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Sort of tangential, but does anyone know of a good React Native app? Everything I've tried would clearly have been a better product if they'd just done native d

by dilap 9y ago

Sort of tangential, but does anyone know of a good React Native app? Everything I've tried would clearly have been a better product if they'd just done native development. Like, you're sacrificing product quality for development ease.

rimliu 9y ago
Even development ease is somewhat illusionary. To be effective you will still need to know the details of iOS/Android and sometimes just write native code. At the end, why not just go full-native instead of writing and rewriting bridges.
foobarandgrill 9y ago
Instagram uses react native, I believe
a13n 9y ago
You might recognize a few on this list: http://facebook.github.io/react-native/showcase.html http://facebook.github.io/react-native/showcase.html
- saagarjha 9y ago
  None of those are apps I particularly enjoy using or would want to use.
  - symlinkk 9y ago
    Facebook? Instagram? Airbnb? We're talking about some of the most popular apps in the world. What exactly is your problem with them?
    - Benjammer 9y ago
      I mean, do you realize that most of the big names on that list have a hybrid solution where they prove concepts, A/B test, and rapidly iterate-on/release new features using React Native, and then they have a native dev team for each platform that goes back and re-implements most of the core features natively?
      - briandear 9y ago
        That’s correct. AirBnB’s iOS app is written mostly in Swift. And Facebook’s iOS app is a piece of shit performance wise.
      - prophesi 9y ago
        Discord is the most impressive one to me. They definitely didn't have those resources when they wrote their iOS app[0]. The Android version is just RxJava, iirc, because of some performance issues they couldn't get around. [0] https://blog.discordapp.com/using-react-native-one-year-later-91fd5e949933?gi=9cca25724807 https://blog.discordapp.com/using-react-native-one-year-late...
        realusername 9y ago
        At that time when they released, the React Native Android was probably still in a kind of beta state.
        orbitur 9y ago
        RN Android still feels like beta.
        tazard 9y ago
        How so? I run into the occasional hiccup an iOS and Android, but overall both have been pretty smooth for me.
    - saagarjha 9y ago
      None of those are apps that I'd hold up as paragons of UI design…
    - kllrnohj 9y ago
      Facebook app also has huge chunks of platform-native code, it's why they also have things like Litho: https://fblitho.com/ https://fblitho.com/ And according to their announcement post Litho is what they are using for their News Feed: https://code.facebook.com/posts/1187475984695956/open-sourcing-litho-a-declarative-ui-framework-for-android/ https://code.facebook.com/posts/1187475984695956/open-sourci... So the most critical part of the Facebook app isn't in React Native. How much of those other apps are actually using React Native?
    - jcelerier 9y ago
      they are the most popular because they are needed to access a service. But they are all a fucking pain to use.
      - int_handler 9y ago
        Can you give some examples of popular apps that are not "a fucking pain to use?"
      - symlinkk 9y ago
        How are they a "fucking pain to use"? I have never heard an average person complain about Instagram's UI. It's fine. It's good, even.
- dilap 9y ago
  yeah, the question still stands. instagram is a particularly nice example of what i'm talking about: it was much snappier pre-fb aquisition. (tho of course hard to know how much of that if any is the fault of react native or other things changing.)
enkiie 9y ago
Have you heard of Facebook?
wsy 9y ago
No, you sacrifice platform specificity for better or broader functionality (given the same development capacity). Of course, with unlimited development capacity, for each React Native app there could be a better purely native app. Another point also often forgotten is that the user experience of a React Native app, while not as 'platformy', will be very coherent for users of multiple platforms. That can also be considered as 'better', given you are such a user.

by dilap 9y ago

rimliu 9y ago

Even development ease is somewhat illusionary. To be effective you will still need to know the details of iOS/Android and sometimes just write native code. At the end, why not just go full-native instead of writing and rewriting bridges.

foobarandgrill 9y ago

Instagram uses react native, I believe

a13n 9y ago

You might recognize a few on this list: http://facebook.github.io/react-native/showcase.html http://facebook.github.io/react-native/showcase.html

saagarjha 9y ago
None of those are apps I particularly enjoy using or would want to use.
- symlinkk 9y ago
  Facebook? Instagram? Airbnb? We're talking about some of the most popular apps in the world. What exactly is your problem with them?
  - Benjammer 9y ago
    I mean, do you realize that most of the big names on that list have a hybrid solution where they prove concepts, A/B test, and rapidly iterate-on/release new features using React Native, and then they have a native dev team for each platform that goes back and re-implements most of the core features natively?
    - briandear 9y ago
      That’s correct. AirBnB’s iOS app is written mostly in Swift. And Facebook’s iOS app is a piece of shit performance wise.
    - prophesi 9y ago
      Discord is the most impressive one to me. They definitely didn't have those resources when they wrote their iOS app[0]. The Android version is just RxJava, iirc, because of some performance issues they couldn't get around. [0] https://blog.discordapp.com/using-react-native-one-year-later-91fd5e949933?gi=9cca25724807 https://blog.discordapp.com/using-react-native-one-year-late...
      - realusername 9y ago
        At that time when they released, the React Native Android was probably still in a kind of beta state.
        orbitur 9y ago
        RN Android still feels like beta.
        tazard 9y ago
        How so? I run into the occasional hiccup an iOS and Android, but overall both have been pretty smooth for me.
  - saagarjha 9y ago
    None of those are apps that I'd hold up as paragons of UI design…
  - kllrnohj 9y ago
    Facebook app also has huge chunks of platform-native code, it's why they also have things like Litho: https://fblitho.com/ https://fblitho.com/ And according to their announcement post Litho is what they are using for their News Feed: https://code.facebook.com/posts/1187475984695956/open-sourcing-litho-a-declarative-ui-framework-for-android/ https://code.facebook.com/posts/1187475984695956/open-sourci... So the most critical part of the Facebook app isn't in React Native. How much of those other apps are actually using React Native?
  - jcelerier 9y ago
    they are the most popular because they are needed to access a service. But they are all a fucking pain to use.
    - int_handler 9y ago
      Can you give some examples of popular apps that are not "a fucking pain to use?"
    - symlinkk 9y ago
      How are they a "fucking pain to use"? I have never heard an average person complain about Instagram's UI. It's fine. It's good, even.
dilap 9y ago
yeah, the question still stands. instagram is a particularly nice example of what i'm talking about: it was much snappier pre-fb aquisition. (tho of course hard to know how much of that if any is the fault of react native or other things changing.)

enkiie 9y ago

Have you heard of Facebook?

wsy 9y ago

No, you sacrifice platform specificity for better or broader functionality (given the same development capacity). Of course, with unlimited development capacity, for each React Native app there could be a better purely native app. Another point also often forgotten is that the user experience of a React Native app, while not as 'platformy', will be very coherent for users of multiple platforms. That can also be considered as 'better', given you are such a user.