React Native is the most inspiring and the newest method for defining cross-platform mobile apps. React Native app development has seen incredible growth in the mobile app development industry. Of late many React Native App development companies have started to offer to React to Native app development services. Thinking about the potential outlook, it’s expected of the mobile apps to generate around $190 billion globally from app stores and in-app ads. The mobile app developers need enhanced technology to build innovative mobile applications in this fast-moving world. Thanks to React Native’s sustainable solution, you’ll witness the rapid change in the mobile world.
Some of the popular apps like Facebook, Twitter, Tesla, Airbnb and so on are designed using react-native. With Android and iOS operating systems that have long dominated the mobile market, businesses usually fall into a dilemma between developing apps that have a better user experience or a shorter development cycle that can run on multiple platforms. During the development phase of mobile applications, they end up sacrificing on one of the ends. In such circumstances, React Native turns out to be an appropriate option for businesses.
What is React Native?
React Native is an open-source platform developed by Facebook Inc. and used for the development of Android, iOS, and UWP applications. Work is also being done to make React Native available for developing apps with QT. It compiles to native mobile app components, permitting you to build native mobile applications (iOS, Android, and Windows) in JavaScript. All the procedures of React Native have been simplified.
While Java is used for developing apps for Android, Swift is doing the same for iOS apps. The cross platform mobile apps are developed with the help of HTML and CSS. So how does React Native fit into the picture? It combines Native APIs and JavaScript’s advantageous features to maximize performance, portability, and scalability. It defines UX specific to native applications and makes web development easier with React Native.
Advantages of React Native
React Native offers various advantages that can be listed below:
- Ideal Adeptness: React Native is unquestionably a real asset when it comes to enhancing performance through native control and modules. For both the Operating Systems, the React Native connects to the native components and generates a code to the native APIs up front and free. Now the performance improves because it uses a different thread from the UI and the native APIs. You can also use other solutions, such as those that are appropriate for the WebView, but the performance level may decline.
- Reusability: One of the biggest advantages you can gain from React Native is the reusability of the code. The developers feel blessed and grateful to Facebook for not having to develop a separate mobile app for each platform. In fact, for both OS, you integrate 90 percent of the native framework to reuse the codes. Because of this unique feature, developers tend to save a lot of time and also reduce the cost of developing apps as well. What’s more pleasing to remember is that you can also reuse the web application codes to build a mobile app if they’re written in React. React Native also speeds up development due to the presence of pre-developed components in the open library. This simply means that the codes are already written in advance and you are only required to implement them as per the specifications of the device. They are available to the users for free.
- Hot Reloads: The Hot Reloading is based on the Hot Replacement Module (HMR) and was initiated after the initial reloading process. Although there isn’t much variation in functions and capabilities, the main aspect comes into play while the changes are saved. The HMR intermediator must place the modified files, even if the device is still running, in the specific place. Hot Reloading’s key plus point is that it allows the source code to be changed and, as such, you don’t need the recompilation software to access the codes.
- Third-Party Plugins: The React Native also supports third-party plugins offering a few options which include native modules and JavaScript modules. This is because, in the core system, these elements are absent. React Native lets you do this by adding the plugin to a native or third-party module when you are trying to implement some extra feature.
- Modular Architecture: Modular programming helps to separate the processes of the application into different free and easily replaceable blocks known as modules. Now, this is a programming methodology that makes the development more flexible and enhances coordination with each other to get the updates. React Native benefits from getting this intuitive modular architecture, which helps React Native developers quickly upgrade apps easily. Web and mobile APIs may also reuse the same modules.
- Easy Learning: It relies on fundamental language so it is considered readable and easy to learn. Together with maps and filters, it provides the variety of components so beginners can find it a good tool.
Hybrid Apps
Native Apps, we all know are the device-specific ones like the Android apps that can only run on Android devices. On the other hand, hybrid Apps are designed for more than one platform. An app created for the web can also have a part of it running on a mobile. When it comes to user experience the advantage of having a native app is that it is the easiest and most secure. Native apps can also communicate with all operating system functionalities of the device, such as the microphone, camera, contact lists, etc. Hybrid apps are deployed in a native container using a WebView Mobile model. This model shows web content when the software is used due to the use of web technologies such as CSS, JavaScript, HTML, HTML5.
Why Hybrid Apps?
- Limitations of App Store: App Store can take up to around 7 days to approve an app. This is no short period and developers can get frustrated over such a wait. So, the way out of this is the Hybrid Apps where the developers would be able to see their changes many times in a single day.
- DevOps for Mobile: Hybrid apps also let DevOps expand to your mobile apps. They let you go from quarterly gigantic app updates to a bi-weekly cycle, and eventually let you update as often as your web app — which is nearly impossible with native apps nowadays.
- The Upsurge in Talent: Going by the estimates, by 2020, there is going to be a huge gap between the available jobs and the number of computer science students. Very talented developers on iOS and Android are a rare find. It’s a smarter strategy to make the best use of your existing talent than to leave your mobile creation at the mercy of new talent that is barely available.
- Code Reuse: Since most apps have both an iOS and an Android version, they are built using the chosen programming language of each platform— Objective-C or Swift for iOS, and Java for Android. On the other hand, hybrid apps let you create mobile apps with the same languages already familiar to your developers — HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. You can write and deploy code once on all of your mobile platforms. Mobile app testing benefits equally, because you don’t have to write special test scripts for each form of application.
Wrapping Up
React Native is found to be pretty full of all the features just discussed above for Hybrid Apps. The coming times do belong to Hybrid Apps as they are going to benefit not only the end-customer but also the developers. As of now the best platform or framework for developing Hybrid Apps is React Native. Clearly, React Native has already carved out a way for its own existence and that of its developers too.
