Haptics in React Native: easier than you think
Article Summary
Darin Wilson from Infinite Red went down a rabbit hole tweaking haptic feedback in a Pong game, and he's not sorry. Turns out adding vibration patterns to React Native apps is surprisingly simple and measurably increases user engagement.
Wilson explores haptic feedback implementation in React Native after being inspired by a Chain React 2026 talk. He built a demo app with three mini-apps (counter, todo list, and Pong) to test the Pulsar library from Software Mansion, discovering that haptics deliver outsized impact for minimal effort.
Key Takeaways
- Haptic feedback in grocery apps increased cart additions and sales in recent studies
- Pulsar library offers 150+ preset vibration patterns, all worklet compatible with Reanimated
- Setup takes just two commands: install package and run prebuild
- Different intensities create distinct experiences: light taps for walls, heavy drops for misses
- Accessibility guidelines in US and Europe increasingly require multi modal feedback
Adding sophisticated haptic feedback to React Native apps requires just a few lines of code with Pulsar, delivering proven UX improvements and accessibility benefits.
About This Article
React Native developers struggled to find practical guidance on implementing haptic feedback. Darin Wilson ran into a specific issue: haptics required running apps on physical devices rather than Expo Go because Pulsar wasn't compatible with Expo.
Wilson turned to the Pulsar library from Software Mansion. He installed it with a single command using pnpm expo install react-native-pulsar, then ran prebuild to create development builds that fully supported haptic feedback.
When subtle vibration patterns were applied to e-commerce buttons, user engagement increased measurably. In one grocery app, users added more items to their carts and generated higher sales after haptic feedback was enabled.