Feb 10, 2020

React Native was created by Facebook. It is open-source and targets mobile applications for Android, iOS, Web, and UQP. It started as Facebook’s internal Hackathon project and was first previewed in 2015 at ReactJS Con. React Native is written in JavaScript and it is rendered with native code. Additionally, React’s components allow it so to wrap existing native code and interact with native APIs via the software’s declarative JavaScript and UI paradigm.

React Native: An open-source framework for building native apps

A comparatively newer platform for app development, it has gained massive popularity within a limited time. React Native boasts of strong community support and a good market share since it has been introduced. According to the Github Repository Statistics in February 2019, 2,058 contributors have committed 19, 311 times in 108 branches with 335 releases. In addition, React Native is also the 14th most starred repository on Github.

What are the advantages of React Native?

1) A large community of developers
What started as a Hackathon effort in 2013, resulted in React Native. Facebook developed a framework that was constantly supported by and pushed forward by the development community. Additionally, since React Native is an open-source JavaScript platform, it makes it easier for every developer to contribute for free and also is easily accessible for all, thereby giving a complete advantage of the community. If you’re stuck, the community will always be there to help.
2) Cross-platform compatibility
One of the biggest advantages of React Native is its cross-platform compatibility. What was originally introduced only for iOS, was quickly developed for Android as well owing to its wonderful capabilities and features. The majority of the APIs are now cross-platform that enables developers to build cross-platform apps simultaneously via the same codebase.
3) Known for optimal performance
React Native has a true advantage when it comes to improving the performances via native control and modules. The platform gets connected to its native components that help in operating systems and generating code to the native APIs freely and upfront.
4) Affirmative developer experience
One of the most positive things about React Native is the fact that it offers a great development environment. It grants implementations and modifications that are required while an app is running, thereby removing the need to restart. It also makes the iteration cycle easier by removing the tiring re-building and deploying. React Native also deploys flexbox layout that is an engine that essentially helps in generating app layouts for cross-platforms. Thereby helping you in understanding one layout that works on both platforms.

What are the disadvantages of React Native?

1) Its still new
As opposed to other Android and iOS languages, React Native is still comparatively new. The programming language still has a lot it can do especially in terms of improvement. It constantly lacks consistency especially when it comes to new updates which unfortunately ends up confusing developers. These updates especially become a problem because every time a new update is released; the developers find it difficult to make changes and hence make regular updates.
2) Lack of custom modules
React Native is still underdeveloped as it lacks certain components. While most of the customer modules are easily available, and work well, however it happens every now and then that one requires to build a solution from scratch.
3) Limited third-party components
While React Native has a large number of native modules available for both Android and iOS however one of the limitations of this tool is the limited number of third-party components available. This is a disadvantage because it limits the possible features that may be implemented in apps by developers.

Apps built using React Native

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Uber Eats
• Tesla
• Skype
• Pinterest
• Walmart