For quite some time now, there has been a very good alternative for native development — and that is cross-platform development. The main advantage is reduced cost and time by using the same code on both platforms.
React Native (RN) application development is a thriving solution today. In this article, we will discuss what are React Native app development benefits, popularity, and perspective, when RN is the right choice for you, and when it’s not a solution for your needs.
The reason why React Native framework has gained popularity in recent years is that the framework helps cater both the platforms at one go and ends the holy war of selecting either iOS or Android development for mobile developers. Hence, giant companies like Facebook, Instagram, Skype, Airbnb, Tesla, Walmart, Baidu Mobile, Bloomberg, and many more have shifted their eyeballs towards it.
Moreover, using the React Native framework fills the gap between focusing on a wide marketplace and making the profit. Since the number of iOS users is less as compared to Android users and yet produce more profit, many industries get into the dilemma of whether they should emphasize on making more profit by building iOS apps or building user strength via Android apps only. That’s where React Native stands as an answer by offering best of both worlds.
Now, let’s go through all the reasons why React Native is superior to the other app development frameworks.
1. One codebase for two platforms
With React Native, you create one codebase that works on both Android and iOS. And it doesn’t just ‘work’ – it compiles to native Java and Swift code. Specifically, React Native creates a bridge between web UI components and their native Java/Swift counterparts.
Think about the implications for your software project. No need for two development teams for two platforms. No need to synchronize features and layouts. You simply develop faster and can get more out of your budget.
2. Native Experience
React Native is a JavaScript framework, based on React, which is also a JavaScript Library developed by Facebook. React was designed for building user interfaces for the web interface; React Native is specifically for building native mobile experiences.
It’s important to note that React Native produces real, native UI elements, leveraging the rendering of native views and functionality of the platform you’re working with.
3. Active Development
React Native is growing all the time. Both Facebook and the massive community around React Native are constantly working on improvements for the framework. If you can’t solve a problem right now because React Native doesn’t have the solution, in a few months the situation might be different.
4. Open-Source Nature
Open-source isn’t the savior for everything development-related, but it’s popular in the community, so new open-sourced versions are released often.
And each version allows for more stable development and more features that wouldn’t be available in a typical non-open-source programming framework like Swift.
5. Save time and money
If you need to develop an app for both iOS and Android, React Native is the best tool out there. It can reduce the codebase by about 95%, saving you time and money. On top of that, React Native has a number of open-source libraries of pre-built components which can help you further speed up the development process.
Who is Using React Native
React Native was announced by Facebook in 2015.
Facebook engineers Daniel Witte and Philipp von Weitershausen say in a blog post on the official Facebook Engineering blog, “We were able to ship Facebook’s first fully React Native app on two platforms, with native look and feel, built by the same team of JavaScript engineers. Not all of the engineers were familiar with React when they joined the team, yet they built an iOS app with a native look and feel in just five months. And after an additional three months, we released the Android version of the app.”
After a long time, hundreds of updates, fixes, and additions of functionality released, today, version РН 0.63.4 / November 30, 2020 is the most up-to-date version of React Native.
Due to its popularity and convenience, thousands of apps are using React Native as a solution — be it Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Skype, Uber eats, or Bloomberg, there are many brands and top-notch applications that use the React Native framework to gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
