Best of React Native — February 2026

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    Article
    Avatar of ezh33lu6a37km1sfscwixVladislav Siumbeli·10w

    Deploying my Expo apps to Google Play — lessons learned

    Deploying Expo apps to Google Play is mostly straightforward with minimal code changes required. Key challenges include adjusting font sizes for Android's rendering differences using a platform-specific scaling function, configuring keystores and Firebase integration with google-services.json, and finding testers through communities like Reddit and specialized testing apps. The Google Play review process proved smoother than iOS, with Firebase automatically handling Google Authentication setup for connected projects.

  2. 2
    Article
    Avatar of twirThis Week In React·10w

    This Week In React #267: ViewTransition, Skills, Bun, Next-Intl, Grab, Aria, Gatsby, R3f

    Weekly React newsletter covering ecosystem updates including React 19 support in Gatsby, WebGPU support in React Three Fiber, and ahead-of-time compilation in Next Intl. React Native section highlights Worklets 0.8 with bundle mode and VisionCamera V5 multithreading improvements. Additional coverage includes State of JavaScript 2025 results showing React's growing usage but declining satisfaction, Temporal API implementation progress in JavaScriptCore, and Babel 7.29 as the final minor release before Babel 8 RC.

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    Article
    Avatar of react_nativeReact Native·9w

    Hermes V1 by Default · React Native

    React Native 0.84 makes Hermes V1 the default JavaScript engine, delivering automatic performance improvements and reduced memory usage. The release enables precompiled iOS binaries by default to speed up build times, continues removing Legacy Architecture code from both platforms, and requires Node.js 22.11 minimum. Additional updates include React 19.2.3, ESLint v9 Flat Config support, enhanced accessibility features, improved URL API compliance, and support for additional image formats like HEIC and HEIF.

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    Article
    Avatar of whitespectreWhitespectre·10w

    Debunking React Native Myths: Why Expo is Now Our Go-To (Even for Complex Projects)

    Expo has evolved from a beginner-focused React Native framework into a robust platform capable of handling complex, production-ready mobile applications. Modern Expo supports advanced native features through the Modules API, custom development clients, and config plugins. It offers first-class support for the new React Native architecture (Fabric and TurboModules), comprehensive customization options, and streamlined deployment through Expo Application Services (EAS). The framework now eliminates the need for extensive native platform expertise while maintaining performance and flexibility. Bare React Native remains relevant primarily for existing codebases or projects with nonstandard build requirements.

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    Article
    Avatar of whitespectreWhitespectre·10w

    FlashList vs. FlatList: Understanding the Key Differences for React Native Performance

    FlashList offers significant performance improvements over FlatList for complex React Native lists through cell recycling instead of virtualization. In a real-world project with nested lists and animations, switching to FlashList and optimizing properties like estimatedItemSize, getItemType, and overrideItemLayout resulted in 54% FPS improvement (36.9 to 56.9), 82% CPU reduction, and eliminated out-of-memory crashes on low-end Android devices. The article provides practical implementation tips including data reorganization and proper configuration strategies.

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    Video
    Avatar of asaprogrammerAs a Programmer·7w

    React Native Video Calling App Tutorial 2026

    A comprehensive tutorial for building a full-featured video calling study app using React Native and Expo SDK 55. Covers project setup from scratch, NativeWind (Tailwind for React Native) integration, authentication with Clerk (Google, Apple, GitHub), real-time chat and video calls via Stream, and error monitoring with Sentry. Also includes a detailed breakdown of Expo SDK 55 changes: removal of legacy architecture, native tabs as default, faster OTA updates via bytecode diffing, new native UI features, and iOS widgets in alpha. All tools used offer free tiers, no credit card required.

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