react native
Development

Why We Need React Native?

If you’ve been following the latest web development news, you probably know the hype around React Native. It started when Facebook introduced a framework for developing native apps. This authoritative support provided React Native technologies with an ideal starting point. Well, then everything rushed like a snowball. Today we see a number of libraries and frameworks based on the React Native architecture. Developing web interfaces will never be the same again.

Since the release of React Native, we’ve seen many attempts at combining JS, HTML and CSS to develop native mobile apps. Suffice it to mention technologies such as Apache Cordova and Ionic. They are certainly viable. However, they are united by one significant drawback. Both Apache Cordova and Ionic run inside a WebView that does not use the native platform API. In a nutshell, this leads to poor application performance.

React Native is a completely different story. Using its own API, and wrapping it in React components, the platform allows you to develop applications that are barely distinguishable from native ones. Unlike Apache Cordova and Ionic, React Native has managed to achieve a declarative approach to developing interfaces without sacrificing performance.

Sounds pretty, but not convincing enough. Therefore, we decided to put together all the advantages and disadvantages of React Native, and then tweak the balance and draw a conclusion.

Benefits of React Native

  • Pay less – get more

First and foremost, with React Native technology, you pay for two apps for the price of one. Stop. Even three. Let’s not forget about Windows mobile. Of course, you may encounter some difficulties during the development phase, but in 99% of cases they pay off with interest.

  • Instant feedback

React Native allows you to import changes from the developer menu by simply updating your app. It’s very fast. All you need to do is change the file, reload the application, wait a couple of seconds, and voila – the updates are ready.

With native development, you have to rebuild the entire application. And this is a waste of time, effort, resources – you understand.

  • Common toolkit for web and mobile

Basically, you can use a template to build web applications in React JS. There is no fundamental difference in development. All that remains is to change the installation path and application routing using the React Native navigator. No wonder so many developers like it and are offering React JS development services.

Otherwise, there are no differences. You don’t even need webpack as Babel is the default in React Native. All this significantly reduces the time spent. Give your JavaScript developers just a couple of days and they’ll serve you ready-to-use mobile components on a silver platter.

And further. While working with React Native, we used Redux. And we want to note that it behaves exactly the same as when developing web applications.

  • Almost the same codebase for iOS and Android

There are nuances. First of all, this applies to iOS . For example, scrolling to the input, which requires a low-level API. In addition, the Native Picker is similar to the standard select input in Android, but looks different on iOS. Otherwise, everything is identical. And no problems with developing interfaces for different platforms.

  • A declarative way to design UI

One of the main pros of React Native.Flexbox support out of the box makes UI writing much less painful compared to the imperative style of the native platform.

Disadvantages of React Native

Considering that the first public release of React Native took place about three years ago, it is only natural that the framework may lack stability. However, there are other disadvantages as well. More about them.

  • Leaking abstractions

If you need to install a package with a native API under the hood (written in Java or Objective C), you will have to use a special tool – rnpm. It used to be shipped as a separate library, but has gradually been integrated into React Native. The problem is that it doesn’t always work. For example, when you need to install a package manually, we can only hope that the developers have provided the appropriate documentation. In this case, the installation process is reduced to adding Java or Objective C code (depending on the platform). However, if you have not worked with native platforms before, you will have to resort to “black magic”.

  • The need to use real devices not only during testing, but also during development

It probably looks too obvious. But we insist: don’t rely on emulators alone. Even though they allow you to identify a lot of minor interface inconsistencies. Do not take risks and use only real devices throughout the entire development period of the application.

  • You must know and understand native platforms

If you want to be truly effective, this is a must. Not an easy task, especially for novice developers. But you will certainly have to face it.

Imagine that a bug in React Native came out on a project, and you needed the help of mobile developers. And they suddenly have no idea about this framework. Or not familiar enough with him. Keep this in mind when choosing React Native for your next app development.

  • React Native packager sometimes loses connection

This can happen if you haven’t reloaded your code for a while. Disconnecting the device and restarting the packager is inconvenient. And one more nuance. Sometimes at the beginning of work it is worth resetting the cache via `npm start – –reset-cache`.

  • Get ready to learn how mobile apps are deployed

This point has a rather indirect relationship to React Native. But if you are working on public applications, you will have to learn how to deploy them. And if for Android this procedure is as simple as a shovel, then for iOS it often turns into a sheer nightmare. Luckily, we have experienced mobile developers on our team who are always ready to help with handling certificates, device IDs, and building builds with Xcode. And if they are not?

Another thing is that you are not limited in the choice of tools for deploying React Native applications. Among the most interesting we would highlight CodePush Microsoft. He takes a holistic approach to React Native and sees it with all JavaScript components. This way you don’t have to go through the entire build / release / review cycle. Instead, you simply push updates and Microsoft CodePush takes care of delivering them to end users. It’s not hard to guess that this approach saves a lot of time.

Conclusion

Using React Native can be more efficient than working with native platforms. Finally, we will refer to our own experience and the pace of development of this framework and say: React Native is a great solution for mobile app development in 2022.