React Native, an open-source app development framework created by Facebook, has been trending in the global market for quite some time now. Whether we talk about Discord, Walmart, Facebook, or even Instagram, today’s leading brands use React Native to build unique mobile applications for their users. While talking of the popular users of React Native, we today have one more name added to the list, and that is Shopify. Yes, you heard it right!
After years of using React Native for developing its web applications, Shopify reports that it will use the robust framework for its app development. Reasons being upscale in productivity and acquiring a company called Tictail that entirely focuses on React Native mobile applications. But that’s not it!
Here are some amazing benefits that compelled the leading e-commerce brand Shopify to claim React Native as their future app development framework. Let’sLet’s take a look at some of the prominent ones!
Why React Native is a Promising Future of App Development?
Below are some of the most notable perks of React Native, which makes this framework best for large companies.
1. Code Sharing Capabilities
The first and foremost benefit that React Native provides is its code-sharing capabilities. iOS and Android are the two most prominent platforms of the app development sector. For developing apps for these two different platforms, the developers need to learn various languages (Objective C and Swift for iOS apps, and Android SDK and Java for Android apps). However, the scenario is a bit different with React Native.
The React Native framework enables the developers to share the same code for developing iOS and Android applications. Not just mobile apps, but even the same code could be reused in developing web applications. That eventually saves a lot of time and cost for the businesses while developing efficient mobile applications across various platforms.
2. Open Source
Another excellent benefit of React Native in app development is its open-source capabilities. React Native is an open-source framework with a strong community that constantly works to improve the framework’s features and errors. That means. You will have new features and could even suggest your changes to the framework whenever you want.
Also, since you have a strong community of native developers and JS experts, you can have a vast knowledge of all the freely available tools and components that could eventually make your app development project a hit in the market.
3. Easy to Learn
That’s a significant benefit for the developers that are already involved in a lot of other technologies and frameworks. React Native is an easy-to-learn language. The framework uses JavaScript as a programming language that a beginner can easily understand with little or no experience in web development.
That means you do not need to look for professionals to build an app using React Native. Any person having the basic knowledge of JavaScript could help you build an efficient and feature-rich mobile application across various leading platforms.
4. UI Responsive
What’s the point of having a mobile application that does not focus on UI. In fact, UI and UX today are the two most crucial aspects for the success of any mobile application, and React Native has got it covered!
With the use of React Native framework, you can substantially reduce your app’s overall loading time. Moreover, the framework even offers excellent development environments and is compatible with almost all mobile devices. Plus, you can even get a live reloading capability with React Native Framework. What does that mean?
That means that you can get a real-time look at your application while changing your source code. It is highly beneficial when you want to look at how a particular feature will affect your application.
5. Compatible
Finally, we have compatibility as the last but not the least benefit of React Native for developing mobile applications. React Native is compatible with many third-party plugins. That means you can deploy more features on your mobile application while freeing up space and extending your application’s capabilities.
Features like zoom in, zoom out, screen rotation, and much more offer a smooth experience to your app users, and that eventually makes your app/brand popular and profitable in the market.
Why Shopify Chose React Native for Mobile App Development?
Now that we know the benefits of React Native in the mobile app development sector, let us quickly discuss why Shopify chose it for its app development? Let’sLet’s start from the start!
Shopify always believed in using the latest technology that could help them move upwards at a faster pace. That’sThat’s why they are always the core contributors to specific technologies that they find innovative. Ruby on Rails is an excellent example of the thing mentioned above.
Now, Shopify was already using React Native for building its web applications. However, with the advances in app development, the company observed that most of their buyers purchased from their mobiles. Not just that, but even the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales were happening through mobile devices. Hence, Shopify thought of launching the three mobile app versions for their users viz., Arrive, Point of Sale, and Compass.
Here’s what the company witnessed after using React Native for their three app development projects:
- Arrive was initially available only for iOS users, but Shopify also felt its need for the Android platform. Hence, React Native was used to developing an Android version of the application, and to much surprise, the same code was reused to build the Android version. It cost the company almost nothing to launch the Android version of Arrive.
- In the Point of Sale application, the company left the iOS version to the native team while the Android version was built using the React /native framework. The Android version was found to be performing high even with the CPU threshold of 1.5GHz.
- Lastly, with the Compass, the company eventually divided to use React Native for building all of its versions, and they saved a huge chunk of time and cost due to code sharing capability.
Apart from these three app developments, the acquisition of Tictail also compelled Shopify to leverage React Native as they witnessed its massive advancement in a short time. They were already using the framework for web applications, and that previously owned knowledge finally helped them make a faster switch from web to mobile using the same framework.
Final Verdict
To conclude, we can say that, although React Native has become a more extensive term at Shopify, the company will not rewrite all of its apps in the React Native framework. However, the company will continue to understand the framework’s subtleness and its platforms to come to a specific decision. However, seeing the learning curve of the React Native at Shopify, one thing can be said for sure – the duo will deliver more hits in the future, and React Native for app development at Shopify might turn out to be the next big thing.
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