React Native is a framework for building native mobile applications using React, enabling developers to write code once and deploy it across iOS and Android platforms. The framework brings React's declarative UI paradigm to native mobile development, allowing developers to use native UI controls while maintaining the ability to reuse code across different platforms. The project is written primarily in C++ and is distributed under the MIT license.
The core philosophy of React Native centers on declarative component-based architecture, where developers build encapsulated components that manage their own state and compose them into complex user interfaces. This approach prioritizes developer velocity by enabling live reloading of JavaScript code changes without requiring full native app rebuilds, allowing developers to see modifications in seconds. The framework provides full access to native platform capabilities while abstracting away platform-specific complexity through a unified API.
React Native targets iOS 15.1 and Android 7.0 (API 24) or newer, supporting development on Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems, though iOS app building and running is limited to macOS. The framework includes comprehensive documentation covering components, APIs, and React Native-specific topics, with additional React API documentation available through the main React documentation.
The repository demonstrates significant community engagement and active maintenance.
The framework emphasizes community contribution through a formal contributing guide, code of conduct, open source roadmap, and a curated list of good first issues designed to help new contributors gain experience with the development process. Larger discussions and proposals are managed through the dedicated @react-native-community/discussions-and-proposals repository, maintaining organized governance of feature requests and architectural decisions.
