A Complete Guide to React Native for Cross-platform Apps Development [Updated]

Last updated on September 22nd, 2023

Additionally, the market is being fueled by the continued expansion of enterprise apps, the increased focus on apps expressly used for health and fitness, and the high number of downloads and in-app purchases for gaming applications.

A Complete Guide to React Native for Cross-platform Apps Development

Several factors, including a lack of high-speed connectivity in developing and undeveloped regions and enterprise skepticism about developing their applications, are predicted to limit the development of mobile applications. Furthermore, an increase in investment in digitization and the adoption of internet of things technology and mobile linked smart devices are projected to present significant potential for the market to develop throughout the forecast period, according to analysts.

There are certain disadvantages to using React Native. Some features are missing, and best practices are still being discovered, typical of a young project. It also comes with the hassles that come with any immature library. Even though they are small and limited in scope, breaking changes between versions still occur.

Although one does not have a background in JavaScript, it is difficult to argue with the advantages of a shorter development cycle and nearly complete code reuse in this environment. Furthermore, because React Native allows you to switch from “native” development to “standard” development whenever you need to, you are not hindered by the framework’s constraints. You should seriously consider it if you’re embarking on a mobile project.

React Native offers numerous advantages, such as developing cross-platform applications for Android and iOS devices. You had to write your code twice before using React Native – once for Android and once for IOS. That isn’t the case any longer. When it comes to React Native, the programming language employed is JavaScript. REACT Native is a mobile application development framework that enables developers to create programs compatible with iOS and Android operating systems.

A brief overview of the history of React Native:

• In January 2015, the React.js Conference announced the availability of the React Native 1 Preview.
• F8 Conference in March 2015 marked the official launch of React Native.
• In a statement, Facebook said that React Native is “open for use” and “accessible on GitHub.”

Two things are clear from the information presented above: React Native is more established than Flutter and has a larger user community. Also worth mentioning is the ample amount of time the Facebook team has had to stabilize the API and concentrate on fixing any underlying issues.

And don’t forget that Facebook is also working on several other major enhancements, including the following:

• It is possible to reduce the size of an app by separating optional components/features into separate repositories (which can then be added to an app as/when needed).
• TurboModules — which allow for more efficient handling of native modules.
• React Native Fabric – a redesigned user interface layer

What is the React Native Framework, and How Does It Work?

For interactive user interfaces to be rendered correctly in a browser, developers must change the Document Object Model.

Come with me to React Native for a moment. It distinguishes React Native from other cross-platform app development solutions, which frequently generate web-based views due to their design.

Fortunately, the “connector,” which offers React an interface into the host platform’s native UI elements, makes all of this possible. After calling their render function, react components return HTML that explains how they should be displayed on the page. With React for the Web, this is translated straight into the browser’s Document Object Model (DOM). For instance, during the translation process for React Native.

React Native is presently available for iOS and Android devices. Because of the abstraction layer offered by the Virtual DOM, there is a chance that React Native will be employed on other platforms as well—all that is required is the development of a connector.

You may start using React Native right away in your existing Android and iOS applications, or you can use it to build a completely new app from the ground up.

It is written in JavaScript and is rendered using native code.

There are many platforms, but only one React. Development of components is necessary for platform-specific versions to share a single codebase across platforms. With React Native, a single team can maintain two platforms while also sharing a common technology—React—with the other team.

Everyone Can Benefit from Native Development

React Native enables you to develop native applications without compromising your users’ experience. 

Refresh the page quickly

You will be able to see your changes as soon as you save. React Native, thanks to the power of JavaScript, allows you to iterate at breakneck speeds. There will be no more waiting for native builds to complete. Save, check, and repeat.

Support for third-party Plugins

Mobile applications will have a plethora of functionality in the foreseeable future. Third-party plugins for React Native allow you to integrate new functionalities into your mobile applications that would otherwise be impossible to implement using the React Native framework. Plugin support integrates basic applications such as Google Maps into a mobile application’s interface.

Updates in Real-time

React Native can do this is one of its most notable characteristics. The developers can directly push their changes into the applications by utilizing the JavaScript extension framework. The modifications are immediately reflected in the mobile applications, which the users then use to access the information. The developers enjoy that the user does not have to go through the app store, which reduces its time to deploy. The competition will only rise in the future, so mobile application developers will have to work. React Native development is the ideal alternative for developing and deploying future mobile applications because it allows for faster development and deployment.

The features listed above are those of React Native; now, let’s look at what React Native v0.66 has to offer in terms of Android 12 and iOS 15 support, as well as bug fixes and other general updates:

On Android, you can handle touches on child views outside of the parent boundary.

Overflow: visible has been used to provide interaction support for children who are rendered outside of the parent view bounds. 

