What Is React Native? The Rise of Hybrid Mobile Apps

React Native emerged in 2015, and it’s swiftly taken the mobile development world by storm.

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You may have heard about React Native, Flutter, lonic, or Cordova in conversation. These are all frameworks for constructing a hybrid mobile application, which is a way of building an iOS and Android app from a single codebase.

In this blog post, we cover what React Native is, how it may help your firm, and when it makes sense to use it instead of designing native Android and iOS applications.

What is React Native?

React Native (homepage) is a JavaScript framework for designing mobile applications that can run natively on both Android and iOS. It is built on ReactJS, developed at Facebook, which is a declarative, component-based framework for designing web user interfaces (UIs).

Both tools are immensely popular: at the time of this writing, ReactJS and React Native were the 4th and 21st most-starred repositories on GitHub.

If you are already familiar with ReactJS you should easily pick up React Native as the same libraries can be used across both platforms.

Code is shared between platforms

React Native is generated from a single JavaScript codebase that facilitates code reuse between Android and iOS. To clarify how code can be shared, it’s vital to realize that a mobile application can be broken down into two independent parts:

The user interface, composed of components that you interact with as a user (think buttons, inputs fields, sliders, etc.); \sThe logic layer (think data manipulation, computations, storage, and fetching) (think data manipulation, calculations, storage, and fetching).

Next, let’s look at how these are handled in a single codebase.

Like ReactJS, React Native employs JSX, an XML markdown language for designing UIs which replaces HTML and CSS. From JSX, Ul components are generated into native platform-specific components which create a speedy and familiar experience for end-users.

For example, a React Native Text component renders natively on iOS as a UILabel and on Android as a TextView. Some other hybrid mobile frameworks use web-based components which render HTML and CSS, and eventually give a slow user experience.

Independently designed native programs often have a lot of logic in common. This can practically double the cost for development as they have to be written in two distinct languages and tested twice.

By adopting React Native, your web app may share the same logic as your mobile apps, ensuring consistency across platforms, and save you time and money. Instead of having to maintain multiple codebases and hiring developers that are knowledgeable in both Android and iOS, you can construct a team of JavaScript developers that operate on a single codebase.

Improved developer experience

JavaScript is the world’s most used programming language today. The benefits of having a vast array of open source tools and libraries to reuse is hard to overstate.

If you have an already established team of web developers, it wouldn’t take long to educate them from React JS to React Native, however there may be occasions when having the option to receive support from native developers (iOS or Android) to aid with platform-specific questions would be beneficial. Finding those developers when you need them nonetheless may be the beginning of issues involved.

It’s not always the right choice

React Native

• is a fantastic tool for teams
• who are already experienced
• with web technology,
• but it may not be advantageous for teams
• that wish to develop
• a more complex application.

For example, if throughout development you would like to make quick iterations and rely upon one team, it can be a terrific solution. However, if you are attempting to create a fully unique app that: Utilises many custom Ul components, Performs heavy animations, Uses a lot of device-specific APIs, or Uses a bleeding edge iOS and/or Android feature.

Then it would probably be worth studying standalone native applications. This generally comes down to the dependency on a third-party as a layer between your code and iOS or Android platforms.

• So, if a new feature
• or a breaking update
• Apple or Google,
• it would frequently take
• some time before the third-party
• dependency implemented support for it, if at all.

Who is using React Native

There are some significant firms that currently employ React Native,

• like the makers of Facebook marketplace and advertisements, Tesla, Bloomberg, and many others.
• Bloomberg iOS and Android apps
• made with React Native

The Bloomberg team believes it took the team of developers in around half the time it would have taken had they not employed React Native.

Who quit using React Native

When considering a new technology it’s crucial to have a balanced view and study both its merits and cons.

Airbnb engineers created a series of blog entries about their increasing experience with React Native. After three years the team chose to move off of React Native in favor of native mobile development tools. Some of the problems with React Native they cited include:

The framework itself evolves swiftly, which produces hard-to-debug difficulties.

You still have to create some native code — and finding the correct mix is tricky.

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Debugging and testing across platforms

Hiring and organizing people around hybrid apps.

Maintaining 3 stable and up-to-date development environments (React Native, Android, and iOS) (React Native, Android, and iOS).

It’s fascinating to compare this with the experience of Artsy, who continue to employ React Native despite the disadvantages.

We urge that you also ask in your network about people’s experiences. Most companies don’t have the same budget and staff size as Bloomberg and Airbnb, therefore it’s good to hear about the experiences of organizations of similar size as well.

Giving React Native a try

It’s fast, effective, and reasonably straightforward to understand for JavaScript developers. The project homepage is the best location to start learning more.