> I find this very hard to believe given how many big apps are written in flutter
I don't find it particularly hard to believe. Non-native apps easily stick out, but in cases where they're the most popular option their quality is irrelevant.
> life is made a lot harder without them.
That's a bit of a false dichotomy there, eh? If there were no easy way to create subpar cross platform apps, and the app itself were useful enough, surely someone would pick up the slack, no? The easy way out sucks, but it's just too tempting to resist.
A few of the Google apps are. Google Pay (the new one), Google AdWords, and Google Classroom are big ones. Stadia and Grasshopper were both done with Flutter but are gone now. Toyota, BMW, eBay, Tonal Fitness, HERE Maps are all using Flutter.
I have exactly none of those installed. The only Google app that I have installed on my phone is Meet, and I wish I didn’t have to have that installed because it’s the worst meeting app on my phone, but the company uses Google Workspaces.
I will go without an app rather than a Flutter app.
I don't find it particularly hard to believe. Non-native apps easily stick out, but in cases where they're the most popular option their quality is irrelevant.
> life is made a lot harder without them.
That's a bit of a false dichotomy there, eh? If there were no easy way to create subpar cross platform apps, and the app itself were useful enough, surely someone would pick up the slack, no? The easy way out sucks, but it's just too tempting to resist.