Offline first applications in React Native done well

Thiery shows how repeated pop-ups, endless loading screens, and apps that forget user data make poor offline experiences. He recommends keeping familiar parts of the interface available, giving calm status messages, preserving critical data such as tickets, and offering retry when useful.

Trello lets users reopen previously loaded boards and cards, and mark checklist items complete while offline. This optimistic approach lets people keep working, but it depends on reliably saving and syncing their changes.

Thiery uses his sample app InstaMeow to show how React Native Offline can expose connection status and adapt the interface. He stores selected cat images in Redux before attempting uploads, and uses Redux Persist to restore state after an app closes or crashes.

For uploads, Thiery keeps pending images locally, moves successful uploads into the feed, and puts failed ones in a retryable state. React Native Offline can queue actions until connectivity returns and cancel queued uploads; he also recommends checking access to the app's server, not just general internet access.

Thiery says background and post-closure action queues remain a gap for React Native offline apps, and notes that Redux Offline was not production-ready at the time. His guidance is to keep the UI responsive, be cautious with requests, save app state often, and prioritize the device over connectivity.