Why Should You Choose React Native For Chat App Development?

Choose React Native for your chat app development to easily build cross-platform apps with a single codebase, ensuring efficiency and rapid deployment while delivering a native-like user experience.

React Native lets you build your apps quickly, enhance the overall app performance and enable communication between JavaScript code and native code. Is this all about this amazing framework?

No, there’s interestingly many more benefits of React Native, particularly when building a chat app! 

In this article I’ll take you through the most important reasons why messaging giants like Facebook and Whatsapp built their apps with React native. Also, I’ll show the impact that this framework has made on some of the best chat apps we use in our day-to-day life. 

Without any further ado, let’s get started!

What Is React Native?

React Native is a framework that enables developers to create robust mobile apps with interactive user interfaces on Android & iOS using Javascript library.

Benefits Of Using React Native For Chat App Development 

React Native is a popular framework among developers for creating cross-platform apps using the JavaScript & React libraries.

Here are some of the benefits you’ll achieve by using React native for building your chat apps.

1. Shorter Development Time

React Native lets you develop your apps faster than many other programming languages. You’ll just need to write your code once and can run it on multiple platforms like Android & iOS. This reduces your time and effort required to develop and maintain separate codebases for each platform.

2. Reusable Components

React Native promotes the use of reusable components which means you can easily maintain and update the codes. This drastically speeds up development while driving huge user engagement on your app.

3. Native-Like Performance

React Native allows developers to build apps that can perform like a native app by using native components. Also, it lets you provide a smooth user experience by optimizing performance-critical parts of the app.

4. Modular Architecture

The modular architecture of React Native makes it easy to understand, scale, and maintain your codebase. In fact, you can break down the app into smaller, manageable components, making it more flexible and maintainable.

5. Large Developer Community

A vast and active community of developers use React native to build chat apps. This means you can easily connect with the developers to find solutions to common problems, access a rich source of third-party libraries, and get up-to-date market information.

 

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6. Cost-Effective

Building a chat app with React Native can be cost-effective since it allows for the development of a single codebase that runs on multiple platforms. This reduces the resources needed for platform-specific development.

7. Real-Time Reloading

React Native’s hot-reloading feature lets you see the results of your code changes in real-time, without the need to rebuild the entire app again. This significantly speeds up the development of your chat app and the entire debugging process.

8. Update Your Apps Faster

With React Native, updating an app becomes faster and more straightforward. You can make changes on the server side, and your users will receive updates without having to go through the app store approval process.

9. Flexibility

React Native offers flexibility in terms of integrating native modules, which allows you to use native functionalities whenever necessary. This is especially beneficial when you incorporate platform-specific features into your chat system.

10. Cross-Platform Development

React Native supports cross-platform development which lets you use a single codebase to deploy apps on both iOS and Android. This not only saves your development time but also ensures consistent behavior across different platforms.

11. Developer Productivity

You will find the development process more streamlined with React Native, and you can make use of your existing knowledge in JavaScript and React. This  makes it easy for you to learn about React Native quickly and easily when compared to other technologies.

12. Strong Developer Tools

React Native comes with a set of powerful developer tools, including debugging tools and integrated development environments (IDEs). This lets you deliver a smooth development experience to your users.

13. Support for Third-Party Plugins

React Native has extensive support for third-party plugins which lets you easily integrate desired features, functionalities and services into your chat apps from other popular brands.

Overall, React Native provides a compelling set of advantages for chat app development, ranging from faster development times to cost-effectiveness and the ability to deliver a native-like user experience across multiple platforms. You can confidently make use of this framework to build messaging features into your app.

15 Popular Apps Built On React Native

Several popular apps have benefited from using React native. In this section, I’ll take you through 15 best apps that belong to versatile industries and use cases, and how React Native has impacted their performances in different ways. 

1. Facebook

This social media giant utilizes React Native in its mobile app, ensuring a seamless experience for billions of users globally. 

Released	February 2004
Features	Messaging, video calls, project timeline updates, and more.
Industry	Social Media
Use Case	Personal and business networking, content sharing.
No. of Users	Over 2.8 billion monthly active users (as of Q3 2021)

Why Does Facebook Use React Native?

