Discord Switching to React Native for Android App • Hacker News Board

Re: Discord Switching to React Native for Android App

#21

Post by brundolf » Mon, Aug 01, 2022, 8:32 PM UTC

Lot of people here don't know what React Native actually is

Re: Discord Switching to React Native for Android App

#22

Post by ramesh31 » Mon, Aug 01, 2022, 8:34 PM UTC

React Native really is a game changer for mobile development. I picked it up last year to build a new iOS app for the first time since the old Objective-C/UI-Kit days. I was literally building things in minutes that would have taken hours or days of writing custom OpenGL and networking code back then. Any performance tradeoffs left at this point are worth it IMO.

Re: Discord Switching to React Native for Android App

#23

Post by robertoandred » Mon, Aug 01, 2022, 8:36 PM UTC

rstat1 wrote: post #15

robertoandred wrote: post #7

I hope desktop apps can soon start switching from Electron to React Native.

I would prefer something actually native, instead of a switch from one bad web based thing to another.

React Native isn't really web based. It draws real, native UI elements, not HTML.

Re: Discord Switching to React Native for Android App

#24

Post by cercatrova » Mon, Aug 01, 2022, 8:36 PM UTC

I wonder if they considered Flutter as well, but their website is probably written in React so it makes sense to use RN as well to share relevant code.

Re: Discord Switching to React Native for Android App

#25

Post by hnarn » Mon, Aug 01, 2022, 8:37 PM UTC

occz wrote: post #20

akmarinov wrote: post #6

That’s good. Having one app be RN and one native is probably the worst thing you can do. That said, seems like Android users really dislike this update as the app seems slower, buggier and less polished than it used to be.

A better choice would have been to port their RN-app on iOS to an actual native iOS-app.

Why? I use it all the time and I think it works great.

Re: Discord Switching to React Native for Android App

#26

Post by tuetuopay » Mon, Aug 01, 2022, 8:39 PM UTC

If it reaches the performance of the already RN iOS app, then it’s a win. I’m still rocking an iPhone 6s, on which Discord is buttery-smooth. If only the Slack app could do the same…

Re: Discord Switching to React Native for Android App

#27

Post by brundolf » Mon, Aug 01, 2022, 8:44 PM UTC

douglaswlance wrote: post #10

Do they share code between desktop and RN?

My company has a RN app and a React web app. We've found there isn't much opportunity for sharing UI code; you can share hooks, data layer type stuff, etc, but the actual components aren't really compatible because the leaves of the UI tree are totally different (native elements vs HTML elements)

The bigger wins come from shared tooling/skillset/headspace. Our UI devs can fairly easily jump back and forth between the two codebases

Re: Discord Switching to React Native for Android App

#28

Post by rstat1 » Mon, Aug 01, 2022, 8:44 PM UTC

robertoandred wrote: post #23

rstat1 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would prefer something actually native, instead of a switch from one bad web based thing to another.

React Native isn't really web based. It draws real, native UI elements, not HTML.

Still a web framework though, even if the end result isn't HTML.

Re: Discord Switching to React Native for Android App

#29

Post by bjustin » Mon, Aug 01, 2022, 8:46 PM UTC

The iOS app seems to work as well or better than the desktop app in my experience, so imagine my surprise finding out it's React Native. If the Android app will work just as well, this is good news.

Re: Discord Switching to React Native for Android App

#30

Post by brundolf » Mon, Aug 01, 2022, 8:49 PM UTC

lohii wrote: post #12

https://twitter.com/sandofsky/status/1554178071820771328?s=2...

I've been using the iOS RN app for years (on a phone that's currently 4 years old) and never had any performance issues. There may just be some transition pains they need to work through on Android