Hey all, I am a frontend developer with some experience in reactjs (I know all the basics up to intermediate stuff like state management and fetching data from firebase). I was wondering if I should try to use my javascript knowledge and react knowledge to learn to react native to build a start-up or if I should learn native ios/android development instead.
Depends what your start up is going to be. If your planning on games or are building an app for millions of users, then perhaps native is the route.
If you're planning on building a standard app that had pages and functionality that uses common native APIs, the RN is fine and will be much quicker (especially with your existing react experience).
RN in 2022/3 is still going strong from what I see and your newly learned skills should last years to come.
One thing you may not realise is that at some point in RN dev, you maybe have to get your hands dirty with writing native code anyway.
As someone who has developed multiple apps and has been in charge of releases on the Play Store and App Store, I do want you to consider if you want to target both stores for launch.
An unexpected experience I had after we launched was the amount of time it can take to deal with both of the stores. Even after automating most of the release process with `fastlane`, our team spent a long time making sure that both the android and ios versions of the app were in sync.
It is definitely worth learning, IMO. I found React Native to be much easier to understand and use and it translates nicely to web development, which is also very important if you're working at a start-up. Start-ups need websites too! 😉
Videos
I´m very interested on start developing on RN but I want to know what is the status of RN this year. I mean, want to know if the dev community is active creating libraries for RN, how the DX is and if RN will have a long term support. I hope you can help me with this, thanks and have a nice day!
What you need to know is that RN is being maintained, improved year by year, becoming better and faster. I don’t think that creators of RN are going to deprecate it any time soon, so you can definitely try it. But you should also know that sometimes you are going to love RN, and sometimes you will want to kill yourself for working with RN.
You can also try Flutter, to see what you are going to like more.
Yes
Hello, I’m gonna be starting a new side project soon and was curious about the current state of react-native.
I usually use Ionic for anything mobile related and the last time I tried react native was prob 4-5 years ago and it was hard to use with incomplete docs at the time.
Wondering if anyone works with react-native a lot now and what the dev experience is like? If you’ve worked with both would also love to hear which you prefer and why.
React Native has pretty much “won” in terms of becoming the industry standard cross platform framework.
Expo is amazing and takes away a lot of the pain present in typical mobile app development. If you’re using react native without expo it’s an entirely different experience.
I’ve been a professional React Native developer for 3 years now and it’s been pretty good to me for the most part. It sometimes has really tedious and nonsensical issues to deal with but for the most part it’s a smooth dev experience.
Native views provide a better UX and React Native apps are higher quality in general in my opinion. React Native has some amazing libraries like vision camera, reanimated, skia, flashlist, bottom sheet, the list goes on
I use React for the web but don't use React Native anymore, I switched to Flutter as things don't constantly break every time I try to update, plus there really isn't as much code sharing as one would expect between React and React Native.
I'm about to set up a new project and I was wondering what the recommended tools are to start out with currently. The app is not supposed to be very complicated, a medium number of screens with straight forward components. Ease of development would be appreciated as I do not have a huge amount of experience.
What would you recommend for state management, navigation, querying and such?
I've been building out https://memefighter.app as a progressive web over the past few months, but since 99% of people don't know how to install a PWA on their phones, I'm starting to look into React Native, ElectronJS, and Capacitor as cross-platform solutions for generating iOS & Android builds from a single codebase.
I don't have any experience with mobile development yet, so I expect the core of the application to continue as a React/TS app for the immediate future.
For me, the most important factors in choosing the right tool are:
Ease of integration - I don't want to spend more than a week learning about the tool and setting this up.
Ease of maintenance & updatability - It should be fairly easy to fix bugs, and add large features, pages/views, and logic to the app without breaking it
Community support - The package isn't going to die tomorrow
Native tooling/package support - Asking for permissions to use a photo from the camera roll or using the native share sheet shouldn't be difficult.
React Native - From the looks of things, React Native seems to be the most performant and mature option, but also requires the largest development lift of the 3 options. the logic of the meme editor is already somewhat complex (we're using XState to manage our state), and I'm worried about the million different ways we could break the app when migrating it over.
Electron - Several popular apps such as VSCode & Discord use Electron, but I've seen people complain about the performance/memory utilization Electron apps. However, VSCode is much more complex than the application we're building, so if we get comparable performance to that I don't think its a huge issue - the main concerns would be that the integration and setup isn't overly complex.
Capacitor - This seems to give the most mixed reviews. People either hate it or love it, but people seem to agree that at least for simple apps, integration is frictionless.
