You may not have heard of React Native framework, but you are definitely familiar with it in absentia. This tool is used in apps and web services such as Instagram, Facebook, Skype, TikTok, Uber, and thousands of others.
Why has React Native received such widely tremendous recognition from developers? It’s easy to explain. If earlier it was necessary to use different programming languages to develop applications for iOS and Android, then with React Native only one language is enough – JavaScript. Thus, you can use most of the code to create an application for both iOS and Android platforms. Below we will tell you more about this software development tool. And of course, you can ask us right now to get the best React Native services.
React Native: Simplicity is Powerful
React Native is the most popular in the world open source JS framework based on the MVC model. It was created for the development of natively rendered iOS/Android apps. Its core is the React JS library that was designed to create user interfaces. The first version of React Native was launched by Facebook developers in 2013.
Unlike the other MVC frameworks, this tool is able to manage a popular problem: interface rendering. Also React Native provides high performance, which is important when creating pages with dynamically updated content. Thanks to its module structure, React Native encourages you to write almost 90% reusable code. Unlike Cordova or Ionic (the main RN competitors), React Native uses the original platform’s APIs natively.
The next distinctive feature of this development environment is the fact that it uses built-in native components for the frontend (they are own for each platform and require their own bridges to communicate with the JS code), without requiring the connection of browsers or WebViews. This has the most positive effect on the app performance.
React Native as a Part of Cross-Platform Software Development
Cross-platform app development is all the rage nowadays. It is easy to understand why: it costs a lot less and it is faster to develop one cross-platform app for Android and iOS than to build two separate apps from scratch. Building a cross-platform app is made easier with all the frameworks created with this purpose in mind. React Native is a veteran in this field.
What are the Main Benefits of React Native?
It takes much less time to run full-fledged apps based on the React Native framework than on native solutions. This is explained by the fact that building an application on two platforms at once is much faster than first a native application for Android, and then a native one for iOS, or vice versa. The sooner the app sees the world, the sooner you can get feedback from users to move on. Great, isn’t it?
The big bonus is saving the budget. In particular, using React Native, the budget will be significantly lower, because the code will be up to 80% the same for both mobile platforms (which means you do not have to create two native applications for each platform).
Speaking of the advantages of React Native, the following are also worth to be taken into account:
- excellent performance: In the case of the apps built with React Native, their architecture consists of the JavaScript code and native components. If the app needs to use native components (e.g., location services or the camera), it uses the JavaScript bridge to convert JavaScript variables into native ones;
- great support of native APIs: In the case of React Native, you can count on most Android and iOS native APIs. Official native APIs include the ones for WiFi and location services; however, there are only unofficial APIs for Bluetooth, biometrics, camera, sensors, NFC. The good thing is that you can always find third-party APIs for this hardware. One significant drawback to React Native is the lack of support for drawing customizable graphics;
- wide opportunities for functionality implementation: The platform allows you to implement the functionality required for business apps. Scrolling, switching to tabs, and any other navigation – everything literally «flies». Performance can also be improved if needed with some third-party libraries;
- simple testing procedure: React Native developers have a huge variety of JavaScript tools for unit testing at their disposal;
- high speed of the product launch: The cross-platform nature and ease of development inherent in React Native reduce the time required for project implementation (when compared with native development). The support from the developed community of React developers also has a positive effect on the deadline: there are a large number of plugins in the public domain that can be used with React Native, which greatly simplifies the developer’s work;
- cost efficiency: Solutions built with React Native usually have a significantly lower budget than native apps built for both platforms (iOS and Android). As a rule, the savings are about 30-50 percent;
- low entry threshold: React Native is ease of learning. the software developers do not need any specific knowledge of Swift and Objective-C or Java and Kotlin programming. Instead, you just should be an experienced JavaScript developer. By the way, there are crowds of JavaScript developers out there in the labor market; however, finding a React Native could be tricky.
The fact that many market leaders successfully use React Native services, speaks volumes. If you are a startup owner and need to bring a high-quality, functional product to market in a matter of weeks, then React Native is a perfect solution for you.
Also Read: Know The Amazing Advantages Of React Library
Conclusion
Due to the React Native pros, its usage as a part of your cross-platform development process is a perfect choice for apps with dynamic content. But if your application exploits a large number of hardware resources, it is better to give preference to some other tools. Thus, React Native would be your best choice if:
- you need to build an app that would run on both Android and iOS platforms with per-platform native, intuitive UIs;
- you need a stable time-tested development tool.
So, if you are not willing to spend time figuring out how to make the best out of the framework, good old React Native is a way better choice.
