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Mobile & Web

Top Apps Built in React Native

React Native is a JavaScript framework that employs React to develop genuine native apps for iOS and Android devices, allowing development teams to reuse code across the web and mobile platforms. React Native was developed by Facebook based on React JavaScript toolkit and released in 2015 and has been growing steadily ever since.

Nicolás Mosconi
by
Nicolás Mosconi
|
December 2022

Some reasons developers love React Native are that it's cross-platform, easy to learn, and open-source while leading to shorter development times by providing a native interface and making it easy to implement changes.

React Native meets the needs of today's mobile app development industry.

Companies developing mobile apps are frequently faced with a choice; either build applications that offer a better user experience or create apps that are easier to develop and operate on a broader range of platforms and devices.

Developing apps for both mobile platforms (Android and iOS) using a single architecture seems far-fetched.

However, thanks to the ability to reuse most of the code between them, React Native allows for building apps across different platforms much more efficiently; it's no surprise that many other industries adopt React Native for their mobile app development.

Why are the most prominent organizations utilizing React Native?

React Native is the native version of the widespread web library of the same name, and its immediate purpose is to bring the strength of React to native mobile app development.

React Native components are side-effect-free functions that show what the views look like at any moment, making it easier to write state-dependent views.

The UI is rendered using native views, so the final user experience is much better than other solutions that render a web component inside a WebView.

Facebook

Facebook developed React Native and has built its app using it. 

Facebook Ads Manager, which allows individuals and enterprises alike to manage ads for their products, is also built entirely on React Native. 

React Native started as a hackathon undertaking created by Facebook to meet the company's needs.

Facebook aspired to bring all of web development's benefits to mobile, including rapid iterations and the possibility of creating an entire product as a single team.

Initially, Facebook designed React Native exclusively for the iOS platform, and now it's used in iOS and Android app development.

Thanks to the inclusion of the Android operating system, React Native can now produce mobile user interfaces for both platforms.

As a result of using React Native, Facebook noticed a considerable performance boost, with the Events Dashboard's startup time cut in half.

Development teams at Facebook implemented most of the improvements at the framework level, so upgrading your app to the latest version of React Native will automatically benefit you.

Instagram

Instagram is another social network owned by Facebook as of 2012, and its primary focus is digital photography and short videos.

In 2016, Instagram started seriously considering switching to Reactive Native, but incorporating existing technology was challenging.

They can now push features faster and efficiently maintain IOS and Android app versions.

They started with the most elemental screen possible: the Push Notification view, which did not necessitate the development of navigation infrastructure because of its straightforward user interface.

The Instagram development team encountered some issues along the way, but they significantly increased developer velocity.

As a result, 85 to 99 percent of the code was shared between Android and iOS apps, which meant the team could deliver the app considerably faster than they would have been able to if they had stuck with a native solution.

Discord

Discord is a successful case of Voice over Internet Protocol (digital communication through the internet) at work, allowing friends and, more frequently, whole communities to use voice, text, or video to communicate online.

Completely free and used mostly by gamers, because of React Native, both mobile Discord apps share 98% of the code.

The company behind Discord decided to use React Native as it granted the ability to build an iOS app directly from its existing React web app.

Discord is also available for Android, with millions of monthly active users remaining 99.9% crash-free.

Skype

Skype is a Microsoft VoIP software focusing on video chats, allowing users to send and receive voice calls and instant messages.

At the start of 2017, Skype revealed that it was developing an entirely new app written in React Native.

After the update, users noticed several complimentary upgrades, from the icons to a complete layout redesign.

Users also noted the consistency between both mobile applications. The new version had been completely redesigned, with a few additional features.

Microsoft recently migrated to Electron after using React Native for several years but not from lack of performance; Microsoft wanted the Skype app to be as close as possible to what you'd get on a desktop application. 

Many users are disappointed by the decision, as it took away plenty of valuable features like responding to messages directly from notifications and syncing with Outlook.

Pinterest

Pinterest is somewhat of a social network but is not mainly used for communication. Instead, people upload and bookmark ideas related to various topics, with interior design and food recipes being the most popular subject interests.