Am I judging these different solutions correctly? I understand this is a React Native forum so there will be some bias there, but would welcome any feedback with respect to:
Any recent updates that have been made to each framework that would help me choose the right "tool for the job".
What the CI/QA experience is for testing feature rollout to web/iOS/Android with each of these platforms, and if I need to test on each for platform specific bugs or if the tool is pretty reliable in how the UI is rendered across platforms.
I’m an experienced React developer and want to start the journey to learn professionally to develop React Native apps. I’ve read the getting started about using Expo, or the cli but I’ve seen negative talk about expo especially. So I’m looking for suggestions and advice from devs who are working with Rn daily and professionally either in a company setting or for clients. I’m not looking for beginner advice but more like a solid start to the journey.
Perhaps i wasn’t clear enough in the post 😂 I’m not a beginner, i am looking from insights from experienced developers who work with this day to day. What tools do they use when they setup a new app in rn, do they use any boilerplate or starter? Preferably advice from devs working in established companies or startups even enterprise setting. Not hobbyists or people who play around with rn for fun (no offense to anyone)
Hi, I am learning webdev for 7 moths. I don't know when should I learn react native, so I have question Is react native similar to reactJS? or is it similar only in name
Yes it is the same in terms of the concepts:
Lifecycle methods Hooks/classes Redux Context API ...etc
As for if you should learn it, I say yes if you like React and want to start with mobile development. It is the easiest way to transition into mobile development.
Nevertheless, I think you should give it a try just to see what's out there. Never hurts to learn/try new stuff.
Yes. There’s plenty of 6 fig jobs out there for it
Hello everyone,
I am looking for an active project for react native for linux app development, it doesn't matter is it QT or GTK. My problem is all react native ports I found are dead or inactive.
To be fair I might need to use Flutter because it looks react native is no longer the hot kid in the block and all projects are abandoned.
I really hope to be able to find a react native project that uses ANY native components because I dont want to use the SKIA / Drawing components in frameworks like Flutter which are never theme-aware.
as an active react native developer, I can tell you that it is definitely still the hot kid on the block. The only real advantage of flutter imo is removing the bridge for better performance in some very specific scenarios. I’ve never used react native for linux dev but just flip through github you’re bound to find one
React Native's core is Android and iOS. It never tried to be everything to everyone. I'm ok with that. As you mentioned there are ports.
Google with Flutter is going down the same path Nokia tried to take QT and I think it's going to turn out the same way.
React Native is still very much the hot kid on the block but it's focused on the hot block.
To focus on your second part. React Native can use native components and does in many places but it's neither recommended or encouraged to use UI components as it's very hard to achieve a consistency across platforms that suits both the user and the developer (again see QT).
You are better off making use of primitives to build a UI. Flutter tends to "bait" people into the native feel components then you realise that you either need to write code for each platform or do what I said and create a primitives based UI that tries to feel ok across platforms.
There are definitely more options than Flutter or React Native if you just want a Linux app. QT is still great IMHO and you could go down the electron path too.
What do you think the react native team or react native community will bring this year?
Are there some really interesting projects that are happening and general RN developer might not know?
I am not the author of the video - I just stumbled on it.
Next time someone asks which cross-platform framework to chose, remember this video ;-)
I have to build an android app and a web app with the same features for a client. Do you think I should use react native?
Am a long time microsoft dev looking for something different in terms of mobile development.
Ive seen allot of react native development videos but also see Facebook has pulled out as well.
Is it now community drivin or is their any comercial backing.
A think allot of people are jumping the ms ship in terms of mobile development
Ive been in idusutry for 20 years as a codder and love using new things.
If I remember correctly Microsoft is maintaining the Mac and Windows ports.
https://github.com/facebook/react-native/blob/main/ECOSYSTEM.md#current-partners
Current partners:
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Coinbase: Publishes posts advocating React Native usage. Supports u/react-native-community/datetimepicker
and other community modules to migrate to the new architecture. Supports releases in testing and feedback. -
Callstack: Maintains the React Native CLI and other community libraries, organizes React Native EU and hosts The React Native Show podcast
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Expo: Builds Expo Go and SDK, Snack, and Expo Application Services. Maintains React Native Directory, stewards React Navigation along with other partners.
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Infinite Red: Maintains the ignite cli/boilerplate, organizes Chain React Conf, hosts the React Native Radio podcast, publishes the React Native Newsletter
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Meta: Oversees the React Native product and maintains the React Native core repo
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Microsoft: Develops React Native Windows and React Native macOS for building apps that target Windows and macOS; maintains rnx-kit, react-native-test-app and coordinates cross-companies efforts such as the bundle working group.
