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Setting Up Your Dev Environment

In this section, we are going to describe how to configure your Flutter development environment. The developer tools and the way we set everything up is entirely inspired by how we do the day to day mobile app development in Flutter at Instaflutter.

1. Run an Empty Flutter App on Your Computer

If this is the first time ever that you run a Flutter app, you must follow the official guide first. Create an empty app and make sure it builds and runs properly on your computer. Follow the steps outlined in the official Flutter documentation.

2. Install Basic Flutter Development Tools

Everything is covered in the official docs here.

3. Configure Flutter Development Environment for Android

Let’s see how you can set up your development environment in order to run Flutter apps. The setup shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes. What do you need to install?

  • Dart and Flutter
  • (Optional, but Recommended) Visual Studio Code
  • (Optional) Android Studio

Alright, let’s see how we install all of these. Simply follow the next steps:

  • Install & Configure Flutter by following this guide.
  • Download & Install Visual Studio Code (recommended for developing Flutter apps, especially on Windows, due to its powerful Terminal)
  • Download & Install Android Studio (needed only if you don’t have a physical Android device) Looks simple, right? It actually is. This is all you need to do to run Flutter apps on Android devices or emulators.

4. Configure Flutter Development Environment for iOS

a. Install Cocoapods

b. Install Xcode (Make sure you are using the latest STABLE version of Xcode – we DO NOT support Xcode Beta versions) You can find detailed explanations on how to install these tools in the Running on iOS section.