Like many applications that use React Native, their choice depended on the possibility of sharing code from one platform to another.

This way, Pinterest could constructively invest in developer productivity. 

Wix

Wix is a cloud platform for creating websites, making website building easy for novices with no coding background. Wix chose to start their mobile enterprise with React Native back in 2015, with a focus at that time, and now, on scalability. 

Users can use drag-and-drop tools to create and develop HTML5/CSS and mobile websites. Developers can design their web applications to offer services to other users, and end-users do not need coding knowledge to build a website, which is one of the platform's most popular features.

The application required vastly adjustable navigation, screen choices, and a well-maintained and updated codebase.

That's why they developed their navigation system, Wix-react-native-navigation, which gave Wix the performance and agility of web app development they needed in the hybrid arena.

Tesla

Founded in 2003, Tesla is one of the largest and most well-known electric car manufacturers. When the need arose to design a mobile app for its users, the electric car giant selected React Native as the framework that made it possible for both mobile apps to have the same features.

Tesla car owners can now execute various functions remotely from iOS and Android mobile apps, such as locking and unlocking their cars, tracking their car's location, and controlling the heating and air conditioning.

Using Facebook's trending structure, the app allows those who own Tesla cars and Powerwall batteries to diagnose and identify a vehicle and partially control it. 

Walmart 

Walmart is categorically a superstore; you can locate one in almost every part of the United States and shop for everything from home goods to clothing to electronics and grocery items.

According to Walmart, thanks to React Native, they could share 95% of their codebase between Android and iOS, needing only a single team of JavaScript developers to complete the job.

Walmart has already demonstrated its capabilities to go one step further by including Node.js in its stack and rewriting its mobile applications with React Native a few years later.

With the ambitious goal of becoming the world's largest internet store, the organization needed to take calculated risks to maintain a competitive advantage over the market.

This situation drove them to continuously look for innovative ways to improve the consumer experience by experimenting with the latest technology.

As a result of shifting to React Native, Walmart increased its application's performance on both iOS and Android by using fewer resources.

Development teams shared the codebase between both platforms in 96% of cases, allowing engineers' skills and experience to be pooled together across the company.

UberEats

Uber developers built the original version of the UberEats Restaurant Dashboard (a delivery service similar to Seamless or DoorDash) for the web using the React library.

However, Uber also needed to develop iOS and Android versions of its application to tackle that market share.

The company reached the React Native framework since it allowed the development team to go mobile using much of the same code it was already using for the web.

The outcome was excellent, and it was responsible for allowing Uber to affirm its position at the top of the list of food delivery platforms in the US.

Even though the framework is only a single component of the UberEats architecture, developers embraced its potential and capacity to assist them in meeting the needs of the growing marketplace.

React Native provided UberEats with the development tools needed to design and build an elegant user interface complemented by a smooth user experience, where sound and push notifications are crucial additions to the app's dashboard. 

Conclusion

As shown in this article, React Native applications are equipped with powerful, modern technology that helps organizations worldwide reach new customers on mobile platforms in various industries. 

Mobile app development is a must for nearly any business hoping for sustainable growth. However, the question remains whether to make a native or cross-platform app.

React Native allowed businesses to create iOS and Android mobile applications differently than possible even a decade ago.

Developers can build native apps but stick to just one programming language; they are fast and effective, and React Native is relatively easy to learn for JavaScript developers. 

While the list above primarily includes applications and platforms created by large corporations with seemingly limitless resources, React Native is also a popular framework among small enterprises.

Using React Native, as discussed here, can benefit any firm and make software development activities easier.

Other companies have used this distinction to their benefit, and in return, rather than sacrificing performance and functionality, they've made significant improvements on both ends.

React Native has proven to be an excellent cross-platform tool, saving companies time and money while delivering native-like results.

Thousands of apps are currently using React Native, including both startups and Fortune 500 companies.

If you'd like to delve deeper into why you should adopt React Native for your company's next mobile app project, drop us a line!