Calling JetPack APIs

Flutter apps running on Android can always make use of the latest APIs on the first day they are released on Android, no matter what. This page outlines available ways to invoke Android-specific APIs.

In most scenarios, you can use a plugin (as shown in the next section) to invoke native APIs without writing any custom boilerplate or glue code yourself.

Using a plugin is often the easiest way to access native APIs, regardless of where your Flutter app is running. To use plugins, visit pub.dev and search for the topic you need. Most native features, including accessing common hardware like GPS, the camera, or step counters are supported by robust plugins.

For complete guidance on adding plugins to your Flutter app, see the Using packages documentation.

Not all native features are supported by plugins, especially immediately after their release. In any scenario where your desired native feature is not covered by a package on pub.dev, continue on to the following sections.

Not all scenarios and APIs will be supported by existing solutions; but luckily, you can always add whatever support you need. The next sections describe two different ways to call native code from Dart.

The most direct and efficient way to invoke native APIs is by calling the API directly, via FFI. This links your Dart executable to any specified native code at compile-time, allowing you to call it directly from the UI thread through a small amount of glue code. In most cases, ffigen or jnigen are helpful in writing this glue code.

For complete guidance on directly calling native code from your Flutter app, see the FFI documentation.

In the coming months, the Dart team hopes to make this process easier with direct support for calling native APIs using the FFI approach, but without any need for the developer to write glue code.

MethodChannels are an alternate way Flutter apps can invoke arbitrary native code. Unlike the FFI solution described in the previous step, MethodChannels are always asychronous, which might or might not matter to you, depending on your use case. As with FFI and direct calls to native code, using a MethodChannel requires a small amount of glue code to translate your Dart objects into native objects, and then back again. In most cases, pkg:pigeon is helpful in writing this glue code.

For complete guidance on adding MethodChannels to your Flutter app, see the MethodChannels documentation.

Unless stated otherwise, the documentation on this site reflects the latest stable version of Flutter. Page last updated on 2024-11-08. View source or report an issue.