React Native App Archives - Page 6 of 11

The React Native architecture proves highly advantageous for mobile app development! Before the coinage of the React Native framework, mobile app development encountered certain bottlenecks. One such roadblock was creating a unified codebase for mobile and web apps. Business brands that lacked adequate resources and funds to engage native development teams for crafting applications for Android as well as iOS; were left with one single option – employing web viewers such as Cordova or Ionic. And so, app creators had to settle down for mobile web apps or HTML 5 apps. Unfortunately, these web view apps were ported over version of the app’s website and failed to deliver a good UX – the user experience seemed fake and clunky.

The launch of React Native in 2015, by Facebook as an open-source project, came as a breather for app owners – React Native development resolved multiple stumbling blocks that were posing challenges in mobile app development.

Have you ever wondered why a major chunk of the social media applications like Facebook, Skype, Pinterest, etc. are built in React Native? Let’s explore the reasons!

Advantages of using React Native for Social Media App Development

Cross-platform App Development

React Native allows businesses to build a software app solution that will function across the Android, iOS, and web; using the same programming language – JavaScript. For instance, before the advent of the React Native framework, developers had to use Java for Android-based apps and Objective-C or Swift for iOS-based apps.

Native Abilities

React Native simplifies the methodology of building social media/networking apps with newsfeeds and timelines. Using React Native, social media app creators need not create a hybrid app, mobile web app, or HTML5 app. React Native development leads to the creation of real mobile apps that are way different from applications developed in Java or Objective-C. This is because React Native employs the fundamental UI building blocks that are used in native Android and iOS apps; developers just need to combine these building blocks employing React and JavaScript. Hence, React Native apps look and feel like native apps and possess similar capabilities.

Furthermore, with React Native, one can leverage the mobile hardware components like cameras, accelerometer, Face ID, Touch ID, etc.

A Rich Customer Experience Guaranteed

Modern users are least likely to use an app if it takes a long time to load and so, a social media app must be performant to provide a great UX. React Native apps load faster as the framework employs UI elements that compile into one native application. These apps are competitive and guarantee a high UX to consumers.

Speedy Development

React helps you to develop scalable and reactive apps. And, React Native enables the front-end web developers to write the code for native cross-platform applications without the need to jump through hoops for learning a new language. Moreover, since React Native involves only JavaScript, one can use any of the JavaScript libraries starting from Loadash to the most obscure of packages for app development projects. These goodies further speed up the development process.

Moreover, the availability of several ready-to-use free tools and libraries allow React Native developers to speedily craft social media app features like social sharing. Furthermore, due to the presence of a huge, dynamic, and helpful dev community, changes can be executed quickly without any hassles.

Improved Search Indexing

A social media app must make its presence felt on popular search engines like Bing and Google. But search engine crawlers are unable to render JavaScript and return a blank page and as such, Google does not index the page altogether. The lack of search engine optimization adversely affects server-side rendering. However, React supports server-side rendering of JavaScript which results in a pre-rendered HTML page that is ready-for-display on the browser. And, the crawlers are able to crawl HTML without any glitches and the app appears on user searches.

Cost Savings

The framework empowers React Native developers to entirely optimize the user interface and make it uniform such that it functions perfectly with all devices. This results in the creation of an improved UI in a cost-effective way.
The code and components of the React Native environment are highly reusable and this helps in saving costs as well as development time. Approximately, 90-99% of the code can be shared between multiple operating systems without facing any technical issues or glitches.
The framework makes it possible to integrate loads of customer-centric features by means of native plugins or third-party modules. And, this integration is easy to implement and involves minimal costs.
While purely native apps need periodic updates separately for every device/OS; cross-platform apps are far more flexible as they avoid versioning. With React Native’s single coding approach, the overall maintenance including bug fixing becomes easy and hassle-free. Hence, React Native apps involve low maintenance costs.

How does React Native cater to Specific Requirements of Social Media App Development?

