Why React Native Is Preferred For Mobile App Development?
The mobile app development market is expanding rapidly across the globe along with increasing smartphone usage. Statistics reveal that mobile apps downloads are estimated to be around 352 billion by the year 2021.
Introduced by Facebook, React Native is an open-source mobile app framework that converts the React code to run on Android and iOS platforms and also allows access to their features. Numerous mobile app developers select React Native because it is a versatile framework for app development projects.
This article explains why React Native is preferred for mobile app development.
Features of React Native:
1. Document Object Model (DOM) manipulation
DOM requires direct manipulation from the code next to the compilation that is a time-consuming process. React Native handles this operation by simply re-rendering the varying app content that enhances the app performance.
2. Resemble Cross-Compiled Applications
Apps coded with React Native are like cross-compiled apps because they utilize components and native views to present a native glimpse. However, there is no compilation step involved in this process as compared to cross-compilation.
3. Hybrid Apps
React Native apps resemble hybrid apps because they are written in JavaScript (JS) and downloaded as indigenous apps. An additional component is required for code execution but React Native uses core JS rather than a web view.
Core JS runs as a virtual machine on the device that restores JS into native peculiar elements and the code is transformed to native at run time.
4. Sole Code Base
The sole code base of React native allows app developers to make authentic native and Android and iOS applications. The process of coding for distinct mobile platforms becomes easy and the same code base can be implemented for both Android and iOS. This reduces the app development cost and resource requirements for project completion.
React Native uses JS and the code needed for developing an app for two diverse platforms is compiled in two diverse software development kits that are X code and Android SDK. Developers can also use customized JS-driven components in their projects.
Benefits of React Native:
1. Open-source Framework
It’s an open-source framework and all the relevant documentation is available free of cost. App developers do not have to publicly share their source code and the resulting app can be simply customized under any license.
2. Faster development of mobile apps
There are several components available in its open-source library that helps developers to quickly create the required apps. This means that the code required for some specific functions is already available in the React Native library. The sole code base makes it easy to maintain the app with quite an economical app development cost.
The app development process becomes quick by using the inbuilt components accessible in the open-source library. A small app development team can also deliver a fantastic app using React Native.
3. A shared code base for iOS and Android platforms
The pre-built components and reusable code of the React Native framework provide convenience to app developers as they do not have to code right from the scratch for making an app for each platform. Around 90% of the React Native code is reusable among iOS and Android.
4. Steady App with a modular architecture
The apps coded with React Native are more steady and reliable because of the simplified data binding process. The permitted components are updated and any alteration is done by applying the updates. Modular programming imparts versatility in app development and the developers can swiftly upgrade their apps.
5. Third-Party Plugin Support
Some frameworks do not provide third-party plugin support for mobile app development due to security issues. On the other hand, React Native offers third-party plugin support, JS modules, and native modules support through available options.
The app development team can easily customize an app to provide a simple and user-friendly interface. The templates and themes can also be modified as needed.
6. No debugging hurdles
The same mobile app delivered for both iOS and Android platforms reduces debugging time. Quality analysts can monitor and easily fix a set of bugs as bug tracing requires less time and strain than the separate app developed for the two platforms.
With React Native, the app maintenance becomes quite economical and easy. The key benefit of using JS is ‘Hot Reloading support’ that reads and compiles the changes made by developers in the code. Thereafter,’ Hot reloading’ occurs after initial reloading.
7. Publishing updates
Usually, the development team takes some time for publishing app updates as they have to perform the build process of every app. This process becomes easier and faster with React Native because developers make updates of revisions via OTA (over the air) updates.
This implementation is also possible when a user is currently using the app and the app doesn’t require to be updated by app stores. The app developers go through a better and quick process rather than following a lengthy updating process.
8. Offers Straightforward User Interface
React Native is also used to design an easy user interface (UI) because it is the best choice for maintaining the correct sequence in the app functionality. It offers additional responsive UI designs to minimize the app loading time.
Cons of React Native:
1. Disorganized memory management
React Native is not suitable for developing apps where in-depth computation is involved and JS is responsible for this shortcoming. Memory management and usage become complicated because the float computations are handled in an incompetent way.
2. More initializing time
React Native code takes more time to initialize the runtime because of the JS thread. The slow launch time of an app can be improved by handling ‘Object. finalize’ element.
Summary:
Despite some disadvantages of the React Native framework, it is an awesome framework offering a Cost-effective solution for fast mobile app development. The app developers can reuse the codes and modules. They also have the support of a huge React Native community base to develop steady apps.
Paru Saxena is a content writer at TechIngenious, one of the reliable companies having top mobile app developers in India. He is proficient in digital marketing and has been writing for the last 6 years.