What is React Native?
React Native is a framework that lets developers build native mobile apps using JS. It enables you to build an application for multiple platforms while using the same codebase. This can shorten the development time of your project and reduce the overall cost of building a mobile app. Another advantage is that you don’t need two separate teams for native development, but rather the services of a single React Native team.
Should I choose React Native or native?
React Native development is great for most apps that rely heavily on the user interface because, with little effort, we can get the UI to work on both iOS and Android. And, most importantly, we can share the business logic.
Apart from these benefits, React Native uses flexbox for layout, which works the same way on iOS, Android, and the web, so we can transfer our experience from the web instead of learning more engines.
On the other hand, a native app is great when we consider using all the features that an operating system offers, including modules like video/audio processing or multithreading. Since React Native focuses on the user interface only, it can be less efficient for applications with many native features.
Cross-platform mobile development
Cross-platform mobile development is a great alternative to native iOS and Android mobile apps. React Native development is one of the best solutions for building a mobile app. It allows you to reduce costs and save time on your project – you can build both iOS and Android applications simultaneously. The React Native framework is hugely popular among developers and is now considered the top choice for cross-platform mobile app development.
React Native is a JavaScript framework for building native mobile applications. It was developed by Facebook and gained a lot of popularity. It’s about 30% faster to build a React Native mobile app supporting both iOS and Android than to develop native applications separately.
What are the benefits of using React Native for app development?
In general, building cross-platform applications provides a number of benefits. Developing applications with one codebase can save a lot of money and time as fewer developers are involved in the app development process. There is also no difference in terms of application release and update time on both platforms.
React Native is open source, which means that if you are facing issues in your project, there is a high chance of getting help from other developers and the community. Hot reloading allows you to immediately visualize what you create, which makes React Native app development a lot more productive.
Will React Native make my app look and run the same way on iOS and Android?
iOS and Android offer different sets of features, and it's not React Native’s responsibility to make these environments equal. React Native is only a way of accessing the native components in iOS and Android.
I would say that most of the time – with some effort – we can make apps on both platforms look the same, but we shouldn't. We should stick to platform-specific guidelines when it comes to the user interface. Luckily, React Native provides us with an easy way to adapt the UI to the given platform’s needs.