There’s no one-size-fits-all solution when building applications, but React Native is as close as it gets. Want to launch something in the App/Play store? Then React Native apps are the way to go.
Sometimes you just need a robust app that's in all the stores and that has access to all the features. React native apps offer a better experience, are faster and have access to more features. Haptic feedback, geo-fencing are just a few examples.
Who doesn't want a better user experience?
web is not there yet
Web applications still have limited possibilities. The performance is also not on par with native apps, unless you try really hard to optimise every aspect.
introducing react native
React Native apps offer the best of both worlds. It's written in Javascript, as all web applications, but it compiles to a native application, with better performance and smoother user interactions as a result.
You want an application in the App Store and Play Store
The cost is huge to build 2 apps on 2 platforms
Putting a web application in a native shell sounds like a good idea, but it often ends up in mediocre experiences and Apple doesn't like it, .
The path is native
With React Native, you can implement things like face ID authentication or specific haptic feedback patterns. For other things like a custom camera component or access to things like ARkit, you need to write native components, but React Native has got you covered as well on that part.
Some features are only available to Native Apps
PWA’s still have some limits
Things like geo-fencing, increased security, access to haptic feedback, ... are all things you can't control with a PWA. Apple also doesn't really like to play along with the PWA evolution, so you've got to be aware on how they limit PWAs.
time to go native
With React Native, you can implement things like face ID authentication or specific haptic feedback patterns. For other things like a custom camera component or access to things like ARkit, you need to write native components, but React Native has got you covered as well on that part.
Facebook has created React Native so it's no surprise they have built multiple apps with React Native. The Facebook Ads app is a great example of how they leveraged the power of React Native. There's a lot of complexity in the app that allows you to manage your paid marketing and building it on top of one codebase surely offered them some peace of mind.
Ever heard of Walmart?
Walmart is one of the biggest corporations in the world and they have a pretty advanced mobile app for their whole mobile e-commerce experience. 95% of the code is shared between their Android and iOS apps and allowed them to reduce the development cost of their mobile app.
Babylon Health is in on it too.
Both Ada and Babylon Health are companies on the rise, that have a strong mobile-first strategy. Their goals are similar, to put a medical advice in your pocket. Most of their users only interact with their mobile apps, but they achieved a truly great experience by using React Native. They're both big believers in a conversation user interface as well, which you can read more on over here.
Microsoft is going Macro hard on React.
Love it or hate it, but Microsoft has adopted React Native across their whole organisation. More then 15 apps on the App Store have adopted react native at least partially. Microsoft is using React Native for Desktop purposes as well, through Electron, which is another great example of the possibilities.
These customers have a React Native app thanks to Bothrs
