In 2017, almost 50% of global Internet traffic was carried out from a telephone. Your website may be responsive, but to offer an optimal smartphone experience to your users, there's nothing like a Mobile app. So comes the puzzle of choosing technology? Very popular since its launch by Facebook in 2015, React Native Is today One of the most used multi-platform frameworks In the mobile application development.

While a “trendy” and new technology can be attractive to developers, it is natural for the client to question the sustainability of the technology. In fact a Mobile app developed in a language that is in decline risks becoming obsolete and extremely difficult to maintain and evolve.

What is the future for React Native and how do you know if it's a sustainable investment?

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First of all, what is React Native?

A Javascript framework...

React Native is a framework designed by facebook in 2015 For the purpose to accelerate the development of its mobile applications. It all started in 2013 when the famous social network launched React, a Javascript library that allows web applications to be developed more quickly, in particular thanks to the development of reusable components.

Two years later, facebook Take the next step by launching React Native for its mobile applications. The name is a React and Native combo. Why? Because the applications developed with this technology have the “look and feel” of classic native apps, while based on the React web library, also developed by Facebook from 2013.

... with numerous advantages for mobile development

In practice, this means developers are working on a single code base. They can deploy their application on both Android and iOS more quickly, without sacrificing performance and usability. Not only is it not necessary to develop 2 applications in parallel - one for iOS and one for Android - but in addition, developers do not need to recompile their application for each change made (which is very time-consuming on native applications).

This saves an average of 30% in application development and maintenance time, allowing developers to focus on improvements that bring value to users while maintaining a design and a native user experience.

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React Native... A JavaScript framework that has the support of web giants...

A creation by Facebook to accelerate the development of their mobile applications...

The first question to ask yourself when talking about the sustainability of a technology is “Who is developing it?” React Native Is an FJavaScript framework developed by facebook, who has been using it since 2015 for add new features to your application general public and has developed its advertising management application (Facebook add manager) entirely in this technology.

Since then, Facebook has continued to make improvements to its framework to make it more flexible and compatible with native code. As proof, the 'Event' page of the famous social network is entirely coded in React Native, and integrates perfectly with the other pages of the application which are native. It also means that he is possible to switch from a native application to React Native.

... and taken over by a multitude of companies

Since its launch outside the borders of Facebook in 2016, of Many businesses have adopted React Native For the development of their mobile application. Indeed, React Native offers many advantages, and the simplicity of the framework has allowed businesses of all sizes and all sectors to adopt it for their projects, from startups to large companies like Google, Walmart, Airbnb, Pinterest, Pinterest, Pinterest, Pinterest, Pinterest, Pinterest, Pinterest, Pinterest, Pinterest, Pinterest, Instagram, Instagram, Uber, Tesla and many others.

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React Native... And the weight of the community!

A framework that attracts many contributors...

The sustainability of a open source technology is based on the contribution of the developer community who is involved in keeping it alive. So the evolution and The future of React Native is not only dependent on the company that developed it, and is therefore no longer subject to the risk of disappearing overnight, with many developers adding new features on their own every day. And it is precisely one of main strengths of React Native.

... and is constantly evolving

Today, with more than 1,900 contributors and 16,000 commits on Github, React Native is one of the most followed rests and fed by open source contributors on Github. BAM is also one of these contributors integrating several changes to the library. In addition, the team shared with the community several open source plugins created by our developers. A JavaScript framework, React Native also takes advantage of the dynamism of this language, which is by far the most used on Github.

The evolution of interest in the “React Native” query (multi-platform) in Google compared to that of the “Ionic” query (multi-platform), “Swift” (native iOS) and “Kotlin” (native Android) query in Google

Since its launch in 2015, the React Native popularity on Google is constantly increasing, overtaking Ionic, for which interest is beginning to fall. Of course, no language lasts forever, but React Native still has a bright future ahead of it.

React Native, a technology with a future

Certainly, no language lasts forever, but the history of React Native and its prospects for evolution give rise to great optimism about the future of technology. It has significant support among web giants, the dynamism of Facebook, which is constantly improving its tools, and a community of developers very committed to its continuous improvement. If this technology is also popular among these various players, it is thanks to benefits it provides : speed of development, reduced maintenance costs, ease of debugging.

Since 2015, Bam has created the largest expert team in React Native in France.. Do not hesitate to download our Tech Radar if you want to know more.