What is React Navigation library?

React Navigation manages app screens and provides navigation UI such as tabs, drawers, and stack transitions. Unlike React Router, which the speakers describe as providing logic, React Navigation includes both logic and UI, with patterns suited to iOS and Android.

The earlier choices were Navigator, a cross-platform JavaScript implementation, and NavigatorIOS, a native option limited to iOS. Satya says Navigator’s animations could not use the native driver and that it was difficult to customize. NavigationExperimental offered more flexible animation building blocks, but developers had to supply much of the navigation logic themselves.

Expo’s ExNavigation built on NavigationExperimental and added a friendlier API, along with stack, tab, and drawer patterns. Developers from Expo, Facebook, and the community later created React Navigation with a new API designed to be simpler while offering substantial functionality.

Satya credits tutorial-focused documentation with helping beginners learn how to use the library, rather than leaving them with only an API reference. He also says the JavaScript implementation let maintainers add features and fix bugs quickly. An audience member recommends its component-based syntax and built-in navigators to people new to React Native.