Google and VGV designed and built the Flutter News Toolkit, an open source template that gives publishers an iOS and Android news app from one Dart and Flutter code base. The first publisher on it, Hespress, launched in six weeks.
- less time to launch
- 80%
- audience growth
- 10%
The Flutter News Toolkit’s sample app on a phone, beside a theme dial. Each theme gives the same app another publisher’s logo, colors, and type: The Daily Globe, the toolkit’s sample brand, Hespress, its first publisher, and your own newsroom. Below it, what the toolkit has in place on day one.
In the box on day one
- Core services
- CI/CD
- Accessibility
- Internationalization
- Subscriptions
- Log in
- Search
01The ask
Give small newsrooms an app they can afford to build.
News publishers are under pressure to ship polished, full-featured apps on iOS and Android. Many local outlets have strong names and small teams. Their tech stacks serve the website, and there are rarely mobile developers on staff.
Google’s Flutter team wanted to build on years of Google News Initiative work collecting best practices from news organizations of every size. The idea was one resource with those practices and the features readers expect, which a publisher could customize and launch quickly.
In their words
-
“This toolkit is something that publishers had been asking for, and we executed this project with Very Good Ventures in a very short amount of time.”
Senior Product Manager, Google Zoey Fan
02The research
Interview the newsrooms, then draw the template.
VGV audited news sites and apps and interviewed publishers around the world, large and small, from regional reporting to niche topics to general news. The common patterns became a core set of content objects and UI components that each publisher configures for its own editorial voice.
Brand got the same care. Theming applies a publisher’s logo, color palette, and typography across the whole app in one place, informed by the design systems and white-label products VGV had built for other clients.
03The build
One code base, and Dart on both ends.
With Flutter, publishers build each feature once and ship it to iOS and Android. For the backend, the toolkit uses Dart Frog, VGV’s open source backend framework for Dart, so a developer who knows Dart and Flutter can work on the front and the back.
Performance, accessibility, and internationalization were in scope from the start. “They kept us on time and on budget by suggesting which features to prioritize based on the value to the users,” said Timothy Hoang, Technical Solutions Product Manager at Google.
04First customer
Hespress took it to the World Cup.
The first publisher on the toolkit was Hespress, the Moroccan news outlet. Together we built its new English-language app in six weeks, with login, ad placement, subscriptions, newsletter sign up, and search, and designed article commenting on top of what the toolkit offers.
At the close of 2022, as Morocco’s national team went deep into the FIFA World Cup, readers around the world followed them in the new Hespress app.
05What changed
Publishers start from a working app, not a blank one.
-
Day one
Three months of work, there on day one.
Core services integrated, CI/CD automations prebuilt, and accessibility and internationalization in place. Publishers use or replace any part they choose.
-
First launch
Hespress shipped in six weeks.
A new English-language app on iOS and Android, built on the toolkit from start to finish.
-
The upside
More readers after launch.
Google calculates that a news outlet can grow daily or monthly active users by 10% in the first year after launching a mobile app.
-
Open source
Maintained by Google, open to everyone.
Like Flutter, the toolkit is open source. Google maintains it with the community and welcomes pull requests.
06If you’re next
What we’d tell a team building one app for many brands.
- 01
Interview the customers before you draw a screen. The toolkit’s feature set came from publisher interviews and an audit of their sites and apps.
- 02
Put brand in the theme, not in the code. One theming layer lets every publisher apply its logo, colors, and typography across the app.
- 03
Rank features by what users get from them. That is how the toolkit landed on time and on budget.
- 04
Ship the first version with a real customer. Hespress put the MVP in front of readers in six weeks.
Roll credits.
Who did what, and with which tools.
- Client
- Google, the Flutter team
- Our part
- Product strategyPublisher researchProduct designApplication development
- Platforms
- iOS and Android
- Built with
- DartFlutterDart Frog
- Timeline
- MVP in six weeksFull toolkit in six months
Built by Very Good Ventures
More success stories
All success stories
Hespress launches its English news app in Flutter
VGV partners with Hespress to create a better mobile experience engaging a larger and more diverse audience in less than two months
NYT’s KENKEN, the first commercial Flutter web app
A multi-platform KENKEN game that shows Flutter on the web.
Nav doubles user growth with Flutter
- user growth
- 2x
- engagement increase
- 200%
We’ll care about your success as much as you do.
Our unicorns read every message and reply, usually the same day.
Start the conversationA 30-minute call about what you’re building.