React Native Blog • Aug 26, 2021

React Native Multi-Platform Vision

Article Summary

React Native is going where most developers didn't expect: virtual reality headsets and native desktop apps. The performance results are already surprising the team.

The React Native team at Facebook shares their vision for expanding beyond mobile to desktop, VR, and other platforms. They're partnering with Microsoft on Messenger desktop and Facebook Reality Labs on Oculus experiences.

Key Takeaways

Android memory optimizations in C++ unexpectedly improved iOS performance when tested
Desktop Messenger video calling with React Native outperformed the Electron version
Cross-platform constraints drive innovation: VR memory work benefits mobile and desktop
Platform-specific knowledge sharing: web Suspense features now influencing native apps

Critical Insight

React Native's multi-platform expansion proves that solving constraints on one platform creates performance wins across all others.

The team hints at upcoming VR developments that could reshape how we think about React Native performance on all devices.

About This Article

Problem

Android and iOS developers at React Native worked in separate teams with their own expertise. This split limited how much knowledge they could share across platforms and slowed down innovation.

Solution

Facebook expanded React Native to support multiple platforms like desktop and VR. This brought together engineers from Android, iOS, web, and desktop teams who could learn from each other's different approaches.

Impact

Both mobile platforms improved their accessibility features by studying how Android, iOS, and web each handled accessibility. The result was a shared interface that worked better across all platforms.