React Native Blog • Oct 1, 2021

React Native Version 0.66 Release

Article Summary

React Native 0.66 just dropped with Android 12 and iOS 15 support, plus a game-changing fix that's been frustrating Android devs for years. Time to upgrade?

The React Native team released version 0.66 with 621 commits from 92 contributors. This release focuses on platform compatibility updates and introduces a new testing workflow to improve release stability and speed up the feedback loop for contributors.

Key Takeaways

Android now handles taps on child views outside parent bounds (finally!)
Apple Silicon M1 builds are more reliable with new CocoaPods workarounds
Hermes 0.9.0 brings 400+ commits with memory and size improvements
New 'commitly' releases let you test individual PRs before they merge
Android 12 Bluetooth permissions added, targetSDK 31 coming next release

Critical Insight

React Native 0.66 modernizes platform support while introducing nightly and per-commit releases to catch bugs earlier in the development cycle.

The new commitly workflow could fundamentally change how the community validates changes before they hit production.

About This Article

Problem

React Native's release process moved slowly and had stability issues. Bugs kept showing up during Release Candidate testing, which pushed back when developers could get their hands on new versions.

Solution

Facebook's React Native team set up nightly releases on npm under the 'nightly' tag. They also created 'commitly' artifacts for each commit on main and release branches that developers could download from CircleCI to test early.

Impact

Developers can now validate individual PRs before they merge. The team gets feedback earlier in the process, which means fewer bugs make it to the RC stage.