the community.” This fork aims to create a more agile, responsive framework that better meets the demands of developers, while also contributing to the growth and success of the broader Flutter ecosystem.