Flutter 3.44 is out: Swift Package Manager by default and Hybrid Composition++

What's new

• Swift Package Manager by default instead of CocoaPods for iOS and macOS.
• Hybrid Composition++ for Android (opt-in): layer compositing goes to the OS through Vulkan for smoother scrolling and touch input.
• Impeller on Vulkan: better cache memory management and GPU/CPU synchronization.
• Desktop. Canonical leads Linux, Windows and macOS development; experimental multi-window APIs arrived.

What to watch out for

• Material and Cupertino inside the framework are frozen: these are the last updates before the move to standalone material_ui and cupertino_ui packages.
• Deprecated: the builder parameter of CupertinoSheetRoute (use scrollableBuilder), the onReorder callback of ReorderableListView (use onReorderItem) and the --web-hot-reload flag.
• Check that your iOS plugins support Swift Package Manager.

How to upgrade

1. Review the breaking changes for every version you skipped.
2. Update plugins and check them against the new version.
3. Run regression tests on real iOS and Android devices before submitting to the stores.

We upgrade mobile apps built with Flutter: we will estimate how many versions you are behind and which libraries need replacing, and ship the update to the App Store and Google Play.

Sources: release announcement, Flutter release notes.