Bluetooth permissions have been added to Android 5.0

In preparation for Android 12, we’ve added support for new Bluetooth permissions, and we’re planning to upgrade the target SDK version to 31 in the upcoming release.

Improved support for Apple Silicon, XCode 13, and iOS 15 is available.

This release contains several fixes to improve the reliability of XCode builds for iOS on Apple Silicon (M1) Mac computers, including a new build system.

Notably, the new app template now contains a workaround for the Cocoa Pods framework. Before applying, make sure that your app’s Pod file has the following code added to it in the post-install step:

RCT-Folly is an additional feature.

It has been changed to prevent linker failure on the arm64 architecture.

Hermes 0.9.0 has been released

Hermes 0.9.0 is largely concerned with bridging the gap between the Hermes release cut point and the release of React Native 3.0.

General bug fixes and gains in memory and size have been included in the approximately 400 changes.

Nightly and “Community” Releases

Our goal is to make React Native more stable on the main branch and reduce the number of problems discovered during our Release Candidate process.

The fact that we’ve been publishing nightly versions of React Native for more than a year doesn’t mean that these releases are being used effectively by most teams or projects. As a result, they are now more easily accessible, and we intend to use them as release candidates in the future. Nightly releases are released to npm under the “nightly” tag and are available for download.

Related Article: The Most Used Local Databases for React Native App Development

Making Use of Nightly Releases (Nightlies)

It is fairly similar to the procedure you would use to upgrade your project to a standard version of React Native, with the caveat that tools such as the Upgrade Helper are not currently compatible with nightly releases of the framework. We recommend upgrading your project to the most recent stable release if you have not already done so. Then, to install the most recent nightly release, run yarn upgrade react-native@nightly to update the system. It is important to note that extra adjustments may require your project to function effectively on a nightly release schedule.

Do You Want to Hire React Native App Developer for Mobile App Development?

Cross-platform development is the most efficient method of creating and delivering adaptable mobile applications that work seamlessly across various devices and mobile platforms.

Apps developed using cross-platform development have a single codebase unique to each platform, which lowers the cost of mobile app development. Mobile application development frameworks such as Flutter by Google and React Native by Facebook are two of the most famous and adaptable options available on the market right now.

Using a cross-platform methodology allows you to build an application across various stages, including the web marketplace. By focusing on both iOS and Android users while developing such applications, firms will be able to increase their audience size and increase their revenue.

Frequently Asked Questions for React Native Cross Platform App Development

1. When to do multiplatform Mobile App Development with React Native?

Choose react native platform for app development when – 

• You have to build simple cross-platform applications
• You have to build single page applications (SPAs)
• You have to create minimum viable product (MVP) with no further development
• You have build cross-platform apps with similar native look and feel

2. Why should you choose app development with React Native framework?

Choose react native framework for cross-platform app development because – 

• React native has been the preferred choice for many top-class companies such as Tesla, Walmart, SoundCloud, Pinterest, etc.

• React native has been developed by the greatest of the great, Facebook, and has garnered support from vast community of developers

• Using react native framework, create code one time, use as much as 90 per cent of it for the other platform, and cut short time, money, and efforts significantly
• When you use react native framework, you can harness native components and native modules so as to give an almost native look and feel to your application

• If somehow your website has been made using ReactJS, use most of its code to build a react native mobile app out of it

• With a large developers community, it is hard to stop react native from evolving exponentially and build apps that exhibit higher functionality

3. How to Upgrade your React Native Apps?

With react native app, upgrade has to be calculative as a react native app is a blend of Android, iOS, and JavaScript projects.

However, react native framework has offered us majorly two ways to upgrade your react native applications. We have listed them below and explained them briefly – 

• React Native Command Line Interface (CLI) – 

With react native command line interface (CLI), you really do not have to do much. The interface itself has an upgrade command which can easily trigger the upgrade process of the source files. 

• React Native Upgrade Helper – 

      A react native upgrade helper is a web tool that you can use to release newer versions of your react native app. It facilitates updating by offering you all the changes happening between the old and the new versions and informing you of the reasons for the changes. 

4. What do the React native app development services look like?

iTechnolabs offers a range of react native app development services which include – 

• Diligent consultancy
• Intuitive UI/UX design
• Proficient MVP Development
• Agile coding and development
• Multiple QA testing 
• Efficient deployment
• Regular maintenance & upgrade

5. How does Cross Platform React Native Framework work?

• React native framework uses a module-based approach for the purpose of cross-platform app development

• There are two different threads in case of react native app development – JavaScript thread and native thread
• The programming language of JavaScript thread is obviously JavaScript, while that of a native thread is Java or Kotlin, in case of Android, and Swift or Objective – C, in case of iOS

• React native bridge is written in JavaScript and a special markup language called JXL

• React native bridge interacts with both the domains and passess information between JavaScript thread and the native thread to enable app functioning