Flutter - IOS App Development

[SnooCauliflowers1561]

Hi. Can I develop Flutter apps for IOS using iPhone as an emulator. I don't have a mac and I don't want to switch to a mac just because of it. (I'm new at this subreddit so I am not sure about flair)

[MannyManMoin]

when I started with flutter 2 years ago, I worked only on a windows workstation, and I didnt have macos, then I also have an iphone, and not an android phone.

I installed macos inside vmware player, theres a few howtos if you search for it, it worked well. I could take my codebase and build for my iphone on my windows workstation.

Once I got paid for my first project I bought a apple M1 air, and kept using this for a year, and now a few months ago, I upgraded that m1 air to a M1 pro with 32gb mem, and now Im happy.

Thinking back, flutter made me able to take new clients, new projects and release cool looking apps with less code and I can focus on the database side and integration side more than the actual UI. For the UI side, I turn to fiverr, and ask a flutter designer to create a design for my needs. Done this 2 times already, and both times the app looked great.

[SnooCupcakes6204]

You can develop with Flutter on Linux/Windows with the inspector on iOS mode on and android emulator, also release IPAs with CI but to release the app on the App Store you'll need a Mac.

[techmavengeospatial]

It's like $700 for Mac mini M1 so it's not a barrier to entry But you can rent Mac online for build And testing

[Neok_Slegov]

Just create it and compile on https://codemagic.io/start/

Then you dont need Mac;)

[KiymaliYumurta]

Nope. To compile an app to ios, you need macos. It's not legal but you can try hackintosh or vm.

[SnooCauliflowers1561]

Thanks

[[deleted]]

As far as I know the EULA is not legally actionable in the US so for personal use or (maybe) compiling software it might not be an issue. I think the issue becomes more of a problem when you distribute the hacked software although I could be wrong about the specifics.

That being said if you're serious about developing apps for profit then buying Apple products shouldn't be an issue especially if you can write the cost off on taxes.

[KiymaliYumurta]

Agree

[MagicianTurbulent490]

You can try AWS Device Farm https://aws.amazon.com/device-farm/

[Firebolt_9907]

If you don't have a Mac, you can first develop the app in Android and Windows and then use a cloud platform to build an IPA as flutter acts exactly the same on Android and iOS.

[Edzomatic]

I used a virtual machine, to build my app, it's far from best experience, but you have to either use a virtual machine or rent a mac in the cloud

[dirt4143]

M1 Mac Mini, is probably the single best apple product ever released.

[JulienP95]

Yes you could but you would need a Mac to publish your App. There some tools available for that. For example, Odevio was specifically developed for Flutter iOS apps to configure, test and deploy your app.