How To Build High Quality Native Apps With React Native

React Native aren’t meant for harbors and neither is its collaborative technology - AI, ML, Gen AI, or for that sake IoT and even Blockchain!

While primarily used for Android and iOS app development, a React Native agency develops web and desktop apps leading to reusing the same code over and over again with minor adjustments. We have discussed this multiple times, so what makes it thrive in this competitive world, because every other mobile app development framework is built for developing apps to be used across multiple platforms. 

React Native is backed by Meta (formerly Facebook), ensuring continued development, updates, and a stable framework. It renders UI elements using the native platform's UI components, resulting in a native-like app experience. It is built upon JavaScript, allowing web developers to easily transition to mobile development. 

While React Native is known for its speed and efficiency, there are tools and best practices to optimize performance, such as optimizing component rendering, managing large datasets, and optimizing image handling. It allows developers to access native platform APIs and features through native modules, enabling integration with platform-specific functionalities. 

React Native apps can be tested on physical devices using tools like Expo, a free and open-source toolchain built around React Native, without the need to open them in Xcode or Android Studio. 

React Native's ability to build high-quality, cross-platform applications with a single codebase remains a significant advantage for businesses seeking to maximize their reach. 

Despite the rise of other frameworks like Flutter, React Native maintains a strong position due to its large community, extensive ecosystem, and widespread adoption in enterprise applications. 

React Native's component-based architecture and server-side rendering make it ideal for building complex, data-heavy applications like SaaS platforms, user dashboards, and CRM systems. 

React Native's ability to manage heavy data fetching, integrate SEO, and optimize loading speed makes it suitable for high-traffic e-commerce applications. 

React Native enables companies to create a seamless user experience across multiple platforms with a single codebase, streamlining the development process. 

The framework's efficiency and the ability to reuse code leads to faster development cycles and quicker time-to-market. Hot reloading, declarative programming style, a large community but it might not always be the right choice for computationally intensive tasks. Also, some APIs might not be as fully supported or accessible as in native development.  

Debugging the RN code remains a challenge as errors can occur in both JavaScript and native code. Building apps with highly complex interfaces and animations might be more challenging in React Native compared to native development. 

If I create apps for Social Media, E-commerce, Food and Delivery Services, Automotive, Finance, Telecommunications, Media and Entertainment, Healthcare and Fitness, Smart Home, Transportation, and CRM with React Native, the technology stack would look somewhat like this: 

The frontend would be created with a combination of React Native, Redux / React Context, React Navigation, and TypeScript.

The backend would be made up with Node.js, GraphQL / REST API, Firebase / AWS Amplify, NestJS.

The database would be made up with a combination of MongoDB (NoSQL), PostgreSQL / MySQL (SQL), Firebase Realtime Database / Firestore, or Redis.

Firebase is used for authentication and authorization, Auth0, OAuth 2.0 for third party integrations.

Payment Integration (required in E-commerce, Food Delivery, etc.) is taken care of by Stripe / Razorpay, and PayPal SDK.

If there is a need to store databases on cloud, Amazon S3, Firebase Storage, and AWS Lambda will be used. 

For push notifications and messaging, firebase cloud messaging (FCM), OneSignal, and Pusher / Socket.io are useful for social media, e-commerce, or messaging apps.

Google Analytics / Firebase Analytics, sentry, Mixpanel, crashlytics are used for engagement tracking, error monitoring, bug tracking, and crash reporting.

AWS / Google Cloud / Microsoft Azure are used for hosting services, storage, serverless functions; Docker is being used for containerization of backend services to ensure consistency across different environments; Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment are used for GitHub Actions / CircleCI and Fastlane.  

• Many different tools like Jest, React Native Test Library, Detox, and Cypress are used for testing. 
• To accentuate media and entertainment within apps, use Expo AV, Wowza, JWPlayer can be used.
• To process images Cloudinary and Imgix can be used. 
• Expo, Redux, ESLint + Prettier can be used for debugging, code formatting and linting. 
• Specialized industry libraries and development kits like Instagram Graph API, Twitter API, Facebook Graph API, and Deep linking should be used to share the app content directly on to the social platforms.  
• Some API’s for ecommerce applications - Shopify API, and WooCommerce REST API. 
• Healthcare apps will require HealthKit, Google Fit and Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources. 
• Automotive apps will work along with CarPlay, Android Auto.
• Smart Home app will require integration of HomeKit and Google assistant SDK. 
• Location based services like Delivery and Transportation will require Google Maps SDK, Mapbox, Geolocation API, and Uber API. 
• Customer relationship management apps require salesforce sdk, Hubspot API. 

You would get a similar introduction by a prompt on any AI tool as well, but it will not let you know all the specific things that you are looking for with one query. You will have to repeatedly shoot queries with questions so that it answers you according to the available information on the internet. An AI tool will give you three alternatives to React Native, another might give you the next three alternatives and you might have to merge the two results or select the information relevant to you. 

The ability to work across operating systems, scale, perform, and facilitate complex applications will make React Native highly relevant in coming times. Also, this discussion would be incomplete without touching on its use in web and desktop development. React Native allows web developers to build applications using the same JavaScript code base used for mobile apps, promoting code reuse and efficiency.

It enables building responsive web applications that adapt to different screen sizes and layouts. Companies like Uber, Twitter, and Major League Soccer have used React Native for Web to enhance their React Native apps. React Native for Web is production-ready and has gained popularity due to its flexibility, responsiveness, and scalability. React Native employs standard APIs for UI like View and Text, which are supported by web browsers, allowing seamless view compilation. 

React Native Desktop allows developers to create desktop applications for Windows, macOS, and Linux, using the same JavaScript code base as React Native app development for mobile. React Native's component-based architecture, declarative syntax, and quick reloading features can help developers create cross-platform desktop experiences without sacrificing functionality or performance. 

Also, I wish to introduce React JS, a very close alternative to React Native, used for web development. In all, if you are aiming to create a website or web app, ReactJS is the better option. If you need a mobile app that feels like a native app on phones and tablets, React Native app development companies are a better option.