Ram says there is no single release date for the new architecture. Facebook was initially aiming for 2020, but COVID affected productivity, and 2021 was only a possibility. Internally, Fabric and TurboModules were being tested, with early rollout underway; stability and avoiding crashes were priorities.
New Architecture of React Native
Speakers
Callstack hosts a React Native EU 2020 Q&A panel with React Native team member Ram, Monica, and other panelists discussing React Native’s new architecture and its rollout.
Ram says Fabric and TurboModules are in the open source repository, but the build scripts depend on Facebook’s Buck system. An iOS community contribution had wired the systems into Xcode, while Android still needed Gradle work. Codegen could be tried, but Ram did not recommend it for production because it was not officially supported.
Ram points to React Native’s Discussions and Proposals repository, where people can submit proposals, critique them, and share implementation updates. Monica recommends the React Native and React Native Community repositories, particularly the community releases section, along with changelogs and release notes.
The host favors TurboModules for type safety between native code and JavaScript, lower call overhead, and faster app startup. Ram highlights JSI as the foundation for the architecture and a way to expose native APIs to JavaScript. Other panelists favor Fabric for synchronous UI work, smoother interactions with image-heavy collections, and better support for third-party platforms.
Takeaways
- Treat the architecture rollout as gradual; plan for incremental adoption rather than a single switch date.
- Test experimental architecture components outside production until they are officially supported.
- Follow the Discussions and Proposals repository and community release updates for implementation progress.
- TurboModules may help apps with many native integrations through type safety and lower call overhead.
- Fabric’s shared cross-platform core may make custom platform maintenance easier.
Mentioned in this talk
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What was claimed 11
- integrates withJSI integrates with
Hermes Agent“makes Hermes integration very easy”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- featureJSI: Provides a unified, lightweight, general-purpose API for JavaScript virtual machines
“a unified, lightweight, general-purpose API for any JavaScript virtual machine”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- featurecode generation: Synchronizes type definitions and method declarations between native and JavaScript
“synchronizing type definitions and method declarations between native and JavaScript”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- featureReact Native: TurboModules modernize native modules for better performance and synchronous access
“a new implementation of native modules for better performance and synchronous access”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- featureFabric: UI re-architecture designed to take advantage of the new architecture and concurrent React
“the UI re-architecture to take full advantage of these features and the concurrent React architecture”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- uses
“the Oculus companion app that I work on is starting to roll out TurboModules”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- uses
“Facebook internally uses Buck”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- featureDiscussions and Proposals: Public repository for submitting proposals, critique, discussion, and implementation
“anyone in the world can submit a proposal, critique it”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- featureTurboModules: Reduces overhead when JavaScript calls native methods and can speed application startup
“overhead reduction TurboModules introduce when calling methods from the JavaScript side”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- featureFabric: Enables synchronous UI work and supports cross-platform core development
“the ability to do synchronous UI work”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- featureReact Native: Fabric’s cross-platform core can benefit new platforms and make new methods possible
“with Fabric, most of the core is also cross-platform”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
