Create native apps with this free development framework

React Native is an open-source software development project that allows you to develop native apps for Android and iOS. Developed by Facebook and a community of individual developers and companies, React Native is a framework for building native apps with React, a JavaScript library. Using this framework lets you make full use of native platform capabilities, allowing for faster app version updates and easier code reusability. 

From web to mobile

React, also known as React.js or ReactJS, is an open-source JavaScript library for building user interfaces, mainly developed and maintained by Facebook. It is specially used as a base in the development of single-page or mobile applications. It’s also used for handling view layers for web and mobile apps, and can create reusable UI components. 

All in all, this JS library is extremely handy when you’re a budding program developer who would like something with easy presets for dynamic user interfaces. However, React does not fully extend to the mobile application scene since it is only concerned with rendering data. It’s a code library so you need additional programs and libraries to create something fully. 

Knowing this, you’ll be needing something else in order to develop user interfaces for mobile apps—moreso for native apps that need to be downloaded directly on your device. There are tons of frameworks out there for mobile apps, but fortunately, Facebook released React Native, which brings React’s native UI reliability to your fingertips to be able to create them for mobile.

For the best UI

React Native lets you have full access to native platforms, which makes it so much easier to develop for both Android and iOS. Not only can you make dynamic UI interaction simple for your apps, but you can also make changes and copies for other apps without much hassle. React Native relies on its React’s native code so that  your apps will use the same native platform APIs that other apps do. 

In terms of interactive UIs, your code can become more predictable and easier to debug. You can create a whole new app from scratch if you want. React is convenient for that and it’s fully integrated with React Native. Another cool feature is the ability to see local changes getting implemented in mere seconds. You don’t need to fully finish a build in order to see if what you tweaked actually worked—you just have to save and then the live updates will display themselves. 

Perhaps React Native’s best feature, however, is its portability to other platforms. You can reuse your code between Android and iOS and the UI will stick cleanly because of automatic mapping to platform-agnostic native components. Plus, it allows for seamless cross-platform coding for even the newest of developers working on the app.

A great support software

React Native isn’t easy to use at first, especially for beginners. It’s not just an all-in-one software—you need other programs to work with it before you can start churning out apps. However, once you’ve learned, you can now write anywhere with React Native. Not only is it backed by a growing community that offers lots of support to newcomers, but it’s also specially focused on providing great UI experience to those who use its apps. If you know JavaScript and want to dive into mobile app development, this is a recommended program to try out.