React Native Version 0.71 Release
Article Summary
React Native 0.71 just dropped with TypeScript as the default, and it's the biggest developer experience upgrade in years. If you're still wrestling with layout spacing or accessibility props, this changes everything.
The React Native team released version 0.71 with six major feature areas spanning type safety, layout improvements, and web standards alignment. This release represents contributions from 70+ developers across 1000+ commits, focusing heavily on reducing friction for mobile developers.
Key Takeaways
- TypeScript now ships by default with built-in types (no more @types/react-native)
- Flexbox gap property finally arrives, eliminating margin hacks for spacing
- ARIA props and web-standard event handlers align React Native with web APIs
- New Architecture build times slashed with Maven Central distribution
- Hermes JSON.parse performance improved by up to 30%
Critical Insight
React Native 0.71 eliminates major developer pain points by making TypeScript the default, adding long-requested layout features, and dramatically improving build performance.
