I have recently started developing mobile apps using React Native. I do have an decent experience in ReactJS & NodeJS/Express. As moving to React-Native is easy from ReactJS but; still mobile app development is completely different from web. Many basic things I learned after reading many blogs, spending time on stack-overflow & official documentation.
I am just curious to know and get some advice from experience React-Native/iOS/Android developer. I hope this reply would be helpful for many new developers.
Vijay Thirugnanam
Inference Service @ Cerebras
React native is easier than developing React web apps. The components available in React native as well as community is usually sufficient for our needs. If you feel that you need more than what the React native community offers, then you are better off writing a native app in Swift or Java.
Where I find React native painful is that it is a bit constrained. Some of the components do not work the way we want it to. Usually, there are some props missing or props we expect to work one way don't work the way we expect it to. There are tweaks everywhere.
Finally, React native layout is based on Flex or Flexbox. If you are good at it, then you should do pretty well with the layout. Again React native limits you to develop apps for which it is suited. There is always some productivity gains in using Xcode storyboards with drag and drop for developing the UI. For business apps, which less complicated UI, Flexbox and other components like FlatList will help you.
Finally, there are several community packages that you should be aware: