Statista maintains that by 2024, the global mobile app market revenue will grow at a rate of 10.4%, creating a market volume of US$ 5.2 million. It further states that by 2023, mobile app revenues will stand at US$ 935 billion, thanks to in-app advertising and paid downloads.
These statistics highlight the fact that the mobile app market presents a promising business opportunity. However, in a market that’s already flooded with hundreds of applications, the only way to stand out in the crowd is to offer cross-platform mobile apps with excellent UI and UX.
But, how to create an app that performs well and works seamlessly across multiple systems?
You use React Native.
React Native is a massively popular mobile app development framework that combines the power of React with native app development. You can use it to design a unique Android and iOS app from scratch and also to tweak your existing apps. It is the foundation behind successful apps like Pinterest, Skype, F8, Bloomberg News, Facebook, Instagram, Airbnb, and Walmart.
React Native mobile app development is popular among mobile app companies since it is simple, quick, and efficient.
What is React Native?
It is a JavaScript framework based on React and JavaScript library (ReactJS). It is designed for coding mobile apps (via native rendering) for Android and iOS outsourcing. It is a highly diverse framework. While on the surface, it depicts a mix of JavaScript and JSX, under the skin, there’s the It bridge that couples Java (for Android) and Objective C (for iOS).
In React Native app development, developers can reuse several components of one code to develop mobile apps for Android and iOS simultaneously. Although it is written in JavaScript, React primitives render to native platform UI. This means that a particular app built on React Native will use the native platform APIs other apps do.
React Native app development allows developers to leverage the ReactJS library to design mobile apps that both look and feel “native.” Since the React Native platform is replete with APIs, developers get multiple options for integrating features in a native mobile app.
What are the benefits and limitations of it?
Today, React Native app development is immensely popular, thanks to it’s rapidly expanding community. In fact, it’s apps have snatched a significant portion of the market share.
Advantages of React Native
Here are the main benefits of it:
1. Easy learning curve
React Native app development is perfect for beginners as it features a smooth learning curve. Except for some minor differences, it is quite similar to ReactJS. The main differentiating factor between this and ReactJS is that instead of using HTML and CSS, Native uses UI libraries.
2. One codebase for iOS and Android
In React Native app development, you can build platform-specific versions of app elements so that multiple platforms can share a uniform codebase. One team can maintain two platforms while sharing a common technology, React.
It can compile a single code to native Java and Swift code. It creates a “bridge” between the native elements and web UI components. Thus, it eliminates the need for synchronizing features.
3. Create genuine native apps
With this, you can design pure native apps that deliver exceptional user experiences. It comes equipped with a host of platform-agnostic native components that map directly to the native UI components of a specific platform.
4. Use native code when required
It is designed to sync seamlessly with native components written in Java, Swift, and Objective-C. Naturally, React Native app development lets you to easily switch to native code for optimizing features of your mobile app. You can also develop some parts of your app using native code, and design other aspects of the app using it.
5. Build and launch apps faster
React Native app development is a quick and seamless process. Since it uses web technology underneath, the app screens can reload instantly, reflecting the new changes.
The Hot Reloading feature enables developers to run new code while retaining the app’s state. There’s no need for reconciliation at any point. Powered by JavaScript, it makes iteration possible at a lightning-fast speed.
6. Reap the benefits of the wholesome JavaScript ecosystem
As mentioned earlier, It is primarily based on JavaScript. This makes it possible to reap the myriad benefits and community support of the JavaScript ecosystem. For instance, you can use lodash.js for implementing array manipulation functions. Then again, if you want to manipulate the state of your app, you can use the redux library.
Now that we’ve stated the advantages of React Native app development, it’s time to mention the drawbacks of the framework of this.
Limitations of React Native
It is a young and emerging project. It is still undergoing rigorous development accompanied by constant updates to the framework. Regular updates mean bug fixes, performance improvements, the addition of new custom components, and much more. This poses a challenge for long-term app maintenance. Developers need to update the app with each build, which may lead to hardcore platform dependency.
Furthermore, It lacks some components that would make it a universal mobile app development solutions framework. Developers need to create native modules for functionalities and features that are absent in it. Native modules (usually written in Java, Swift, and Objective C) function like a bridge between the native code and React Native code. As a result, React Native app development is still reliant on native developers.
Essentially, the framework of it is an abstraction. This means that large portions of code exist between this and the host platform. Bugs almost always accompany abstractions. In this, debugging becomes a complicated process as it increases layers in your project. These bugs may be issues that are beyond your skills and knowledge base. Hence, solving these problems often requires the assistance of third-party developers.
Conclusion
It has its fair share of advantages and disadvantages. It allows for speedy React Native app development, enables code reusability, and features a shared codebase for multiple platforms. However, the major issue with it is that it’s relatively new, and hence, not completely mature.
Ideally, React Native app development is best-suited for small apps that don’t utilize too many custom UI features and rely on device-specific APIs.
