native_kit

One Dart call invokes the real OS-level UI. native_kit presents genuine system view controllers, sheets, zero-permission pickers and hardware scanners on iOS (UIKit / SwiftUI / VisionKit / PencilKit) and Android (Material 3 / Jetpack / ML Kit / system intents) — no Flutter look-alikes.

final result = await NativeKit.showAlert(
  context: context,
  title: 'Delete draft?',
  actions: const [
    NativeAlertAction.cancel(id: 'cancel', title: 'Cancel'),
    NativeAlertAction.destructive(id: 'delete', title: 'Delete'),
  ],
);
if (result?.actionId == 'delete') { /* … */ }

30 unified components across 6 domains, 32 typed methods.
Clean Dart models — DateTime, Color, Rect, Uint8List and typed result classes. Transport DTOs are never exposed.
Context aware — pass a BuildContext and the native UI anchors on that widget (iPad-safe popovers) and follows the Flutter theme's brightness and primary color.
No hanging futures — swipe-to-dismiss, back and predictive-back gestures always resolve the call (with null, false or an empty list).
No MainActivity changes — Android activity results run through a headless fragment, even with a plain FlutterActivity.

Installation

flutter pub add native_kit

import 'package:native_kit/native_kit.dart';

Platform setup

iOS (16.0+)

Set platform :ios, '16.0' in ios/Podfile (Swift Package Manager is supported too). Add the usage descriptions for the components you use to ios/Runner/Info.plist:

Key	Needed by
`NSCameraUsageDescription`	`scanDocument`, `scanCode`, `extractLiveText` (camera)
`NSMicrophoneUsageDescription`, `NSSpeechRecognitionUsageDescription`	`listenSpeechPrompt`
`NSFaceIDUsageDescription`	`authenticate` on Face ID devices
`NSCalendarsUsageDescription`	`createCalendarEvent` on iOS 16 only (iOS 17+ needs none)

Missing keys never crash the app: the call throws a NativeKitException with NativeKitErrorCode.missingUsageDescription.

Android (API 26+)

Set minSdk = 26 in android/app/build.gradle(.kts). That's it: the plugin ships its own manifest entries (a transparent host activity, a FileProvider, package-visibility queries and the install-time INTERNET, VIBRATE and USE_BIOMETRIC permissions). ML Kit models are downloaded by Google Play services on first use.

Architecture

            ┌──────────────────────── packages/native_kit ────────────────────────┐
 App code ─▶│ NativeKit.showAlert(context: …)  →  domain models → Pigeon DTOs     │
            └──────────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────┘
                                               │ NativeKitPlatform (6 Pigeon host APIs)
            ┌──────────────── native_kit_platform_interface ──────────────────────┐
            │ pigeons/native_kit_api.dart → Dart / Swift / Kotlin                 │
            └───────────────┬─────────────────────────────────┬───────────────────┘
                            ▼                                 ▼
   native_kit_ios (Swift, @MainActor)              native_kit_android (Kotlin, coroutines)
   OverlaysHandler · ValuePickersHandler ·         same 6 handlers, Material 3 + Jetpack,
   ZeroPermPickersHandler · VisionAndMediaHandler  NativeKitResultFragment for every
   SystemUtilitiesHandler · SecurityAndHardware…   ActivityResultContract

Every call carries an optional NativeRect (the calling widget's global rect) and NativeThemeConfig (brightness + seed color) extracted from the BuildContext.

Components

Module 1 — Overlays

Dart method	iOS	Android
`showAlert`	`UIAlertController(.alert)` + `addTextField`	`MaterialAlertDialogBuilder` + `TextInputEditText`
`showActionSheet`	`UIAlertController(.actionSheet)` (iPad popover)	Material 3 `BottomSheetDialog` list
`showContextMenu`	`UIMenu` via `UIEditMenuInteraction`	`ListPopupWindow` at the anchor
`showNativeTooltip`	`.popover` `UIViewController` with arrow	Material 3 `PopupWindow` card with arrow
`showAdaptiveSheet`	`UISheetPresentationController` detents	`BottomSheetDialog` + `BottomSheetBehavior`

Module 2 — Value pickers

Dart method	iOS	Android
`pickDateTime` / `pickDateRange`	`UIDatePicker` in a `.medium()` sheet	`MaterialDatePicker` / `MaterialTimePicker`
`pickColor`	`UIColorPickerViewController` (eyedropper, alpha)	Material 3 sheet: preview, hex, ARGB / HSL sliders
`pickValueWheel`	multi-column `UIPickerView` sheet	`NumberPicker` row in a `BottomSheetDialog`
`pickFont`	`UIFontPickerViewController`	searchable system typeface sheet

Module 3 — Zero-permission pickers

Dart method	iOS	Android
`pickMedia`	`PHPickerViewController`	`PickVisualMedia` / `PickMultipleVisualMedia`
`pickContact`	`CNContactPickerViewController`	`PickContact` / `ACTION_PICK` + `ContentResolver`
`pickDocument`	`UIDocumentPickerViewController(forOpeningContentTypes:asCopy:)`	`OpenDocument` / `OpenMultipleDocuments`
`saveDocument`	`UIDocumentPickerViewController(forExporting:asCopy:)`	`CreateDocument` + stream write
`createCalendarEvent`	`EKEventEditViewController` (`.ics` QuickLook on iOS 16)	`ACTION_INSERT` on `CalendarContract.Events`
`pickLocation`	`MKMapView` + `MKLocalSearchCompleter` sheet	map sheet + `android.location.Geocoder`

