Flutter 3.44.7

Hotfix Release: GPU Resource Leak Squashed

Flutter 3.44.7 is here as a targeted hotfix addressing a critical GPU resource leak that could crash apps using external textures on certain hardware. If your app renders video, camera feeds, or custom GPU pipelines, this update is strongly recommended.

The Fix

The headline fix in 3.44.7 resolves issue #188161 on GitHub -- a resource leak in Flutter's external texture handling that caused intermittent crashes on GPUs like Arm Mali. External textures are commonly used for video playback, camera previews, and platform-agnostic rendering, so the crash affected a wide range of production apps on Android devices with Mali GPUs.

Performance Impact

Early reports from developers confirm that after upgrading, apps that previously experienced sporadic crashes during video playback or camera operations are now stable. No performance regressions have been reported -- this is a clean, focused fix.

How to Upgrade

• Run the upgrade command: flutter upgrade on the stable channel
• Verify your version: flutter --version should show 3.44.7
• Test on affected devices: If your app uses external textures on Mali GPUs, prioritize testing on those devices

Verdict

If you're on Flutter 3.44.x, upgrading to 3.44.7 is a no-brainer -- one targeted fix, zero breaking changes, and potentially crash-free external textures. Run your test suite and ship it.