Enhancing React Native Performance: Best Practices and Pitfalls to Avoid

The business and developer desire improved performance, which is why they’re using a framework like React Native.

The best approach to create mobile applications is with native apps, however in 2015, Facebook (now Meta) recognized the potential of a React-based framework going into mobile development and developed React Native to assist companies in creating hybrid apps.

React Native, which was developed by Facebook in 2015, aids in the creation of iOS, Android, and Microsoft UWP applications. Building native versus cross-platform apps is a decision that many organizations find difficult or confusing.

React Native is the sixth most popular developer framework according to a 2019 Stack Overflow study, and many well-known organizations utilize it for their mobile apps.

Why do so many businesses adopt React Native for their mobile applications is now the question.

Here are some reasons why React Native is used by businesses or service providers:

It is Quick: It takes less time because the same codebase can be used to create apps for both iOS and Android, with the exception of a few adjustments that must be made separately for each platform.
Applications seem like they were native:
Even with a single codebase, React Native developers can create apps for iOS and Android that look and feel native.
Performance of React Native Apps: React Native is a well-optimized programming language for various mobile devices. Moreover, these apps use GPU support rather than CPU, which improves their speed and performance.
There is no issue with reliability:
You can consider React Native to be tried and tested because major corporations like Airbnb, Instagram, and Uber Eats use it.
It is suitable for developers:
The Github React Native Community is where you can find some thoughtful debate about React Native because it is community-driven. Reactiflux is a sizable chat server where developers may address their issues.

Which matters? Performance of React Native and User Experience

The app can only succeed or fail based on the user experience. React Native, on the other hand, offers practically everything a developer would require to create a high-performing app.

The majority of mobile devices have a 60 Hz display, which gives developers 16.67 milliseconds to display a frame for excellent performance. If the program doesn’t achieve this, it will run poorly and the Interface might even stop responding.

Do you wish to enhance the functionality of React Native? If so, you should be familiar with React Native’s rules of conduct.

If so, let’s assist you with that.

How to’s

1. Use the proper navigation techniques:

While React Native teams have been working to address navigational issues for a while and have made many of them better, there is still plenty that needs to be done to ensure a seamless user experience.

Users could choose not to use your app if the screen navigation is difficult.

iOS Navigator: Limited to iOS; does not function on Android.
Navigator: Just useful for developing prototypes and small applications. (Is ineffective for sophisticated or high-performance applications)
The navigation experiment is effective for complicated applications but is difficult to implement and not everyone likes it.
React Navigation is a lightweight navigation system that is frequently used in apps and is effective for both small and large-scale projects.

2. Ensure that images are cached:

React Native’s fundamental component, images, is used to display an image, but there isn’t an out-of-the-box fix for problems like:

general poor performance and cache loading

Image jerking

rendering a lot of pictures on one screen
Nevertheless, using third-party libraries, such as react-native-fast-image, you may quickly fix these problems. This library functions pretty well and is accessible for both iOS and Android.

3. Use nativeDriver and the Animated Library:

One of the most often used methods for rendering animations in React Native apps is the Animated library.

The Animated library delivers animations via the native bridge with the aid of nativeDriver before the animation begins on the screen. It enables independent JavaScript thread execution of the animation, resulting in a smoother and flicker-free experience with no frame dropping.

If you want to utilize the nativeDriver with the Animated library, you must set the value to true.

4. The secret is to use the right image size:

Image optimization is essential for React Native speed when the app heavily utilizes photos. If the photos are not optimized for size, rendering this many images will result in excessive memory utilization on a smartphone; this may potentially cause the app to crash.

The photos in the React Native app can be optimized in the following ways:

Using PNG or WEBP instead of JPG can reduce the binary size on both Android and iOS by 29%.

Use smaller-sized photos.

5. Use the free JavaScript engine Hermes:

An open-source JavaScript engine designed exclusively for mobile applications is called Hermes. Since the release of React Native 0.60.4, Hermes is accessible on the Android operating system. Using it has the advantage of reducing memory usage, TTI (Time to Interact) time, and app download size.

Hermes is also accessible on the iOS operating system following the release of React Native 0.64-rc.0.

A Do nt’s

1. If rendering lengthy lists, avoid using the scroll view.

There are two approaches to implement lists in React Native if you wish to display objects with scrollable lists:

ScrollView

FlatList

A list of a finite number of items is frequently iterated over using the scrollview, which is simple to build. This strategy works well, but only when there are not many entries on the list. In contrast, using Scrollview with a lot of data can significantly impact the performance of React Native as a whole.

React Native offers FlatList, which may be used to manage a substantial amount of data in list format. The entries in a flat list are loaded slowly. The app does, however, occasionally or excessively use memory.

2. Remember to remove all console commands:

Although console statements are only used for development, they are crucial for debugging JavaScript programs. These sentences could seriously affect React Native performance if they aren’t removed before bundling.

For the purpose of removing these statements from production, plugins like babel-plugin-transform-remove-console could be used. If you don’t want to provide your React Native application any new dependencies, you can remove it manually.

3. Avoid updating the dispatch or state of componentWillUpdate:

To get ready for an update, use the componentWillUpdate lifecycle method. ComponentWillReceiveProps makes it simple to set a state; however, if you want to be safe, use componentDidUpdate in place of componentWillReceiveProps to dispatch any Redux operations.

4. Eliminate all unnecessary libraries and features:

Your React or React Native application will leave a trace of each library it uses. As a result, you should only include the libraries and functionality you actually use, and you should get rid of any unnecessary dependencies. Less is better when it comes to navigation, animations, tabs, and other things that affect how quickly the screen loads.

5. Avoid Anonymous Functions While Rendering:

Because it causes significant React Native performance concerns, “adding functions in render()” is what developers refer to as a bad practice. Each time a component re-renders, a different callback is created, which is not a problem for smaller components.

Nevertheless, it becomes a significant issue when used with PureComponents and React.memo() or when the function is provided as a prop to a child component.

Using React Native properly on Instagram

Instagram, the photo-sharing social network owned by Meta, is one excellent example of the developer of React Native.

Digital photographs and brief films are now Instagram’s main modes of operation. Instagram seriously considered transitioning to Reactive Native in 2016, but it was difficult to integrate with current technology at the time. Today, they can deliver features more quickly and easily while maintaining both iOS and Android app versions.

Conclusion

Cross-platform mobile applications are made using the open-source React Native technology. Although being the core, JavaScript also provides building blocks for functionality and interfaces. A seamless experience is delivered at scale by this well-liked framework. When building native-like apps a decade ago, you could only use one programming language, such Java. React Native gives businesses the freedom and chance to design mobile apps differently. Today, things are different. Businesses have achieved significant advancements on the iOS and Android platforms, but these advancements call for the assistance of skilled React Native developers.

About Cherry Xiao 35 Articles
Cherry Xiao, a reputable digital marketing professional and content writer based in Singapore, keeps a keen eye on evolving search engine algorithms. She strives to keep his fellow writers updated with the latest insights in her own words. For more information and a deeper understanding of her writing abilities, you can visit her website at https://cherryxiao.com/.

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