What is React Native and Why Should You Choose it for App Development

React Native is an open-source mobile application development framework created by Facebook. It enables developers to build natively rendering applications for Android and iOS platforms using the React.js JavaScript library. React Native helps in the creation of world-class application experiences on mobile while unlocking the best parts of the Native platform like performance and scalability by reusing React, a popular JavaScript library for building User Interfaces. It allows developers to create truly native mobile applications for both Android and iOS by enabling the same codebase to be used for both platforms. 

This blog will discuss what React Native App Development is, the advantages of choosing React Native for App development, and the various reasons to use React Native for Mobile App Development. It will include features like Live Reload capability, support for third-party plugins, and more.

What is React Mobile App Development?

React Mobile App Development Company involves using the React JavaScript library and framework for developing high-performing mobile apps for iOS and Android. Similar to React web development, React mobile uses declarative JSX markup and the virtual DOM for creating user interfaces. However, instead of rendering to HTML, React mobile taps into native mobile capabilities by compiling JavaScript code to platform-specific code for iOS and Android. This allows apps built with React Mobile to access native components and APIs on each platform, giving them a native look and feel. 

React Mobile provides various benefits like fast development, code reuse across platforms, and integration with third-party libraries. Though React mobile renders natively, the performance of complex CPU tasks may be slower compared to native SDKs. Overall, React mobile app development enables the efficient creation of high-quality, high-performing mobile apps using web technologies.

Why Choose React Native for App Development?

Here are some reasons to choose React Native for app development:

Functionality That is Available Across Platforms:-

React Native enables developers to reuse significant parts of the code across both Android and iOS apps. Any functionality or features built using JavaScript and React - such as business logic, calculations, form validation, data sorting/filtering, and network requests. It can automatically be shared between iOS and Android apps. React components are fully cross-platform, allowing developers to create UI components once and reuse them in both Android and iOS apps. Features like authentication/authorization functions, form handlers, and utility libraries can also be reused. 

Only platform-specific functionality related to native UI components and APIs needs to be coded separately for each platform. This extensive code sharing across platforms is a major productivity gain. It dramatically reduces development time and effort since teams only need to write the majority of the app logic, data models, and business rules once.

Read Also:- Ways to Use Continuous Integration to Boost Your Mobile App Development

Increased Speed in Performance:-

React Native for app development is the increased speed in performance it offers. React Native enables much faster development times compared to building native mobile apps with SDKs for two main reasons. First, the ability to reuse large parts of the codebase across iOS and Android reduces the time spent writing duplicate code for each platform. Developers only need to write platform-specific code once. 

Second, hot reloading allows changes to be instantly reflected in the running app without a full rebuild and restart, further speeding up the development cycle. Together, these two factors help teams develop cross-platform apps up to 3 times faster using React Native. 

In addition, features like a shorter learning curve and access to third-party components also contribute to faster development. The result is that React Native allows businesses to get high-quality iOS and Android apps to market faster at a lower cost.

Single Code for Multiple Platforms:-

React Native is that it allows developers to write a single codebase that can target multiple platforms like iOS and Android. With React Native, developers primarily write their app's code using JavaScript and React. They then compile this single codebase to build either a native iOS app or a native Android app. This paradigm of writing one codebase that produces apps for different platforms significantly increases productivity. 

Developers only have to write the core app logic and UI once. React Native then handles compiling the code to each native platform and using the appropriate native components and APIs. As a result, a major part of the codebase, including components, logic, and network calls, can be reused across platforms. Only a minor part of the code needs to be platform-specific. This approach allows businesses to quickly launch matching iOS and Android apps at similar times, reducing the overall time to market.

Experience Similar to That of Native Apps:-

React Native is the ability to provide a native app experience, despite using cross-platform technologies. Since React Native renders actual native UI components and has access to native platform APIs, apps built with it look and feel like truly native applications. React Native uses the native layout managers of each platform and provides components like ListView and MapsView, which renders native lists and maps. 

React Native also supports native gestures and animations, hardware acceleration, and native UI transitions. All of this combines to give users an experience that is indistinguishable from a native app. React Native marries the best of web development technologies with true native app capabilities, allowing developers to build cross-platform mobile apps that have the look, feel, and performance of apps built natively for each platform.

Reusability:-

Code reusability is another major advantage of using React Native for app development. Since React Native compiles JavaScript code into native platform code, a significant portion of the codebase, especially UI components, can be reused across platforms. This means that iOS and Android versions of the same app can share data models, business logic, and UI components. React Native enables developers to build the common parts of the app just once and then reuse that code in both iOS and Android apps. This reusability reduces duplication of effort and speeds up development times. 

Developers spend less time writing and maintaining similar code for different platforms. The higher the code reuse between platforms, the more productive the development team becomes and the faster the apps can be developed. Code reusability is a key factor in reducing costs and speeds time to market for cross-platform apps.

Testing:-

Testing is an important part of any software development, and React Native provides good support for testing mobile applications. React Native supports both unit testing and snapshot testing, allowing developers to catch bugs early in the development cycle. Unit testing enables testing individual units or components in isolation to ensure they are functioning correctly. Since React Native apps are written in JavaScript, developers can utilize any JavaScript unit testing framework like Jest, Mocha, or Jasmine. 

Snapshot testing allows comparing the rendered output of a UI component to a saved snapshot to ensure changes are expected and intentional. When a snapshot test fails, developers can visualize the UI difference and fix any issues. Combined, unit and snapshot testing help ensure React Native apps are functioning properly and any UI changes are detected and addressed quickly. Good testing helps build quality and reliability into mobile applications from the start.

Reasons to Use React Native for Mobile App Development:-

Here are the top reasons to use React Native for mobile app development:

• Live Reload - The hot reloading feature provides a faster development cycle by automatically reloading UI changes in real-time.
• Enable 3rd Party Plugins - React Native apps can integrate any third-party native plugins and SDKs.
• Cross-Platform Functionality - Since React Native renders native UI, apps have full access to platform features and capabilities.
• Cost Effectiveness - Sharing code between platforms reduces development costs and time to market.
• Faster Performance - React Native uses native components and renders native UI, providing near-native performance.
• Compatibility with Diverse Platforms - React Native apps work on iOS, Android, and other platforms like Web and Windows.
• Large Community - React Native has a large, active community of users and contributors sharing components and solutions.
• Quality Assurance - React Native supports both unit and snapshot testing for components.
• Dependable - React Native is backed by Facebook, a reputed tech giant with resources to ensure its longevity.
• Highly Robust - React Native uses native components and rendering, providing stability and robustness.
• Performant - React Native leverages native components and renders for high performance.
• Swiftness - The hot reloading feature provides a faster development cycle.
• Simplicity - React's JSX syntax and component-based design make apps easier to develop and maintain.

Conclusion

React Native is a powerful framework for building high-performance, native mobile applications using JavaScript and React. React Native allows developers to reuse code across iOS and Android apps, write less platform-specific code, and significantly reduce development costs and time to market. The features and reasons we have discussed make a compelling case for choosing React Native for mobile app development - from live reloading and cross-platform functionality to speed, performance, scalability, and the large community backing it. If your goal is to build high-quality native apps faster using a familiar technology stack, then React Native is an excellent choice for mobile app development.