The components in the activity feed in React Native enable the creation of a dynamic news feed and also enhance the user engagement, retention, and conversion rate of social media apps.
React Native social media apps enable users to like a photo and react to it with an emoji. Also, single-page apps facilitate the actions of liking or reacting to a post/photo. And, all of us are aware of how beneficial React is for creating SPAs.
Photos can be easily and quickly uploaded.
With React Native, one can build real-time chat apps with two parts- server-side library and client-side library – that instantly connect users with friends and acquaintances.
A login functionality with several sign-in options can be created employing Firebase’s authentication.
The usage of firestore database for integrating push notifications into the app. A social media app must necessarily have the feature of real-time notifications for receiving messages and collaborating with posts of friends.
Firebase’s real-time database helps users to change posts in real-time.
D3.js can be used for creating the timeline that graphically represents posts in the map.
The integration of the localization feature for providing multiple language support.

Success Stories of some Popular Media Apps built in React Native

Facebook

The fundamental objective of this framework was to utilize the advantages of web development – quick iterations and engaging one single team for executing the entire project – while architecting mobile applications for the iOS and Android operating systems.

Facebook Ads Manager

This is the first full-fledged cross-platform app built in React Native by the Facebook team. The platform is leveraged by entrepreneurs as well as individuals for promoting their products and managing ads for the same.

How React Native development was helpful?

The app possesses a clean UI, effortless navigation, and an intuitive UX.
The framework appeared to be a perfect pick for handling several instances of complex business logic including the management of date/ad formats, time-zone differences, etc.
Both the Android as well as the iOS versions of the app was built deploying a single app development team.

Instagram

The platform is leveraged by entrepreneurs as well as individuals for promoting their products and managing ads for the same.

Pinterest creators used React Native so that codebase can be shared across Android and iOS. It took only ten days to implement on the iOS platform. Thereafter, Android implementation was completed in just two days as developers were able to share 100% of the UI code for the Android platform as well. This way the firm saved over a week as compared to the usual implementation time.

Skype

In 2017, Skype’s owner Microsoft redesigned the platform using React Native for their mobile version as well as the desktop version.

Discord

This popular React Native app is used by millions of individuals for connecting with friends/family/communities via voice, text, and video communication. React Native development has made it possible to share 98% of the code across the Android and iOS platforms. The team was able to effortlessly able to make their comprehensive iOS app run on the Android platform in just two days.

Conclusion:

Above examples indicate that the React Native framework can create innovative, highly performant social/networking apps that are rich in trending features.

Would you too like to harness the potential of React Native for tailoring feature-rich social media/networking apps? Reach out to Biz4Solutions, a distinguished mobile app development agency offering high-end React Native development services to global clientele for 11+ years. Tell us your social media app requirements and objectives; our proficient team will help you to fulfill your goal.

As per the Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2021, React Native bags the 6th rank for the most popular application development frameworks. Biggies like Facebook, Skype, Instagram, Uber Eats, Bloomberg, Pinterest, Walmart, Wix, Discord, and Sound Cloud Pulse have leveraged the potential of the React Native framework to reap exceptional outcomes.

Wondering why React Native is so popular? This post answers it all! Check out the unique offerings, disruptive advantages of React Native App development, and its relevance till the date.

High level architecture of React Native

Take a look at React Native’s basic architecture.

Source:

Here, the React code is created by the developer, from the code JavaScript is interpreted eventually. The series of elements are together called the bridge. We will learn more about this bridge later in this post. Then there’s the Native Side as well.

Let’s look at how the React Native application functions:

When the user clicks on the app’s icon, the native thread loads all the native modules and dependencies. Thereafter, the native thread starts the JS thread that loads the JS bundle. A serialized message is then sent by the JS thread using the bridge. This message contains instructions on how to render UI on the native side. The messages are received by the shadow thread and the UI tree is formed. Now, based on this UI tree, native components are generated by the Yoga layout manager. These generated native components contain the dimensions meant for a particular device or platform. These are then passed on to the Native Thread for rendering. Components are drawn on the screen by the Native Thread.

