How to do Remote Updates On Flutter

Question

I have a flutter chat app. Companies like Whatsapp & Facebook update their app without forcing users to uninstall or manually uploading the APK again to google play. Is this possible with futter i tried using firebase remote config but it didn't work as i expected ( Changing UI on the go ). Any answer will be appreciated.

Answer 1

There are multiple things you can do and it is based on what you want to achieve. [From your question your goal is not clear.]

Change Something based on configuration.

If you have configurations defined then you can use Firebase remote config to pass on value to devices and devices should behave according to value that you have set on Firebase Remote config.

Limitation of this approach: In this approach, don't expect your newly updated code will into existing app. Above approach works, if code is already there in the compiled binary and you just want to switch path.

Binary version update:

If you want to force new app version download then it would require a different approach,

Android: Yes it is possible.
iOS: In-App update is not possible. You can show prompt to user by saying that new version is available and redirect user to new version on Store. If user has enabled auto-download in iPhone settings then there are chances that app version updated to new version when user come to app.

For implementation look at here: Binary version update

Answer 2

WhatsApp and Facebook use React Native with CodePush (if I'm not wrong). You can't update an app without forcing a user somehow to update the app from a store with Flutter as it compiles to binary and React Native – not

Answer 3

Flutter now has unofficial support for code push using Chimera Flutter Code Push. Here is a full tutorial