flutter_exit_app

A Flutter plugin that provides a platform-specific way to exit your application without calling exit(0) in Dart code.

Features

  • Android: Cleanly finishes the activity and removes it from the task list
  • iOS: Suspends the application (Apple guideline compliant) with optional force-exit
  • Modern implementation: Written in Kotlin (Android) and Swift (iOS)
  • Type-safe: Full null-safety support
  • Well-tested: Comprehensive unit tests

Platform Support

Platform Minimum Version
Android API 21 (Android 5.0)
iOS 12.0

Installation

Add this to your package's pubspec.yaml file:

dependencies:
  flutter_exit_app: ^2.0.0

Then run:

flutter pub get

Usage

Import the package

import 'package:flutter_exit_app/flutter_exit_app.dart';

// Exit the app using platform-specific methods
// iOS: Suspends the app (Apple guideline compliant)
// Android: Finishes activity and exits
await FlutterExitApp.exitApp();

// Force-kill the iOS app process (against Apple guidelines)
// Only use when absolutely necessary
await FlutterExitApp.exitApp(iosForceExit: true);

Complete example

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:flutter_exit_app/flutter_exit_app.dart';

class ExitButton extends StatelessWidget {
  const ExitButton({super.key});

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return ElevatedButton(
      onPressed: () async {
        // Show confirmation dialog
        final shouldExit = await showDialog<bool>(
          context: context,
          builder: (context) => AlertDialog(
            title: const Text('Exit App'),
            content: const Text('Are you sure you want to exit?'),
            actions: [
              TextButton(
                onPressed: () => Navigator.pop(context, false),
                child: const Text('Cancel'),
              ),
              TextButton(
                onPressed: () => Navigator.pop(context, true),
                child: const Text('Exit'),
              ),
            ],
          ),
        );

        if (shouldExit == true) {
          await FlutterExitApp.exitApp();
        }
      },
      child: const Text('Exit App'),
    );
  }
}

Important Notes

iOS Guidelines

Apple's Human Interface Guidelines discourage apps from programmatically exiting. The plugin provides two modes:

Default mode (iosForceExit: false):

  • Animates the app to background with a smooth fade-out effect
  • Suspends the app gracefully
  • App remains in memory until iOS decides to terminate it
  • Recommended: This is the Apple-approved approach

Force exit mode (iosForceExit: true):

  • Animates the app with fade-out and scale-down effect
  • Forcibly terminates the process after animation
  • Warning: The app will appear to "crash" to users
  • May be rejected during App Store review
  • Only use if you have a specific requirement (e.g., enterprise apps)

Android Behavior

On Android, the plugin finishes the current activity and removes it from the recent tasks list, then exits the process after a 1-second delay to ensure clean shutdown. The app is completely removed from the task manager.

License

See the LICENSE file for details.

Libraries

flutter_exit_app