Writing a Custom Android Component for React Native
Article Summary
Guillermo Orellana from Bumble's tech team tackles React Native's biggest question: Can you actually integrate complex native Android components without losing your mind?
This hands-on guide from Bumble's engineering team walks through building a custom Android ProgressBar component for React Native. Written when RN was still maturing (2017, updated for v0.42.3), it explores whether native integration is practical for production apps with complex, customized codebases.
Key Takeaways
- Three extension paths: Native Modules, JavaScript Modules, and ViewManagers for UI components
- ViewManager setup requires just getName() and createViewInstance() methods to start
- Expose custom properties using @ReactProp annotations with automatic default value handling
- JavaScript interface needs PropTypes matching your native properties exactly
- One command generates working boilerplate, but complex module integration still feels cumbersome
Critical Insight
You can bridge native Android views to React Native with surprisingly little code, though the author questions whether starting native and adding RN components might be easier than the reverse.
