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Transition to React Native

blog.coinbase.com

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Re: Transition to React Native

#21

Post by ec109685 »

kumarm wrote: post #9

2025: Coinbase successful transition from React Native to Native apps. Seriously haven't we seen how this play-out way too many times already? There is absolutely no incentive for Apple and Google to make sure ReactNative controlled by Facebook is the way to develop apps for their platforms. Till that is true, its absolutely nuts for any company other than facebook to develop their apps in ReactNative. Edit: Example:…

They addressed Airbnb's experience in the blog post. In addition to abandoning React Native, Airbnb created their own templating language best suited for their app and rolled it out to both platforms so they didn't have to handspin every screen.

Re: Transition to React Native

#22

Post by macando »

ardit33 wrote: post #12

Two years from now, it will be 'why did we decide to move on from React as it was not working out' blog post It is like the circle of life with native vs semi-native (which react is), and just html apps. Teams build a fast new version, looks great as it is new code, without much baggage, and over time it gets bloated and people complain that it takes too much to debug/develop on it. Some people in a internal team wri…

> as they usually are just PR for internal teams, so someone gets a promotion

CEO of Shopify praised React Native in January 2020. I guess he was aiming for that postition of Senior CEO there.

Re: Transition to React Native

#23

Post by ardit33 »

ec109685 wrote: post #18
ardit33 wrote: post #12

Two years from now, it will be 'why did we decide to move on from React as it was not working out' blog post It is like the circle of life with native vs semi-native (which react is), and just html apps. Teams build a fast new version, looks great as it is new code, without much baggage, and over time it gets bloated and people complain that it takes too much to debug/develop on it. Some people in a internal team wri…

How utterly dismissive. They rebuilt their apps, increased the number of developers able to contribute to their codebase and improved metrics. That should be praised. Their point about brownfield development was a good one. In my experience the intersection between RN and Native (both code and people) is the biggest impediment.

AirBnb went exactly through this transition and back... Coinbase is just behind by a couple of years. Perhaps Coinbase' engineers, are better, or a different breed from Airbnb' ones, or perhaps React Native has matured more since 2019. Can't give you an answer.

Linkedin had the exact iteration years ago. They had one of the first NodeJS Apps, driven mobile apps, and made some glossy block posts, praising it. Then quietly went back to native. Facebook went back and forth with HTML 5 sound the same time, etc.. etc..

It is like seeing the same movie over and over, with just some minor plot twists, they tend to play out the same. Since the Java's Applets promise 'write once, run everywhere', this story instead has been always the 'write once, debug everywhere'.

"Sunsetting React Native Due to a variety of technical and organizational issues, we will be sunsetting React Native and putting all of our efforts into making native amazing."

https://medium.com/airbnb-engineering/sunsetting-react-nativ...

Re: Transition to React Native

#24

Post by aardvarkr »

ec109685 wrote: post #18
ardit33 wrote: post #12

Two years from now, it will be 'why did we decide to move on from React as it was not working out' blog post It is like the circle of life with native vs semi-native (which react is), and just html apps. Teams build a fast new version, looks great as it is new code, without much baggage, and over time it gets bloated and people complain that it takes too much to debug/develop on it. Some people in a internal team wri…

How utterly dismissive. They rebuilt their apps, increased the number of developers able to contribute to their codebase and improved metrics. That should be praised. Their point about brownfield development was a good one. In my experience the intersection between RN and Native (both code and people) is the biggest impediment.

You’re the one being utterly dismissive with your condescending tone and failure to acknowledge any points that op made. Sounds like they’ve been around long enough to have seen this cycle a few times. Used to be Ruby on Rails was the next coming of Christ.

Re: Transition to React Native

#25

Post by tshaddox »

ardit33 wrote: post #23
ec109685 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How utterly dismissive. They rebuilt their apps, increased the number of developers able to contribute to their codebase and improved metrics. That should be praised. Their point about brownfield development was a good one. In my experience the intersection between RN and Native (both code and people) is the biggest impediment.

