Discussion - Topic: React Native
Details
This week's topic: React Native
Discussion resources to help guide the conversation will be posted below a few days before the meetup.
Zoom link will be added about 5 min before the event starts.
As described in Thoughtworks Technology Radar Vol. #34.
React Native has moved to Adopt as our default choice for cross-platform mobile development. While previously in Trial, the rollout of the New Architecture — specifically JSI and Fabric — has addressed long-standing concerns regarding bridge bottlenecks and initialization speed. Our teams have observed significant performance gains in complex UI transitions and data-intensive workloads. By moving away from the asynchronous bridge, React Native now delivers responsiveness that rivals native implementations while maintaining a single codebase.
We’ve used it successfully across multiple production projects and found the ecosystem around Expo and React to be mature and stable. While state management still requires careful planning, the productivity benefits of fast refresh workflows and shared skill sets outweigh these costs. For most hybrid mobile use cases, React Native is now our primary recommendation for teams seeking performance, consistency and speed.
Discussion Resources :
New Architecture is here By The React Team
https://reactnative.dev/blog/2024/10/23/the-new-architecture-is-here
React Universe Conf 2025 Keynote By Mike Grabowski, Riccardo Cipolleschi, and Michał Pierzchała
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEQ2g3BBKTg
How to upgrade to Expo SDK 55 By Keith Kurak
https://expo.dev/blog/upgrading-to-sdk-55
Expo application performance best practices By Evan Bacon
https://expo.dev/blog/best-practices-for-reducing-lag-in-expo-apps
React Native Releases in 2025: Towards a Stable Future By Jorge Cohen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPtopk4y2LI
Migrating to React Native's New Architecture By Thiago Magalhaes
https://shopify.engineering/react-native-new-architecture
How Margelo Helped Discord Improve React Native's New Architecture Performance By Hanno Gödecke
https://margelo.com/blog/margelo-discord-react-native-performance
Native is now the future of mobile at Shopify By Mustafa Ali
https://shopify.engineering/back-to-native