Exploring Shorebird Samples: Real-world use cases for over-the-air updates
When you integrate Shorebird into an application, you need practical, architectural examples to bridge the gap between theory and implementation. That's why we maintain the Shorebird Samples repository: a public collection of working apps that shows you how to implement Shorebird across various complex architectures.
Let's look at the key samples, their specific use cases, and how they solve real deployment challenges.
1. Complex app architectures: flavors
Enterprise apps rarely exist as a single target. You might need development, staging, and production environments, or you might build white-labeled versions of the same core app for different clients. Flutter handles these variations using flavors.
If you use flavors, Shorebird needs to know exactly which flavor is receiving the update so you avoid pushing a staging patch to production users. We provide two dedicated examples to show you how this routing works:
- Flavors Sample: Shows you how to configure Shorebird alongside standard Flutter flavors. It gives you a straightforward baseline for apps that only need distinct bundle identifiers and API endpoints.
- Multi-Dimensional Flavors: Demonstrates how Shorebird handles multiple flavor dimensions on Android. If you separate environments and tenants, this sample shows you that Shorebird can target the correct patch regardless of how complex your build variants become.
2. Mitigating risk: progressive rollout
Pushing an update instantly to all your users carries inherent risk. If a new patch introduces an unexpected edge case, you want to limit the blast radius.
The Progressive Rollout Demo shows you how to implement percentage-based rollouts. By integrating Shorebird tracks, you can release a patch to a small fraction of your user base first.
This approach lets you monitor crash analytics and user feedback safely. Once you confirm the patch is stable, you can confidently dial the rollout up to 100%. This demo gives you a complete blueprint for prioritizing stability and demanding fine-grained release control.
3. Integrating with existing native apps: add-to-app
Many organizations don't rewrite their entire application in Flutter on day one. Instead, you can adopt Flutter incrementally by embedding Flutter modules into your existing native iOS or Android applications. This architecture is known as add-to-app.
The Add-to-App Sample shows you that Shorebird works seamlessly in these hybrid environments. You don't have to rebuild your entire native app to benefit from OTA updates. Shorebird lets you push patches specifically to your embedded Flutter module, which significantly reduces the friction of maintaining hybrid apps and gives your Flutter team autonomy over its release cycle.
4. Fixing business logic: the fintech wallet
The Shorebird Fintech Wallet serves as a masterclass in clean, patchable app architecture.
When you deploy hotfixes, a logic-level hotfix is the ideal scenario: you want to fix a bug without destroying the user's current session or requiring an app update.
The Fintech Wallet sample uses a decoupled reactive store and BLoC architecture, so business logic lives entirely separately from the UI presentation layer. The sample includes a deliberate, critical bug: the system incorrectly charges a 5% fee on all transfers instead of making internal transfers free.
Because the app is architected cleanly, you can use a Shorebird patch to instantly swap the faulty logic layer in the background. The next time your user initiates a transfer, the correct logic applies seamlessly. This sample shows you how structuring your app correctly makes OTA updates infinitely more powerful and invisible to your end user.
Get started
The Shorebird Samples repository is completely open-source. Whether you're migrating a legacy application, managing complex flavors, or architecting logic for safe hot-patching, these examples will guide your implementation.
Take a look, clone a sample, and take full control of your release cycle today.