March 2026
Flutter: Building Cross-Platform Experiences Faster
My perspective on using Flutter to move faster on product experiments while keeping a consistent and polished experience across platforms.
Why Performance Became the Priority
While working on the Cult app, one thing became very clear to us. User experience is everything.
When your entire product lives on a screen, even small delays or glitches can completely break the experience. People don’t wait around. If something feels slow or unresponsive, they simply leave.
That’s exactly the challenge we were facing.
Where React Native Fell Short
For a long time, we were using React Native to power our mobile app. It helped us get started quickly and build a strong foundation. But as we grew and started focusing more on performance and design, we began to see some limitations.
One of the biggest issues was how React Native handled communication between layers. There was a constant back and forth between the JavaScript side and the native side, which started becoming a bottleneck. Over time, this led to delays, especially on lower-end devices. Even simple interactions like switching tabs could feel slow.
At the same time, our design team was working on something new: a completely fresh design system called Aurora. It was more dynamic, more visual, and needed stronger performance support from the app.
That’s when we started asking an important question. Can our current tech actually support the experience we want to build?
Exploring Flutter
This led us to explore Flutter.
Flutter gave us a different way to think about building the app. Instead of relying heavily on bridges between layers, it allowed us to create smoother and more consistent experiences directly. This meant better performance, faster interactions, and more control over how things look and feel.
But the decision was not instant. We spent a lot of time testing. We built prototypes, compared performance, and checked how things worked across devices. We had multiple discussions across teams, going back and forth before making the call.
Eventually, it became clear. If we wanted to truly improve the user experience and support our new design system, moving to Flutter was the right step.
Making the Shift
So we made the shift.
This was not just a tech change. It was a product decision, a choice to invest in speed, smoothness, and consistency for our users.
With Flutter, we were able to bring our design ideas to life in a much better way. Animations felt smoother, interactions became faster, and the overall experience improved significantly.
What I Learned
Looking back, this transition taught me something important.
Technology choices are not just about what works today. They are about what helps you build better experiences for the future.
And for us, Flutter became that foundation.
It helped us move closer to what we always wanted to build: an app that feels fast, smooth, and enjoyable to use, every single time.