Building Modern Mobile Apps with React Native

React Native is a mobile application development framework developed by Facebook engineers in 2013 as the result of an internal summer hackathon. The initial idea for building React Native as a framework was born out of curiosity for making “touch negotiation between JS and native ScrollViews” work. Developers at Facebook were running into difficulties with debugging, performance, and managing UX for the Facebook mobile app. React Native was invented to better manage those complications.

Since then, it has become one of the most popular frameworks in the world. Facebook open-sourced the framework in 2015, and in the last four years, it has supplanted itself as a technology of choice for many mobile developers. Here at StudioLabs, we trust React Native for delivering high-performance, user-friendly mobile applications to our clients.

Related: Choosing a Mobile App Agency in New York

Code Reuse and ROI

If an organization is intent on maximizing profits from a mobile application development project, they should plan for making the app available in both the Android and iOS stores. Reaching both Android and iPhone users means more sales opportunities and the potential for a larger, more diverse user base. With 2.1 million applications in the Google Play store and just around 2 million in the Apple store, competition is fierce.

However, there is more upside to deploying an app in both stores than there is to rely on only one distribution method. This is especially true when your development framework supports hybrid application development and code reuse for a “develop once, deploy everywhere” mindset. One of the most significant advantages of React Native is that developers avoid having to build one application for iOS and a separate app for Android. Instead, React Native streamlines the developer experience and uses both iOS and Android components which are mobilized by Javascript and React.js.

Ease of Onboarding

React Native benefits from being founded in Javascript and React in other ways as well. React is the second most-wanted developer framework in the world. For example, supporting and maintaining a mobile application built with React Native is typically easier than other frameworks because of developer familiarity with React Native’s tools. When built using best practice and good structure, a React Native application can make onboarding new devs or new teams fairly straightforward.

If you’re considering partnering with a third-party – say a React Native developer shop – to build an application you plan to maintain, React Native could be a useful framework for your project. If you lack the resources or team to maintain the app, make sure your partner handles maintenance projects as well as the initial plan for building your app.

Developer Friendliness and Hot Reloading

Much has already been said about why developers love React Native. Thanks to “hot reloading,” developers can reload their application after any code changes almost instantly. This function allows for way more developer-friendly testing practices than auditing and debugging a massive codebase. It makes making changes to applications straightforward and promotes flexibility when implementing new features.

React Native Developers

“Cross-platform development, in general, is chosen by our team most of the time so that we have a single codebase for multiple software applications, one codebase for both iOS and Android apps. React Native allows developers to write modules using Objective-C, Java, or Swift when needed. This makes the overall decision to use React Native easier because if there are certain features and functionality we can’t rely on JavaScript for, or that aren’t included in the framework’s APIs, we can fall back on those other native languages to get those modules in place.”
– Liz Young, StudioLabs President & CEO

If you’re interested in partnering with an agency to develop a mobile app, let’s start a conversation. We are experienced React Native developers but are also capable of using a wide range of technologies and approaches for meeting your goals.