About React Native

React Native is an open-source framework created by Meta for building mobile applications using JavaScript. It allows developers to use React (a popular JavaScript library for building user interfaces) to create native mobile applications for both iOS and Android platforms. React is a common framework used for all Narmi’s user-facing products, so Narmi engineers are able to speak the same language and share solutions and expertise. By using React Native at Narmi, our team is able to create consistent interfaces for the iOS and Android apps across multiple form factors.

Here is why using React Native enables Narmi to build user interfaces that delight and improve the user experience:

1. Learn Once, Write Anywhere: Unlike the traditional approach where our developers would need to learn Swift/Objective-C for iOS and Java/Kotlin for Android, with React Native we use a single language (JavaScript) and framework to build apps for both platforms.
2. Hot Reloading: This feature allows Narmi’s developers to immediately see the result of the latest change. It significantly speeds up the development process since there's no need to recompile the entire application after every change.
3. Reusability: React Native consists of "components" that can be reused for building both Android and iOS UI elements. This leads to faster development, as once a component is created, it can be used in multiple places or even in different projects.
4. Community and Ecosystem: Due to its popularity, React Native has a large and active community. There are numerous third-party libraries and plugins available, which means our developers often don't have to build everything from scratch. The community is also extremely proactive in addressing security and usability issues that arise from new devices or operating system updates—which would otherwise be very hard for a small team to stay on top of.
5. Integration with Native Code: While React Native allows Narmi’s developers to build full-fledged mobile applications using just JavaScript, it also offers the flexibility to integrate with native modules. This means Narmi’s developers can write some parts of your app in native code whenever necessary, providing the best of both worlds.
6. Developer Tooling: React Native is equipped with excellent developer tools for debugging and profiling, which aid in faster development.
7. Consistent Design with Flexbox: React Native uses Flexbox for layout, which is the same layout system used in modern web design by Narmi’s design system. This means that web developers can easily adapt to React Native development, leading to quicker UI construction.

React Native's ability to allow cross-platform development with one codebase, its component-based architecture, rich ecosystem, and developer-friendly tools make it a compelling choice for rapid mobile app development.