React Native is a Meta-supported, community-driven open-source framework for building native applications with React and JavaScript. It is designed to let developers create Android, iOS, and additional platform experiences while rendering to native UI rather than web views. The project has been maintained since 2015 and continues to evolve through contributions from both individual developers and companies across its ecosystem.
React Native sits at the center of a broad multi-platform development ecosystem. Beyond its core mobile footprint, the framework is extended through related projects for Windows, macOS, web, and visionOS, helping teams reuse skills and portions of code across device types while still targeting native platform capabilities. It is used in thousands of applications, spanning large enterprises and newer digital product teams.
Offerings, Capabilities, and Integrations
React Native provides a component and API model for building native user interfaces with React. Its core capabilities include reusable cross-platform UI primitives, access to platform APIs, and extension points for native modules and native components when teams need to integrate Objective-C, Swift, Java, Kotlin, or C++ code. The framework also includes built-in components and APIs that cover common mobile interface and application needs.
The framework’s current direction is centered on the New Architecture, which brings support for modern React features and more direct, type-safe access to native interfaces. React Native also supports rapid iteration workflows and is designed to work alongside third-party libraries, SDKs, and native codebases. For new application development, its official guidance recommends pairing the framework with a higher-level framework such as Expo rather than treating React Native alone as a fully prescriptive app stack.
Products and Services
- React Native: Open-source framework for building native apps for Android, iOS, and other platforms using React and JavaScript, with UI rendered through native platform APIs.
- React Native DevTools: Integrated debugging environment for React Native that supports Hermes-based apps and consolidates modern debugging workflows for React behavior, console output, breakpoints, and inspection.
- Hermes: Open-source JavaScript engine optimized for React Native, intended to improve startup time, memory usage, and app size; it is bundled with React Native and used by default.
- React Native Windows: Out-of-tree platform extension that enables native Windows application development with React Native and JavaScript across Windows devices such as PCs, tablets, Xbox, and related form factors.
- React Native macOS: Out-of-tree platform extension for building native macOS applications with React Native, including support for macOS-specific features and desktop app scenarios.
- React Native visionOS: Platform extension and fork for building native visionOS and spatial applications with React, aligned to the React Native development model.
- React Native Web: Cross-platform React UI packages that bring the React Native component model and APIs to web experiences, extending code-sharing beyond mobile and desktop ecosystems.
Target Customers
React Native serves software teams that want to ship native mobile applications with a JavaScript and React development model. It is especially well suited to organizations that already have React expertise and want to extend that skill base into Android and iOS without adopting fully separate UI paradigms for each platform.
Its adoption profile spans startups through Fortune 500 companies, making it relevant for both product-led digital businesses and large enterprises. React Native is a fit for teams building consumer apps, commerce experiences, communications products, and productivity software, as well as organizations that want to expand into desktop, web, or emerging device experiences through adjacent ecosystem projects.
Key People
- Eli White: Engineering Manager at Meta
- Jorge Cohen: Engineering Manager @ Meta
- Markus Leyendecker: Product Manager @ Meta
- Alexandra Marlette: GAAD Pledge Open Source Accessibility Community Manager for React Native
- Nicola Corti: Software Engineer @ Meta
- Alex Hunt: Software Engineer @ Meta
- Alan Lee: Software Engineer @ Meta
- Gabriel Donadel Dall’Agnol: Software Engineer @ Expo
- Lorenzo Sciandra: Senior Software Engineer @ Microsoft
- Łukasz Chludziński: Engineering Manager @ Callstack
Key Facts
- Headquarters: Undisclosed
- Employees: Undisclosed
- Annual Revenue: Undisclosed
- Parent Company: None
- Subsidiaries: None
- Publicly Listed: No
