Instagram, Bloomberg, UberEats, Facebook, Walmart, Skype or even Tesla: many companies have chosen to use React Native to develop their mobile applications. The framework, created by Facebook, has experienced a meteoric rise since its release in 2015. Why choose this technology to launch your mobile application?
What is React Native?
In the past, to develop a mobile application it was necessary to develop an application for iOS and an application for Android, using technologies specific to each OS: Swift or Objective C for custom iOS app development, Java or Katlin for Android.
React Native aims to simplify mobile development by offering developers a framework that allows them to produce mobile applications on iOS and Android while having a single code base, written in JavaScript. Concretely, the developer uses React Native components which call on the native functions of the phone.
Save time for your developments
The framework makes it possible to reduce the development time of your applications. A single code base allows to produce an application on both iOS and Android. It is no longer necessary, therefore, to develop the same functionality twice. This uniqueness of the code also allows a certain consistency between the two OS, and facilitates the maintenance and the evolution of the application.
Native performance and rendering
Some would argue that React Native sacrifices performance for speed of development. On the contrary, React Native offers a native experience to users, both in terms of performance and UX. Indeed, the framework directly calls on libraries which are developed natively. To put it simply, when the developer uses a React Native component, the framework uses native APIs. For example, lists will keep their native appearance on iOS and Android.
React Native allowed us to develop complex functionalities on different applications. On Jock, a gay social network, we have implemented a feature that allows you to track the position of a user even when they are not on the application. It is also possible to make video and audio calls for up to 15 people. In addition, the application manages a significant volume of data without any performance problem, in particular thanks to React Native components optimized for large volumes of data, such as Flat Lists for example. Another example, on the Codedelaroute.io application, the redux library allowed us to make the application accessible in offline mode by storing all of the application’s data in the phone cache. Finally, on the Leader Santé application, it is possible to scan prescriptions using the phone’s camera.
Real-time messaging, position tracking, news feed, push notifications, live streaming, and geo location: React Native has allowed us to quickly set up complex features, without sacrificing the overall performance of our applications. Users will not see the difference between an app developed natively and an app developed in React Native.
An active community
React Native knew an undisputed enthusiasm: in 2019 the project recorded more than 2000 contributions on GitHub. Initially used for Instagram, Facebook’s support has helped the technology flourish. And interest in the framework is not waning. The dynamism of the React Native community is growing. Updates are carried out regularly. In addition, the many contributors develop and maintain very useful libraries such as Redux or Expo which increase the speed of development and deployment of your applications.
Easier to build a team
Over 70% of developers have mastered JavaScript, according to a Stack Overflow study ! The panel of candidates to form your teams is therefore much larger. This facility is significant in a sector where talent recruitment is complicated given the scarcity of developers. Finally, the molecularity of the code allows a developer to simply use the developed code.
Conclusion
React Native is in our opinion the best option for launching a mobile application because it allows to quickly develop complex and powerful applications compatible with Android and iOS. Optimizing development time is crucial in launching a mobile product because it allows you to interact quickly with users and thus maximize their feedback to mature the application.