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Shopify: Maintains React Native open source libraries such as flash-list or @shopify/react-native-skia and sponsors Software Mansion.
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Software Mansion: Maintain core infrastructure including JSC, Animated, and other popular third-party plugins and organizes App.js Conf
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Wix.com: Maintains a variety of React Native open source projects (see all), including: Detox end-to-end testing library for React Native apps, RN UILib, RN Navigation, RN Calendars and RN Notifications.
Hey all, hoping somebody can help me.
I recently bought a course on Udemy to learn react native but the comments were all saying that it's really outdated and some of the stuff isn't even used anymore - so I've refunded it
Does anybody know some really up to date studying material that is relevant in 2023 or can confirm if these are even worth the time/money? I'm looking at these courses at the moment
React Native: Mobile App Development (CLI) [Created in 2023] | Udemy
The Practical Guide to React Native: Build iOS/Android Apps | Udemy
React Native : The beginner guide (2023 Edition) | Udemy
or to even just point me in the right direction in general would be a massive help
Many thanks in advance
I am sure this question has been asked many times, so apologies for that. But as we know things are constantly changing and developing in this field.
I'm trying to make a native app for an uber-like business model. There will be one app for the users to book an on demand service, and another app for the "drivers" to accept requests, view their pay, etc.
I'm fairly new to native app dev and can't decide which framework to go with. I'm currently between react native and flutter, but I'll take other suggestions too. This app will be really heavy on the server side if that helps. I have some experience with react and building components, but I struggle with typescript. I feel dart will be easier to pick up.
Looking for any helpful advice or suggestions.
Thank you
React Native isn't really native either though. The only way to build a real native mobile app is to not use any frameworks at all, and use the Android SDK and iOS SDK. Not using frameworks will give your app greater performance than using a framework like React Native.
A look at the top mobile apps in the Apple and Android stores shows that the major players are all owned by Big Tech
In 2023, the best React Native UI components libraries continue to revolutionize mobile app development. These libraries offer pre-built user interface elements that streamline the design process, enhance app functionality, and provide a polished user experience. Some key points about the Best React Native UI Components Library of 2023 are:
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Comprehensive Component Collection: The top libraries boast an extensive collection of ready-to-use components, covering everything from buttons, forms, and navigation bars to complex elements like charts and animations.
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Customisability: These libraries offer a high degree of customisation, allowing developers to tailor the appearance and behavior of components to match the app's unique branding and design requirements.
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Cross-Platform Compatibility: The best React Native UI component libraries ensure cross-platform compatibility, enabling developers to create apps that work seamlessly on both iOS and Android devices.
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Performance Optimisation: With a focus on performance, these libraries are built to minimize rendering overhead, ensuring smooth and responsive user interactions.
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Active Community and Support: Libraries with a thriving community foster continuous improvement and provide reliable support, helping developers troubleshoot issues and stay up-to-date with the latest features.
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Documentation and Examples: Clear documentation and practical examples are hallmarks of the best libraries, facilitating rapid development and reducing the learning curve for new developers.
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Regular Updates: The top libraries are frequently updated to incorporate new features, bug fixes, and improvements, ensuring that developers can leverage the latest advancements in React Native.
It seems like a copy paste article from the far 2020. So many libraries missing and there are libraries that have no commits since 2020.
At least put some effort and update it to include Tamagui, react-native-ui-lib etc
as the comments say this seems very outdated already. I think this list will be more useful in 2023: https://www.astrolytics.io/blog/best-react-native-ui-libraries
Product managers and project managers keep glorifying react native as a miracle framework, and they don't seem to understand why in 2023 most popular apps are not using it as the main framework for developing mobile apps. Facebook has advertised RN as a solution to all cross-platform problems, while in reality, it (poorly) adresses the UI problem leaving all other platform-specific functionalities to the mercy of plugin developers which usually have to develop their feature twice, half-bake their plugin to finally abandon it. I have seen this over and over, on multiple projects, with the intention to lower the cost of mobile development, the adoption of RN only brings extra layers of complexity, and devs end up having to maintain 3 platforms, and never switching fully.
I am sure there are some apps (news readers, shopping apps) which successfully implemented RN, but for most projects in my experience, the attempt to migrate to RN has just brought nothing but bad quality and more work. The justification is sadly also always the same: lower the cost.