React Native has taken advantage, and given the constant evolution of mobile app development, it has become necessary for software development companies to create cross-platform mobile applications. Perhaps a pleasant departure from the traditional native languages like C#, objective-C and Java is React Native

In the opinion of a mobile app development company, over the last five years, there has been an increased global preference for React Native with data showing a rapid increase in popularity of this framework. This trend is attributable to React Native’s ability to create powerful cross-platform apps of high quality. While it is solely based on React and JavaScript, the fundamental building blocks for developing an app using this framework are similar to other Android and iOS apps.

Here is why you should use React Native for your next mobile app development project.

1. Faster App Development

Compared to other frameworks, the use of React Native for your app development is faster and more cost-effective. This is attributable to two key factors. React Native comes with an extensive set of components you would need during the development process. These include a progress bar, animation, keyboard input, image, text, linking clipboard, etc. Combined with the convenient Hot Reloading feature that eliminates the need to recompile your entire code to reload your app, help speed up the mobile app development life circle. Developers can work with libraries like Awesome React Native and Redux, and development tools such as Yoga, Sentry, Nuclide, VS Code, Ignite, bugsnag, and Expo to facilitate a smoother development process. Further, compatibility with a wide range of third-party plugins is a plus for this framework.

The other aspect of the framework that shortens the development process is the reusability of code. You can use one code multiple times to create cross-platform apps, thus eliminating the need to repeat a whole development process for the various platforms you want to cover. This, in addition to saving time, also cuts on the cost, thus making React Native a cost-effective framework for mobile app development.

2. Rich User Interface and better User Experience

An app developed using React Native framework interacts with common native environments asynchronously. The UI is fluid and very responsive. The various declarative components in the framework, such as the Slider, Button, Picker, and Switch, allow developers to create unique and aesthetic User Interfaces.

Multiple components specific to Android or iOS also exist. Android-specific components include ToastAndroid, ToolbarAndroid, TimePickerAndroid, DrawerLayoutAndroid, DatePickerAndroid, PermissionsAndroid and ViewPageAndroid, among others.

iOS-specific components include ActionsheetIOS, PushNotificationIOS, SegmentedControlIOS, ProgressViewIOS, ImagePickerIOS and DatePickerIOS, among others. The bottom line is the JavaScript component of the React Native framework makes it easier to deliver apps with impressive UI/UX.

3. Impressive app performance

Compared to truly native apps built with Objective-C, C#, and Java, apps built on React Native framework may not perform as fast. This can be attributed to the large app size given the multiplicity of the components and memory leakage due to unnecessary background processes. The interdependencies of the various components and plugins can slow down the app.

However, you get near-native performance. Furthermore, it is possible to optimize your app with the use of native code. These will allow you to develop apps with low CPU usages, thus faster and more impressive performance.

4. Easy to learn

The learning curve for the React Native framework is quite gentle and friendly, especially for beginner developers. It is even easier for developers who are proficient in React and JavaScript.

There exist multiple resources for learning too. You can find all the resources you would need to get started with React Native. Furthermore, there are multiple learning resources from online courses to YouTube and Video tutorials on multiple platforms.

5. Strong Community

As pointed out initially, the popularity of React Native has experienced a dramatic increase over the last few years. The community has also grown tremendously. This is a good thing as it ensures continued upgrades on the framework and assured support from other developers contributing to the knowledge of the framework.

Reputable companies such as Microsoft, Callstack, Infinite Red, and Software Mansion have contributed to developing React Native libraries and components and providing support for users. There also exist platforms established by the community members with a collection of libraries and components for app development.

The bottom line is, there is enough support from the community of React Native developers. If you need support, Reddit, StackOverflow, Codementor, React Native Facebook Groups, Spectrum community, and Reactiflux Discord Community are the places to go.

Flutter vs React Native

Flutter vs React Native is a common topic of discussion in most technology platforms. Flutter is a portable UI toolkit purposely designed for creating natively-compiled apps web, desktop, and mobile from a single codebase while React Native is a framework that is used to create native applications using React.

Conclusion

Thousands of applications on the app stores use React Native, including those from Fortune 500 companies. Some top apps that use this framework include Instagram, Facebook, Bloomberg, Pinterest, Skype, Uber, Tesla, Discord, Salesforce, SoundCloud Pulse, and Vogue, among others. This points to the credibility and, from experience, reliability of the framework.
While that is the case, it is also important to acknowledge the inadequacies of the framework, like large app size and memory leakage that slows down performance. However, these can be overcome with reduced interdependence of components while using those with high performance. Moreover, the use of scrolling lists like VirtualList, FlatList, and SectionList can help address memory leakage in Android platforms.

Overall, React Native has a promising future. Its adoption in the developers’ community, especially by big brands mentioned above, hint to its credibility and worthiness.