Reasons to Pick React Native over other Frameworks & Technologies

Hot Reloading & Live Reloading

The features Hot Reloading & Live Reloading are indeed lucrative functions that transform React Native app development. Hot Reloading allows developers to work on the code modifications in real-time while the application is still running. With Hot Reloading, only the portion of the app where the change was made gets reloaded instead of the entire app, while with Live Reloading, the app gets automatically reloaded after the changes are executed. Also, the changes made to the code are reflected instantly on another live preview window. This way, developers can carry out code modifications and view the outcome simultaneously. This real-time feedback while coding proves beneficial in the development as well as testing processes.

Developers can leverage these functionalities for testing new features and maintaining the application’s state at the same time. As developers can view the changes made while coding, the likelihood of errors reduces to a great extent, making way for bug-free code.

Easy Learning Curve

React Native app development involves an easy learning curve. If a developer is well versed in JavaScript, there isn’t any need for learning other programming languages or coding syntaxes. The developers just need to understand which mobile app components match with which web app components. And, since JavaScript is a popular technology, it’s easy to find the required expertise.

Third-party Plugins and Tools

React Native supports numerous third-party plugins and APIs that make app development a breeze. Any necessary tool, plugin, or API that is not offered by the React Native framework can be integrated quite easily. With all essential components available, one can create an engaging & interactive user interface and compelling features. There are a wide range of React libraries that offer various app development elements such as animations, forms, etc. and features like Google Maps, Google Calendar, etc.

A Single Codebase for the iOS and Android Platforms

While architecting React Native mobile apps, developers create a single codebase that works for iOS as well as Android operating systems. Codebase gets compiled to the native codes in Swift and Java by creating a bridge between the UI components and their equivalent Swift/Java components.

As such, mobile app creators targeting both iOS and Android need not hire two separate teams with specific skillsets for developing separate applications. This strategy is not only budget-friendly but also reduces the time to market, thereby offering a competitive advantage to businesses investing in mobile app development.

Rich User Interface

React Native makes use of declarative syntax. So, while developers write the code, the execution process is taken care of by the RN framework itself. Besides, pre-built declarative components are used to design the frontend UI library that makes the UI simple as well as intuitive.

Stable, Performant, & Top Quality Apps

React Native is a stable framework and has turned out to be one of the best picks for crafting mobile apps. One can build mobile apps that have a slick, responsive, and smooth user interface and boast of faster load times.

React Native development produces apps that offer native-like experiences. React Native mobile apps are speedy since the programming language has been optimized for mobile devices; GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) is employed, instead of the CPU (Central Processing Unit).

React Native apps involve two threads – the UI thread for interface creation tasks like drawing buttons on canvas and the JS thread for carrying out computations, handling events, etc. This leads to high performance if the development process is executed properly. Furthermore, unlike many other cross-platform frameworks, React Native uses native APIs in place of Webview for code rendering; resulting in improved performance.

Highly Flexible

React Native outshines most cross-platform frameworks in regard to flexibility. The reason is the React framework is based on a modular and component-based architecture. The code is broken down into smaller reusable fragments; these can be taken and embedded wherever needed.

Therefore, for app creators using React Native, you are not bound to this framework only. You have the flexibility to switch to other app development frameworks without much ado. For instance, your app is in React Native and you wish to switch to purely native operating systems. In such cases, you need not reinvent the wheel. Developers need to export the app from React Native and move it to the Android platform using Android Studio and iOS platform using Xcode.

Also, you can create platform-specific codes by coding natively in Xcode with Swift alongside React Native app development. So a native iOS app can be compiled with the React Native ecosystem. You can program native features in iOS directly with Objective-C or Swift, if some desired app features are not available in the React Native environment.

Cost-effective App Augmentation

React Native makes it possible to augment existing apps in a budget-friendly manner. This is because React Native UI components can be embedded into an application without the need for rewriting the app entirely. One can add a single view or user flow to already existing apps. Moreover, React Native-based functionalities, screens, views, etc. can be added quite easily.

