Dabit describes how React Native lets engineers build beyond iOS and Android, including for the web, Apple TV, Windows, and macOS. Drawing on James Ide’s “Team X Technology” talk, he argues that engineers can own a product feature across platforms, which can make teams easier to reorganize and help them retain developers.
Cross Platform & Beyond
Speaker
Nader Dabit, a React Native developer, consultant, and trainer, presents at a Callstack event on building across platforms with React Native and related toolkits.
Dabit surveys React Native Web, React Primitives, and Apple TV support. React Native Web shares React Native components with the web; his Create React Native Web App generator scaffolds web, iOS, and Android projects. React Primitives offers shared components for cross-platform UI libraries, while Apple TV can be launched from a React Native project by selecting a tvOS target in Xcode.
Weex uses Vue and targets iOS, Android, and web, but Dabit finds its setup confusing, its documentation inconsistent, and its debugging and reload experience limited. He sees Flutter as a more polished option for teams focused on iOS and Android, with built-in Material and Cupertino widgets, hot reload, and extensive documentation. Flutter was still in alpha at the time, and required learning Dart and a different component and styling model.
Microsoft’s ReactXP supports iOS, Android, web, and Windows, and the new Skype mobile app uses it. Its API resembles React Native, but it uses its own styling methods and encourages TypeScript. Dabit says moving from React Native felt easy and sees ReactXP as a potential future option, while recommending that developers stay open to learning from other frameworks.
Takeaways
- Organize teams around product features that span platforms when that helps engineers share ownership and shift responsibilities.
- Use React Native Web to reuse React Native building blocks across web, iOS, and Android, with a generator to speed up setup.
- Consider React Primitives when building UI components intended to work across multiple platforms.
- Assess cross-platform frameworks against project needs: Weex had setup and tooling friction, while Flutter offered a stronger mobile-focused experience at the cost of learning Dart.
- Keep an eye on alternatives such as ReactXP and Flutter so teams can make informed choices as platform needs change.
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What was claimed 19
- works atNader Dabit works at React Native Radiohost
“We also have a podcast called React Native Radio”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- featureReact Native: Targets Apple TV, web, Windows, and macOS in addition to iOS and Android
“Now we're able to target Apple TV, the web, Windows, macOS, and even more.”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- built
“It's backed by Microsoft and built by Skype.”
4:42inCross-Platform Development With ReactXPYouTube Verified2 sources· Talk
- featureReact XP: Targets web and Windows out of the box
“It lets you target not only the web, but also Windows out of the box”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- uses
“Instead of React, it uses Vue.”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- built
“it's built by Alibaba”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- uses
“it's a Dart framework.”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- integrates withReact Native integrates with Apple TV support for React Native
“Apple TV ... is already built into every React Native project at this point.”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
