React Native helps simplify mobile app development

Nick Durrant, CEO of Bluegrass Digital, says an increasing number of apps have been built on React Native which enables a single JavaScript codebase for Web, Android and iOS platforms. He says out of the multitude of mobile app development technologies React Native is ahead of its competitors in terms of innovation.

Ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies, there is a growing number of amazing and popular apps in the app stores that have been built on React Native. They include the likes of Facebook Ads manager, Facebook Messenger, AirBnB, Bloomberg, UberEats, Discord and Instagram.

Statista, a provider of market and consumer data, predicts that mobile apps will generate approximately US$ 189billion global revenue by the year 2020. Mobile app development is soaring as the need grows for apps that will help simplify life and work.

With the growing demand for apps, developers are seeking ways to make their jobs easier. At the same time, businesses require their apps to be available on all platforms including Web, iOS and Android. This is a major challenge because developers have to design and develop the same thing for three different platforms.

With React Native, they no longer need to create three different apps for Web, Android and iOS, one app will run on all three platforms. It is a fast and easy JavaScript-based framework used for creating native applications. It is also supported by Facebook with ample support and community contribution as well as tutorials and learning materials.

This makes it extremely easy to get started on React Native. It is also very easy to transition from native to react and vice versa and this can be done at any point without effort, because React Native aligns with native platform conventions. More importantly, one can shift from React Native to fully native with very little effort.

Bluegrass Digital CEO Nick Durrant says it’s definitely much cheaper, easier and faster to develop mobile apps in React Native compared to native Web, iOS and Android. He said: “React Native enables a single JavaScript codebase for all platforms. This makes it easier to maintain the app with the same development process for all platforms and reusing the same code. This means less resources, there is no need for separate development teams.”

Considering how competitive the mobile app environment is today, there is no time to waste on failures. For software developers looking at React Native code for the first time, it is easy to maintain and understand. React Native testing is also extremely easy using Enzyme, it offers shallow rendering that will allow tests to run faster. This will ultimately ensure quicker testing and allow one to launch sooner.

Using React Native will definitely speed up the development and maintenance processes if one doesn’t mind the app looking the same on Web, iOS and Android. Even if one requires platform-specific coding, there will always be at least a 30% shared codebase, a huge cost and time saver.

“You don’t need it to look the same, rather you can render the app as required for different platforms because there will be a smaller difference between IoS and Android to cater for,” said Durrant.

Although native iOS and Android are definitely here to stay, the future of React Native is clear and the community is growing at a rapid pace. If you want to take advantage of quick build time and features such as hot reloading and live reloading, then React Native is the answer.

“There are a plethora of technologies to choose from when it comes to mobile app development, but React Native is far ahead of any of its competitors when it comes to innovation,” said Durrant.