Is React Native the Future of Application Development?

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Is React Native the Future of Application Development?

You’ve got the next big idea for a mobile application solution that you know will disrupt the market. But ideas are contagious, and your competitor may have come up and working on a somewhat similar solution. What are you going to do? The company that knows how to reduce the time taken in application development, ensure optimal app performance, and deploy modules faster will win the race. 

If you harness the benefits of cross-platform app development react native, then you would be that business.

Which Brands Are Using React Native?

Being a business owner, you’ve limited time for web search. That’s why we must tell you who all are using React Native before you can decide whether reading this write-up any further will be fruitful or not. After all, if successful brands are using a framework solution, it’s worth investing your time researching about it.

Facebook created React Native (RN) for cost-efficient and quicker smartphone application building. You might think that these benefits can only attract small businesses, but you’ll be surprised to know the brands that use RN and delivered flawless applications with spectacular user experiences. Let’s look at some examples:

  • Shopify
  • Bloomberg
  • Tesla
  • Pinterest
  • Walmart
  • Instagram (obviously!)
  • Coinbase
  • Uber Eats
  • Salesforce

For the complete list, you can refer to the official site.

So, does that mean that React Native is the future of Mobile App Development? Is it going to replace Native App Development? And, what are React Native application development and Native App creation? Keep reading to find the answers to all your questions.

What is React Native Application Development? How’s it different from creating Native Apps?

React Native is an open-source mobile app development framework that allows you to create cross-platform iOS and Android applications using native UI elements. In other words, it lets the developer create apps for both iOS and Android.

A react native mobile app developer uses a single codebase for both iOS and Android. The framework frequently shares 95% to 98% of their coding across both platforms. The react native developer creates modular code that they can reuse to speed up the development of UI components. 

Although, it’s worth noting that the final User Interface in React Native doesn’t just render a web component within a WebView (display of web pages within your smartphone application). The app development company produces UI using native views and core building components indistinguishable from Swift or Java-based programmes.

That’s a brief introduction to React Native. Now, you might wonder what native app development is? Here is a short answer:

Native mobile applications are software made for a particular operating system (OS), like Android or iOS. Developers use the Objective-C and Swift languages for iOS development and Java and Kotlin for Android development.

 

Why Should Startups Opt for React Native?

What makes a business application great? Is it the features of the app, the user interface, or the user experience design? Well, it’s a combination of everything stated. But most importantly, it should serve your business purpose. 

Nearly 42% of small companies have their business apps. And almost every business has a digital presence. Your target customers, on the other hand, want your apps to work seamlessly. They also demand aesthetically pleasing mobile apps. Native iOS and Android apps offer flawless UI and performance flexibility, but they are expensive and time-consuming. 

As a startup, you will need a quick-to-deploy business application faster than your competition (working on similar solutions). Which technology framework should you choose for faster deployment? React Native cross-platform framework is the perfect answer to your question.

The top five benefits of react native app development for your business are:

  1. Native Code Integration
  2. Shorter Software Development Cycle
  3. Better UI than Hybrid Apps
  4. Third-party Application Compatibility
  5. Live Updates

 

Why React Native is the future of App Development?

First, let’s understand why React Native is so popular amongst companies and developers.

React Native makes API requests for interaction with native components using Javascript, resulting in incredible speed and logical navigation. Using this framework, mobile app developers can create intuitive and feature-rich UI. 

Coming to our original question that how React Native becomes the top contender for future app development frameworks. A future-ready company will want to produce faster and more innovative apps while lowering its development costs, which React Native framework offers them. 

Other than the cost and time efficiencies, here are some other advantages of cross-platform app development with React Native that makes it the technology of the future:

 

Cross-Platform Capabilities

As we have stated before, React Native allows developers to create apps for both iOS and Android platforms. That means you don’t need to hire two separate teams for iOS development and Android development. RN Developers can reuse a large percentage of the Android app’s codebase for the iOS application and vice versa. Hence, you save costs and time.

But there is more!

The design considerations on both Android and iOS are different. But to make things simpler, React Native provides modules and file extensions.

 

Comparable to Native Apps

Although there is a difference between React Native and Native App Development, React Native has native in its name. It’s because smartphone apps created using the RN framework perform similarly to native apps. 

React Native features native widgets for UI development to ensure that the app works seamlessly. Using React Native and JavaScript together, even the most complicated projects can run efficiently. They perform even better than native apps that don’t use WebView.

In short, developers can use React Native to build reliable and viable solutions that feel like, and in some cases better than, native apps.

 

Timely Updates through Hot Reloading

That might sound too technical to you! And might have taken you in a fog. Let’s make it simple.

Every business keeps deploying new updates of its applications for better performance and functionalities. But if your user has to go to the app store and update the whole application for a few added functionalities, it can impact the overall customer experience. The RN framework hot reload feature solves this problem.

Developers can deliver updates straight to users’ phones using React Native. It avoids the need to go through the app store update process. As a result, your end-users will be able to experience the new functionalities and features in practically no time, without the need of going through the whole app update cycle.

 

Developer’s Favorite

Are React Native developers rare? Certainly not!

Software application developers find it easy to work on React Native. The framework focuses on linguistic foundations by offering a variety of components such as maps and filters. It also has a development environment that allows developers to make updates and modifications without restarting the app.

RN framework has a comfortable learning curve for new developers, plus its popularity amongst businesses has made it an attractive skill. In 2021, around 38% of software developers in the world using React Native. It means developers will find a lot of help and support to build challenging applications.

 

Conclusion

In conclusion, we can say that React Native, and similar cross-platform development frameworks, are the future of business app creations. It is benefiting startups and established brands to make UIs faster and cheaper without compromising on quality. Plus, there are JS libraries and plugins to add more functionalities. Additionally, the camaraderie of thousands of active RN developers to help each other.

Among all the cross-platform frameworks, React Native offers the best application development. Companies who seek efficient and high-quality mobile apps can use React Native app development services.

Author

Saurabh is a content writer who writes on software technologies and their impact on businesses and society. He writes about the new developments in the field of digital technologies like AI/ML Development, AR/VR Development, Mobile Application Development Trends, Blockchain Technologies, and more.