From fear to air: embracing over-the-air app updates

Repeat after me: app updates are stressful. Dealing with app store reviews and worrying about disrupting users can make anyone hesitant to release new features. But what if there was a better way? Over-the-air (OTA) updates let you deliver changes directly to your users, super fast and without any fuss. In this talk, we’ll explore various OTA update techniques, from simple tools to advanced methods like code push for instant fixes, feature flags for controlled rollouts and A/B testing, server-driven UI for dynamic content, and even generative AI for personalized experiences. By the end of this talk, you’ll be ready to embrace OTA updates, ship features faster, keep users happy, and turn app updates into an exciting opportunity for continuous improvement.

Cat-like Development: Flutter for Efficiency

Many developers chase the dream of being a "unicorn" - an individual who seamlessly wields the power to design, build, and deliver remarkable products. But what if you are more like a cat? A person, who wants to invest the least amount of effort for the maximum outcome. In this talk, we'll explore how Flutter empowers developers to do exactly that.

The main topics covered in this talk:
1) Flutter animations.
2) Architectural decisions for seamless performance.
3) Using Dart and Flutter packages for efficiency.
4) App reviews, user feedback and other product-centric tips.
5) ... and more!

By the end of this session, you will learn multiple practical tips and tricks that will help you create great products and stunning, interactive interfaces with minimal effort.

Make smarter decisions faster with Firebase Remote Config

Firebase Remote Config is a powerful tool that allows you to change the behaviour and appearance of your app without requiring users to download an app update. This means that you can experiment with new features and changes, and see how they impact your users' behaviour in real-time.

In this talk, we will discuss how to use Firebase Remote Config to make smarter decisions faster. We will cover topics such as:

- How to set up Firebase Remote Config
- How to create and manage remote config parameters
- How to test and deploy remote config changes
- How to measure the impact of remote config changes

We will also share some real-world examples of how Firebase Remote Config has been used to improve the performance and user experience of apps.

By the end of this talk, you will understand how to use Firebase Remote Config to make smarter decisions faster and improve the quality of your app.

Control your Flutter application on the fly with Firebase Remote Config

Real-time updates, A/B testing, app personalisation - what if I told you that you could enable these powerful features in your Flutter application with minimal development effort and without any costs? Firebase Remote Config is a free service that enables changing the behaviour of an app remotely without publishing an app update. In this talk, I will cover multiple real-world use cases where Firebase Remote Config could help you while building Flutter apps.

The talk will revolve around an example app that will be gradually extended with multiple Firebase Remote Config features. Specific use cases covered in the talk:
1) App configuration values;
2) Notifying users about a new app version;
3) Feature toggling (enabling/disabling features on the fly, staged rollout, etc.);
4) App personalisation (using different config values based on conditions - platform, language, region, date/time, etc.);
5) A/B testing;
6) And more!

Talk's rating based on the audience feedback:
Fluttercon 2023 (55 responses) - 4.8 / 5

Seeing is Believing: Employing Observation to Craft Products that Truly Matter

In the ever-evolving app development world, creating a product that simply functions is no longer enough. Usually, we do not want to create an app - we want to build THE product. We want to create something that will be used by our users daily, bringing them joy and making their lives easier. Thus, it's crucial to keep a finger on the pulse of the users' behaviour, understand their struggles and needs, and later make observation-driven decisions to improve our products. In this talk, I will share some real-world tips and tricks used in developing products that users love and care about.

This talk covers three key strategies for gathering and analyzing user insights:
1) App monitoring: Unravel the inner workings of your app by leveraging logs, error and crash reports, and performance metrics. Identify performance bottlenecks, debug issues, and ensure a seamless user experience.
2) Product metrics: Dive into the numbers to understand user behaviour and preferences. Track app usage metrics, analytics, and engagement patterns to identify areas for improvement and optimize user engagement.
3) UX insights: Engage directly with users through internal and external feedback channels. Gather qualitative insights from user interviews, surveys, and usability testing to uncover their needs, pain points, and aspirations.

Let Me Introduce You to Flutter

Flutter is Google's UI toolkit for building beautiful, natively compiled applications for mobile, web, desktop, and embedded devices from a single codebase. Over 700,000 Flutter apps are published to Google Play and Apple App stores to date, including products created by world-leading companies such as Google, Amazon, Alibaba, eBay, and BMW. According to the JetBrains 2021 State of Developer Ecosystem survey, Flutter is the most popular cross-platform framework in the world. Native performance, a single codebase for different platforms, sound null-safe development, and an increasing number of tools and integrations - that's only a fraction of what Flutter offers to every developer. I think it is time for me to introduce you to Flutter!

Design Patterns toolbox: (not so) obvious patterns for Flutter

Overview of some OOP Design Patterns and their pure implementation in Dart as well as seeing them in action by investigating the example app.

Originally presented during the "DartUP 2020" conference.
Presentation and example app: https://github.com/mkobuolys/dartupify-dartup2020

Make the code work for you: Flutter Code Generation

Every programmer's dream is constantly building new features and seeing how the project grows. However, there is nothing worse than writing a lot of boilerplate code just before even start implementing those features. In this talk, you will learn about Flutter code generation tools and various tips on how to avoid implementing boilerplate code and focus on your next-gen project.

Originally presented during the "Flutter Global Summit'21" conference.
Presentation and example app: https://github.com/mkobuolys/flutter-code-generation