Just a small point, but React has always had higher order components as long as I've been using it because they're just a subset of higher order functions. It's

Just a small point, but React has always had higher order components as long as I've been using it because they're just a subset of higher order functions. It's more of a feature of JavaScript than it is of React. Also, I've been encountering higher order components since I started on React two years ago I think. The definition of what constitutes a higher order component is very broad. I think that any render() method which returns a component would qualify.