What is React Native? | Pragmatic Digital

27 November 2020

Why Choose React Native for Your Next Project

Everyone uses smartphones and other mobile devices these days. It’s almost impossible to rely on a “dumb” phone alone. Our mobile devices are the way we stay in touch, access information online, find answers to questions, shop, stay informed, and more.

According to Bankmycell, about 3.5 billion people use smartphones are the world. That’s about 44.87% of all people in the world. Those are astounding statistics.

Because of these statistics, businesses are looking for ways to create apps that reach potential and current customers. But it’s difficult to determine which platform to target, or if they should try to create apps for multiple platforms, and more. This is React Native comes in.

React Native is a mobile app development framework, which may be the better choice for building mobile applications. In this article, we’ll take a look at what React Native, it’s benefits and why it’s a better option to building native iOS and Android Applications.

What is React Native?

React Native is a JavaScript framework that was created to develop mobile applications that run natively on iOS and Android. It was launched back in 2015 by Facebook and has quickly become the most popular framework used by developers around the world.

The main benefit of using this framework is that is allows you to code once, and then reuse the same code between iOS and Android. This means that web developers can create mobile apps that are native, using a JavaScript library they already know.

Because React Native is written with a mixture of JavaScript & XML-type markup (JSX), the framework is able to use native rending APIs for iOS or Android. The app uses real mobile UI components rather than webviews. The result is that the app looks and acts like any other mobile app. And React Native uses JavaScript interfaces with platform APIs. The resulting apps will be able to access specific services and features on each platform.

Then end result is an app that may be created for more than one platform; however, the app will feel native to the end-user on either platform. They will have a comfortable experience that meets their needs and expectations.

The React Native Developer Community

React Native has a large community of developers online who are happy to help those who have questions. Because the framework is open source, developers are able to contribute their knowledge, which is then made available to everyone for free.

So, if you need help, there’s always someone ready to step in and resolve the issue. Not only that, but they may even help you with any coding issues that may have come up.

Benefits of React Native

React Native provides several benefits for your business including:

Easy to bring on new team members: this framework makes it easier to bring new team members on. That’s because each project has a similar structure. This way, new members on the team don’t have to learn so many new things. Instead, they become productive must faster, which means increased productivity for your entire team.
Larger talent market: because JavaScript is so widely used and loved, you’ll have access to a larger market of engineers. There’s no need to rely solely on highly-specialised experts, who are also more expensive to hire.
Save time: developers no longer need to recompile each change; this is because the framework reloads quickly in the improvement stage.
Easier to use: rely on just one code base and ecosystem. One engineer, who knows JavaScript, can work in this framework, rather than having to refer to the specific ecosystem and language for each OS.
Faster to use: the framework has faster loading times, which makes it smoother to use. And the UI is responsive and fluid. The framework also provides components that are ready to use, which makes the development process even faster.
Reusable code: build one codebase that’s used for both iOS and Android, at the same time. There’s no need for two teams to write separately for either platform.
Saves money: with the ability to build cross-platform applications, your company can save money by not having to hire another team to work on another platform, and more.
Faster time to market: the time to take the app from conception to market is much faster with React Native. It no longer takes weeks or months to develop an app for one market. Instead, the process is accelerated due to writing one code that can be applied to more than one platform.

Disadvantages of Using React Native

We aim to provide you with a balanced viewpoint, so we’ll also share some of the disadvantages of using React Native:

Debugging can be complex: this can be a complex procedure when debugging an app built with this framework.
Configuration: there are times when local library coordination requires a lot of work. What takes only a moment inside an Android native application can take a lot longer in React Native.
Creating fully customised app: if you’re creating an app that uses many custom UI components, includes heavy animations, uses a lot of APIs for a specific device then it may be better to opt for using the native application.
Frequent updates: Facebook regularly updates the framework, which makes it necessary for developers to regularly update their app.

One of the major disadvantages of using React Native is that it’s still fairly young. This means it’s always changing, making it difficult to debug issues.

In addition, documentation is still evolving and certain features in Android and iOS are not yet supported. The community has yet to finalise their best practices.

In Conclusion

React Native is an amazing framework that has many benefits. It’s fast and easy for developers to use, the UI is comfortable and fluid, and the technology saves times and energy. React Native can shorten the time needed to develop the app and get it on the market.

If you have questions about React Native, please reach out to us today. We’ll be happy to answer your questions and help you determine if React Native is the best framework for your business.

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