DEVOPSdigest

Qt Group announced plans for significant expansion of the Qt platform and ecosystem.

Building on its existing tooling for supporting cross-platform GUI development, Qt is on a roadmap to evolve into a fully technology-agnostic platform. The goal is to power all software development needs across every device and industry, while expanding Qt to a diverse ecosystem of new users. Work on this next phase of Qt is under way on a number of fronts to speed up and simplify UI/UX development for software applications.

As part of this expansion, Qt Group will introduce new bridging technology that integrates Qt with any programming language of choice, initially including Rust, Python, .NET, Swift, and Kotlin/Java. This will extend Qt’s existing front/back-end separation by letting Qt Quick operate independently of C++ back-ends (the back-end houses the app code running business logic, while the front-end uses Qt Quick to define UI/UX). Separating these gives new and established Qt developers more flexibility and speed to build unique apps and devices, without limiting functionality. It lets all product development teams work in parallel to build features, even if they use different core technologies. This will reduce development costs for product teams, especially in highly specialized and limited areas like embedded devices.

Alongside this, Qt Group is investing into new tooling to create seamless bridges between designers and developers. One of these tools, introduced at the event, is the free, standalone Figma to Qt plug-in. It’s a new design-to-code solution that allows direct export of Figma designs into any IDE, generating clean and production-ready QML code. This accelerates UI development by streamlining handoff, reducing iteration cycles and empowering teams to deliver modern user interfaces faster than ever.

Qt Group will also continue to invest into AI features that make software development more productive. The Qt AI Assistant, launched earlier this year, will expand its functionalities with new support for LLMs using Claude 3.7, Sonnet, and DeepSeek v3. The tool is designed to offload repetitive developer tasks like writing test cases, code documentation, explanations, and boilerplate QML code, freeing up time for more meaningful coding.

“Our ethos with Qt and cross-platform development has always been ‘build it once, use it everywhere’”, says Juhapekka Niemi, Senior Vice President, Product Management at Qt Group. “We looked back at all the amazing tech inventions we’ve helped make possible over the years with Qt and said, ‘we want to bring that to a lot more people.’ We want to make Qt the backbone of all software application development, no matter the technology or industry. We also want to empower people to create UX that is a real differentiator, not just an enabler. You can build the modern UX of your dreams on top of any foundation imaginable, and you never have to duplicate the work. That’s where the real value is.”

Through this technology-agnostic transformation, Qt will no longer be just a toolkit for C++ developers or UI specialists, but a universal engine for enabling software innovation. More information will be provided later in 2025.