8 Reasons React Native is Important For Devs

by Lucky Brain Digital Marketer & Data Analyst

React Native was born in a Facebook inter-staff Hackathon in 2013, and it was released to the general public in 2015. It only took three more years to become GitHub's second most popular repository, and it's still one of the most popular development frameworks today (it's also the 14th most starred repository), especially for building mobile apps for iOS and Android. It's based on React, a Facebook-owned and maintained JavaScript library used to create user interfaces for mobile platforms rather than web browsers.

But why is it so well-liked?

What does it offer that previous frameworks did not?

Is learning React Native worthwhile for a developer?

Or are there other frameworks that deserve to be given more attention and time?

1. What Sets React Native Apart?

React Native is an iOS and Android app development framework that uses JavaScript and the JSX markup (XML). It accomplishes this by rendering native apps for iOS and Android in Objective-C and Java, respectively.

However, unlike previous frameworks, React Native allows developers to reuse code across the web and mobile platforms and create apps that work on both iOS and Android platforms using the same principle and underlying architecture. For developers and their teams, this is a huge benefit.

2. Why is React Native So Quick?

Another benefit of using React Native is that it renders "native" mobile UI (rather than web views), making your app run faster and smoother. Older methods of developing creative mobile applications included combining JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, which caused web pages to render slowly and unevenly.

React Native integrates directly with the mobile US platform, allowing developers to access platform features such as the camera and location data, ensuring that the apps they create are immersive and fully functional.

3. What Makes React Native Developer-Friendly?

React Native also has several useful features that make it a user- and developer-friendly framework. One part, called "live reloading," allows developers to preview and view changes to the app as they write code.

This real-time feature allows developers to see code in parallel view as it is written, allowing them to get real-time feedback and "live" test code and features as they are developed.

This is beneficial to both new and experienced developers who want to work quickly and efficiently.

4. Why is React Native So Good for Remote Collaboration?

Because of how React Native is designed, it's simple for developers to collaborate on React Native projects, especially in distributed teams or at different stages.

React Naive's modular and intuitive interface makes it easier for multiple developers to update and upgrade applications and create shared work streams based on mutually understood programmatic logic and testing scenarios.

These fluid systems also help the entire team save time working within the framework by better integrating with QA testers.

5. How Can React Native Help You Save Time and Money?

It's becoming increasingly rare for a developer to create an app for an Android phone but not for an iPhone or vice versa. Because React Native uses a lot of the same code to deploy an app on both operating systems, you can save tens of thousands of dollars and countless hours by developing an app once and not having to duplicate work for secondary operating systems.

According to current estimates, 90% of React Native code can be used on Android and iOS.

6. React Natives Ready-to-Use UI Libraries: What Are They?

The React Native ecosystem has many component UI libraries that allow developers to create smooth UI experiences in their React Native apps. UI libraries like Shoutem, Expo, native base, and others help React Native developers save time by avoiding having to build things from the ground up, allowing them to focus on innovation and creativity rather than creating and rebuilding essential aspects of app development.

7. What are the similarities (and differences) between Reactive Native and React.js?

React Native is a platform that enables developers to create native, cross-platform mobile apps, as we've seen.

Js is a JavaScript library for building high-performance user interfaces. While React Native is based on React, the two do not serve the same purpose.

Both React Native and React.js are open source projects developed by Facebook for internal use but are now supported by a large developer community.

React.js can be used to create the foundation of an app, but it requires additional libraries to create complete apps. React Native, on the other hand, is a comprehensive framework for building native mobile apps.

8. How Does the React Native Community Support it?

As we've seen, React Native was born out of a hackathon, which means a developer community developed it in response to demand.

According to the app's blog, this demand was to create a framework that would "combine the benefits of mobile app development with the power and agility of the native React environment." And it's done so thanks to a thriving community of developers who have shared their knowledge and expertise and pushed React Native forward, to the point where it's now the 14th most starred repository on GitHub, representing millions of users all over the world.

RisingMax is ready to talk with you if you want to learn more about React Native app development company or speak with the top 3% of React Native developers in Latin America. We're experts in both Android and iOS apps, and we'd love to share our knowledge with you — or even help you build your nearshore React Native development team. So don't be afraid to contact us!