Effortless App Updating

Earlier, updating an application with new add-ons was a complicated, cumbersome, and time-consuming process. Developers had to carry out a build process once again and this build process had to be conducted separately for each OS.

The advent of React Native has streamlined the procedure of app updating and made it much simpler & faster as well. Now, apps for both operating systems can be updated at the same time. The app updates and enhancements are implemented by developers using the OTA (over-the-air) update methodology. This method enables updating the app while it is being run by users. The next time users open the app, the app is ready to run with the new enhancements. Besides, React Native supports “Code Push”, a Cloud service by Microsoft. With Code Push, developers can update an app directly without the need for updating it from the app store. Moreover, React Native involves an easy-going binding strategy for the codebase. So, to modify an object developers simply have to change the object’s state before implementing updates.

Reduced Device Memory Usage

Reduced device memory usage is one of the most desired features amongst modern-day app users and React Native mobile apps perfectly suit this requirement. In React Native, the module can be effortlessly connected with the plugin using the native module; as WebView is not used. This phase is linked directly to the features related to app outcome and hence, the app responds quicker. Most codes are used during the run-time without the need for cross-bridge linking. So, React Native apps consume much lesser device space as compared to other applications.

Ability to build Advanced Apps with Complex Requirements

React Native enables one to handle complexity with ease. The framework functions with a component-based interface. Hence, one can plug-n-play the elements of the interface to create advanced apps. Things get further simplified as complex algorithms are broken down into easy-going formats. Besides, Facebook’s UI library simplifies the coding process and the Hot Reloading function eases implementing changes in the code.

A Highly Progressive Framework

Ever since its inception in 2015, the React Native framework is constantly being enhanced with novel add-ons by the massive React native community as well as by Facebook. Whenever the framework was unable to address the problem, the RN community and Facebook team were quick to offer an apt solution to the issue, sometimes in just a few months.

Even the tech giant Microsoft recognized the potential of React Native and has created their fork named “React Native for Windows.” This solution comes with distinct offerings that allow one to effortlessly develop applications for Windows 10 Mobile, Windows 10, and Xbox One.

Strong Community Support

React Native enjoys the support from a massive community. The community boasts of 8500+ stars on GitHub and 2000+ contributors from across the world. The developer community has created numerous libraries that extend help with React Native app development. Apart from the community, several leading companies including Microsoft, Facebook, Infinite Red, Callstack, and Software Mansion have come forward and taken initiatives to improve the framework as per the latest trends. Websites like Native Directory, JS.coach, etc. and platforms like Reddit, Codementor, Stack Overflow, etc., also offer assistance with React Native development. As such, React Native developers have loads of options to utilize if they are stuck with issues and need assistance.

Can React Native be used to develop 100% Native apps or just native-like apps?

React Native app development produces native-like apps, applications that look and feel like native apps. However, React Native apps are not 100% native and do not function exactly like true native apps. One of the key shortcomings of non-native apps is their inability to closely integrate with the system like purely native apps.

To cite an example, the native app Gmail offers exceptional functionalities. It involves a worker that check users’ inbox and the users’ Gmail accounts are synced with the app as well as the entire mobile system.

Here’s how you can achieve native app functionalities with React Native development. The major chunk of the app can be created using React Native. And, native technologies can be used for crafting the essential app components that are required for integrating the app into the native system completely. For this, your developers need to add Swift or Java code for the relevant features and specific cases.

Hence, with some additional efforts, you can leverage the lucrative offerings of React Native app development and at the same time, build an app that functions like a native app.

End Note:

The most impressive traits of React Native development are that it guarantees speedy project delivery and cost-effective investment. Moreover, this framework is suitable for developing any kind of app apart from gaming apps that require heavy graphics. However, it’s important to take care that the development process is carried out as per the standard best practices. So, partner with an experienced React Native app development company for obtaining the best results out of the React Native framework.

React Native App, Page 6 Category

Reasons to Choose React Native for building Social Media/Networking Apps!