Module 4 — Vision & media

Dart method	iOS	Android
`scanDocument`	`VNDocumentCameraViewController` → JPEGs + `PDFDocument`	ML Kit `GmsDocumentScanner`
`scanCode`	`DataScannerViewController` / `AVCaptureMetadataOutput`	`GmsBarcodeScanner` (no camera permission)
`extractLiveText`	`VNRecognizeTextRequest` / `DataScannerViewController(.text())`	ML Kit Text Recognition + review sheet
`extractImageSubject`	`VNGenerateForegroundInstanceMaskRequest` (iOS 17+)	ML Kit Subject Segmentation
`showMarkupSheet`	`PKCanvasView` + `PKToolPicker`	low-latency `Canvas` full-screen dialog
`trimVideo`	`UIVideoEditorController`	trim sheet with `MediaExtractor` + `MediaMuxer`

Module 5 — System utilities

Dart method	iOS	Android
`share`	`UIActivityViewController`	`Intent.createChooser` + `FileProvider`
`previewFile`	`QLPreviewController`	`PdfRenderer` pager / `ACTION_VIEW`
`openInAppBrowser`	`SFSafariViewController` (`.pageSheet`)	`CustomTabsIntent` (Partial Custom Tabs)
`printDocument`	`UIPrintInteractionController` (+ `UIMarkupTextPrintFormatter`)	`PrintManager` + `PrintDocumentAdapter` / `PrintHelper`
`showTranslationSheet`	SwiftUI `.translationPresentation` (iOS 17.4+)	`ACTION_PROCESS_TEXT` / `ACTION_TRANSLATE` / TTS sheet
`showDictionaryLookUp`	`UIReferenceLibraryViewController`	`ACTION_DEFINE` / Partial Custom Tab search
`listenSpeechPrompt`	`SFSpeechRecognizer` + `AVAudioEngine` sheet	`RecognizerIntent.ACTION_RECOGNIZE_SPEECH`

Module 6 — Security & hardware

Dart method	iOS	Android
`authenticate`	`LAContext.evaluatePolicy`	`BiometricPrompt` / `KeyguardManager`
`requestAppReview`	StoreKit `AppStore.requestReview(in:)`	Play `ReviewManager` (+ store fallback)
`triggerHaptic`	`UIImpact/Notification/SelectionFeedbackGenerator`, `CHHapticEngine`	`HapticFeedbackConstants`, `VibrationEffect`
`showSystemPanel`	`AVRoutePickerView`, `NEHotspotConfigurationManager`, `MPVolumeView`, `RPScreenRecorder`	`MediaRouter2` switcher, `Settings.Panel.*`, `MediaProjectionManager`

Usage

// Anchored, themed action sheet (popover on iPad).
final choice = await NativeKit.showActionSheet(
  context: buttonContext,
  items: const [
    NativeMenuItem(id: 'share', title: 'Share', iosSymbol: 'square.and.arrow.up'),
    NativeMenuItem(id: 'delete', title: 'Delete', style: NativeActionStyle.destructive),
  ],
);

// Zero-permission photo picker.
final List<PickedMedia> photos = await NativeKit.pickMedia(
  type: NativeMediaType.images,
  selectionLimit: 5,
);

// Native color picker returns a Flutter Color.
final Color? color = await NativeKit.pickColor(context: context);

// Document scanner returns page JPEGs and a combined PDF.
final DocumentScanResult? scan = await NativeKit.scanDocument();

// The instance API is the same surface, handy for dependency injection.
final NativeKitClient kit = NativeKit.instance;
await kit.triggerHaptic(HapticType.success);

Error handling

Cancellation is never an error. Real failures throw NativeKitException with a NativeKitErrorCode: noUiContext, unavailable (e.g. VisionKit on the simulator), invalidArgument, missingUsageDescription, permissionDenied, ioError or nativeError.

try {
  await NativeKit.scanCode();
} on NativeKitException catch (e) {
  if (e.code == NativeKitErrorCode.unavailable) showFallbackUi();
}

Platform notes

Files returned to Dart (media, documents, scans, cutouts, trimmed videos) are copies in the app's temporary / cache directory. Move what you keep.
pickLocation on Android renders OpenStreetMap tiles by default. Pass androidTileUrlTemplate to use your own tile server in production.
showSystemPanel(SystemPanel.screenCapture) records in-app on iOS (call it again to stop and receive the movie) and returns the MediaProjection consent result on Android.
showSystemPanel(SystemPanel.nfc) is Android only.

Packages

Package	Purpose
`native_kit`	App-facing API (this package)
`native_kit_platform_interface`	Pigeon contract and `NativeKitPlatform`
`native_kit_ios`	iOS implementation
`native_kit_android`	Android implementation

License

MIT — see LICENSE.