Why did Airbnb dump React Native? (2021)

#1

Post by aabbcc1241 » Tue, Aug 16, 2022, 4:35 PM UTC

Why did Airbnb dump React Native? (2021)
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Re: Why did Airbnb dump React Native? (2021)

#2

Post by Apocryphon » Tue, Aug 16, 2022, 4:49 PM UTC

Airbnb switched away from React Native at a time when a lot of other high-profile companies did as well and wrote technical blog articles about it. Discord was one of the few dissenters:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17619609

Looks like they're doubling-down further still:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32310392

Looks like Shopify also picked up RN:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22181873

Re: Why did Airbnb dump React Native? (2021)

#3

Post by geuis » Tue, Aug 16, 2022, 4:52 PM UTC

Right near the beginning:

> Till the year 2012, Airbnb was just a React website.

React wasn't released until 2013.

Re: Why did Airbnb dump React Native? (2021)

#4

Post by godot » Tue, Aug 16, 2022, 4:57 PM UTC

geuis wrote: post #3

Right near the beginning: > Till the year 2012, Airbnb was just a React website. React wasn't released until 2013.

First thing I noticed as well! I think nowadays younger developers mostly simply equate "web frontend" with "React" subconsciously. :)

Re: Why did Airbnb dump React Native? (2021)

#5

Post by hunterb123 » Tue, Aug 16, 2022, 5:01 PM UTC

Seems strange to write an article about why they switched without mentioning one of the main technical reasons Airbnb said themselves:

> Many of the difficulties we encountered were due to the hybrid model approach we took

They had about 220 screens in RN, 880 native screens total. They found it difficult to juggle that, essentially developing 3 platforms instead of 2.

Personally I prefer to do pure RN, with native extensions. Not a lot of native screens, because yes, you then are developing your targets plus RN.

Also keep in mind they were early adopters and they probably had to do a lot of heavy lifting. RN has matured a lot since then, both thanks to Airbnb and to the rest of the community.

Re: Why did Airbnb dump React Native? (2021)

#6

Post by hunterb123 » Tue, Aug 16, 2022, 5:05 PM UTC

godot wrote: post #4

geuis wrote: post #3

Right near the beginning: > Till the year 2012, Airbnb was just a React website. React wasn't released until 2013.

First thing I noticed as well! I think nowadays younger developers mostly simply equate "web frontend" with "React" subconsciously. :)

Was the same way in the jQuery days with equating it to JavaScript.

It's a compliment to the tech of how useful and prevalent it is.

Re: Why did Airbnb dump React Native? (2021)

#7

Post by meitros » Tue, Aug 16, 2022, 5:09 PM UTC

hunterb123 wrote: post #5

Seems strange to write an article about why they switched without mentioning one of the main technical reasons Airbnb said themselves: > Many of the difficulties we encountered were due to the hybrid model approach we took They had about 220 screens in RN, 880 native screens total. They found it difficult to juggle that, essentially developing 3 platforms instead of 2. Personally I prefer to do pure RN, with native e…

That always surprised me a bit, because part of the initial intent of react native was to be hybrid. Facebook had a lot of php developers that they wanted to enable to be able to write mobile screens. Not the core experiences, which you wanted dedicated mobile folks to write native for performance/transitions, but secondary things like the reporting flow.

But it probably takes a dedicated developer focused team to manage hybrid. And in terms of pure react native…I don’t know if react native is now able to feel as good as a native app, but even for a few years after Airbnb’s post react native would not have been up to the task of rendering all the little animations and transitions that Airbnb had in their mobile app.

(Though these days I would 100% write a new, less fancy mobile app in react native/expo - it’s constantly improved throughout the years)

Re: Why did Airbnb dump React Native? (2021)

#8

Post by ajkjk » Tue, Aug 16, 2022, 5:12 PM UTC

Weird title. The correct English would be "Why did Airbnb dump React Native?". All of the sub-headings have this strange construction as well. Is this 'correct' in some other country and I'm just not aware of it?

I was gonna say, it's also weird because the text of the article seems nearly-native quality.. but actually when I went back and looked more closely it's semi-broken English as well. I guess it's in big wordy paragraphs that you skim and don't notice the grammar of.

Re: Why did Airbnb dump React Native? (2021)

#9

Post by seiferteric » Tue, Aug 16, 2022, 5:12 PM UTC

I am not a front end developer, but when reading about these kinds of switches in front end frameworks... isn't that an incredible amount of work? How could it be justified? It must have created some really serious unsolvable problems in order to switch right? You would think it would be easier to improve the existing one instead of switching, but who knows. Either that or the amount of front end code really isn't as much as I imagine.

Re: Why did Airbnb dump React Native? (2021)

#10

Post by _greim_ » Tue, Aug 16, 2022, 5:13 PM UTC

godot wrote: post #4

geuis wrote: post #3

Right near the beginning: > Till the year 2012, Airbnb was just a React website. React wasn't released until 2013.

First thing I noticed as well! I think nowadays younger developers mostly simply equate "web frontend" with "React" subconsciously. :)

I don't think even young devs think this way. More likely the writer is just being lazy, and filled in gaps in their own knowledge with faux history-salad.