AirBnb went exactly through this transition and back... Coinbase is just behind by a couple of years. Perhaps Coinbase' engineers, are better, or a different breed from Airbnb' ones, or perhaps React Native has matured more since 2019. Can't give you an answer. Linkedin had the exact iteration years ago. They had one of the first NodeJS Apps, driven mobile apps, and made some glossy block posts, praising it. Then qui…

What then do you think is the “correct state” that they should skip all the experimentation and jump straight to?

Personally, I suspect the reason that big teams are experimenting (and finding successes despite some failures and trade offs) is because this is a difficult problem that isn’t solved and requires ongoing creativity and experimentation.

Re: Transition to React Native

#26

Post by Softcadbury »

I'm never touching mobile development and especially React Native again!

I'm a web developer and a few years ago, I had the opportunity to develop a mobile app. What a nightmare...

Among the new versions of React Native or Gradle breaking everything, all the npm packages suddenly not maintained anymore, the virtual phones not always starting or refreshing, the custom code you add to do in Java and Objective C because RN cannot do everything, and certainly the worst, the deployment on the app store.

Re: Transition to React Native

#27

Post by SatvikBeri »

I'm skeptical of most "we switched from X to Y" posts, but the thought process here seems pretty solid.

* They had a much harder time hiring mobile developers than web developers, and per-person productivity was also lower

* They prototyped an app before committing to a new technology

* Similarly, they tested a change to the existing app before switching

* They specifically invested time to cross-train people, and tested how long it took web developers to get productive on React Native

* They interviewed Airbnb, who had also invested a lot of effort into React Native before dropping it

* At each step, they considered whether to rewrite from scratch or incrementally switch that part of the codebase

This makes a lot of sense. It shows the kind of careful consideration we should apply when seriously considering switching to a new technology.

Re: Transition to React Native

#28

Post by macando »

ardit33 wrote: post #23
ec109685 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How utterly dismissive. They rebuilt their apps, increased the number of developers able to contribute to their codebase and improved metrics. That should be praised. Their point about brownfield development was a good one. In my experience the intersection between RN and Native (both code and people) is the biggest impediment.

AirBnb went exactly through this transition and back... Coinbase is just behind by a couple of years. Perhaps Coinbase' engineers, are better, or a different breed from Airbnb' ones, or perhaps React Native has matured more since 2019. Can't give you an answer. Linkedin had the exact iteration years ago. They had one of the first NodeJS Apps, driven mobile apps, and made some glossy block posts, praising it. Then qui…

AirBnB tried to mix their big native codebase with React Native and end up with a Frankenstein.

Re: Transition to React Native

#29

Post by ardit33 »

tshaddox wrote: post #25
ardit33 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AirBnb went exactly through this transition and back... Coinbase is just behind by a couple of years. Perhaps Coinbase' engineers, are better, or a different breed from Airbnb' ones, or perhaps React Native has matured more since 2019. Can't give you an answer. Linkedin had the exact iteration years ago. They had one of the first NodeJS Apps, driven mobile apps, and made some glossy block posts, praising it. Then qui…

What then do you think is the “correct state” that they should skip all the experimentation and jump straight to? Personally, I suspect the reason that big teams are experimenting (and finding successes despite some failures and trade offs) is because this is a difficult problem that isn’t solved and requires ongoing creativity and experimentation.

I am not dismissing React Native, and saying it is a bad technology, (it is pretty good for a certain type of apps) and it can work for some.

If you see my end note, "to more junior engineers", don't use React Native in your project because X company is using it, and it must be trendy.

Use it only if you do enjoy using it. If you are already good/skilled at building native apps, then you might not need it at all.

Re: Transition to React Native

#30

Post by dragosmocrii »

ardit33 wrote: post #12

Two years from now, it will be 'why did we decide to move on from React as it was not working out' blog post It is like the circle of life with native vs semi-native (which react is), and just html apps. Teams build a fast new version, looks great as it is new code, without much baggage, and over time it gets bloated and people complain that it takes too much to debug/develop on it. Some people in a internal team wri…

Your comment reminds me of http://boringtechnology.club/ :)
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