Multi Window in Flutter Desktop
summary
Shows how Flutter gains true desktop multi-window: an older approach uses multiple Flutter engines (one per window) via the desktop_multi_window plugin and method channels, causing duplicated state and memory bloat and requiring manual plugin registration and custom boot code. The new multiview APIs let one engine host multiple FlutterViews using regular window controllers, view anchors and window delegates so state is shared, windows are detachable, and cross-window updates use simple controller calls. APIs are master/preview-only today and some plugins still break in production.
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chapters (11)
- 0:00Multi-window in Flutter Desktop
- 2:52Old multi-window demo setup
- 7:14New windows with desktop_multi_window
- 10:33State sharing across windows
- 14:56Limitations of multi-engine approach
- 16:39Single-engine multi-view APIs
- 18:27Demo using single-engine multi-view
- 27:21Updated multi-window demo
- 30:29Window customization & lifecycle
- 32:14Challenges with new APIs
- 33:38Benefits and takeaways
