React Native 0.59 Release
Article Summary
React Native 0.59 just dropped with the biggest Android performance upgrade in years. If your app still feels sluggish compared to iOS, this changes everything.
React Native 0.59 shipped with 644 commits from 88 contributors, marking a major milestone for the framework. This release addresses long-standing performance issues on Android and introduces architectural changes to make the codebase more maintainable.
Key Takeaways
- React Hooks now available for reusing stateful logic across components
- Updated JavaScriptCore brings 64-bit support and major Android performance gains
- Inline requires feature enables faster app launches through lazy loading
- Lean Core initiative moves AsyncStorage, NetInfo, Slider to community packages
- CLI commands now run nearly instantly with improved logging
React Native 0.59 closes the Android performance gap with modernized JavaScriptCore, introduces Hooks, and begins splitting the bloated core into focused community-maintained packages.
About This Article
React Native's repository had grown large and complex. With 644 commits from 88 contributors, the codebase became hard to navigate. This made it less approachable and added bloat when used as a dev dependency.
The React Native core team started Lean Core to address this. They moved components like AsyncStorage, NetInfo, and Slider into separate libraries maintained by the community. Each library got its own dedicated owner.
The upgrade process got better. rn-diff-purge let developers track changes manually, and the new react-native upgrade command became much faster. In version 0.58, upgrades were slow. Now they run nearly instantaneously.