React Native’s cross-platform capabilities allow Facebook to maintain a consistent look and feel across both iOS and Android devices.

2. WhatsApp

With its massive user base, Whatsapp employs React Native to deliver a reliable and efficient messaging platform for users around the globe. 

Released	January 2009
Features	Messaging, video calls, timeline updates, and more.
Industry	Social Media
Use Case	Personal and business networking, content sharing.
No. of Users	Over 2.8 billion monthly active users (as of Q3 2021)

Why Does Whatsapp Use React Native?

The framework’s ability to streamline development across platforms enables Whatsapp to provide a consistent messaging experience on both major mobile operating systems.

3. Instagram

As a subsidiary of Facebook, Instagram uses React Native to create a visually stunning and user-friendly platform. 

Released	October 2010
Features	Direct messaging, Stories, comments
Industry	Social Media/Visual Content
Use Case	Photo and video sharing, social networking
No. of Users	Over 1 billion monthly active users (as of June 2018)

Why Does Instagram Use React Native?

React Native’s performance optimization contributes to the smooth browsing of images and videos on the app.

4. Uber Eats

React Native powers the mobile app for Uber Eats, making it easy for users to order food from their favorite restaurants.

Released	August 2014
Features	Order tracking, customer support chat
Industry	Food Delivery
Use Case	Food ordering and delivery

Why Does Uber Eats Use React Native?

The framework’s cross-platform functionality ensures a consistent and responsive interface, allowing users to browse menus and track their deliveries easily.

5. Pinterest

The visual discovery and bookmarking tool, Pinterest, utilizes React Native to offer an interactive experience across iOS and Android.

Released	March 2010
Features	Image sharing, comments
Industry	Social Media/Visual Discovery
Use Case	Inspiration, project planning
No. of Users	Over 400 million monthly active users (as of September 2020)

Why Does Pinterest Use React Native?

React Native’s ability to handle dynamic content and images contributes to the fluidity of browsing and saving ideas on the platform.

6. Walmart

Walmart uses React Native to enhance the shopping experience of users on its mobile app. 

Released	2012
Features	Artwork sharing, gallery communication
Industry	Art/Marketplace
Use Case	Art discovery, buying, and selling

Why Does Walmart Use React Native?

The framework’s efficiency in handling large-scale apps ensures that users can browse products, make purchases, and manage their orders with ease.

7. Artsy

React Native powers the mobile app for Artsy, an online platform connecting art enthusiasts with galleries and artists.

Released	September 2012
Features	Shopping-related notifications
Industry	Retail
Use Case	Online and in-store shopping

Why Does Artsy Use React Native?

The framework’s flexibility allows Artsy to showcase a diverse range of artworks seamlessly across different devices.

8. Myntra

The popular fashion e-commerce platform, Myntra, utilizes React Native to deliver a visually appealing and user-friendly shopping experience.

Released	2007
Features	Order tracking, customer support chat
Industry	E-commerce/Fashion
Use Case	Online fashion shopping

Why Does Myntra Use React Native?

React Native’s cross-platform capabilities ensure that users can explore and purchase the latest fashion trends effortlessly.

9. Airbnb

React Native plays a key role in the development of Airbnb’s mobile app, offering a consistent and responsive interface for both hosts and guests. 

Released	August 2008
Features	Messaging, booking updates
Industry	Travel/Hospitality
Use Case	Vacation rentals, travel planning
No. of Users	Over 150 million users (as of 2020)

Why Does Airbnb Use React Native?

The framework’s ability to handle complex UI components contributes to the app’s intuitive design.

10. Bloomberg

The finance and news app Bloomberg relies on React Native to provide users with real-time market data and news updates.

Released	1981
Features	News alerts, portfolio tracking
Industry	Finance/News
Use Case	Financial news, market analysis

Why Does Bloomberg Use React Native?

React Native’s efficiency in handling data-driven applications contributes to the app’s responsiveness and reliability.

Build A Chat App With MirrorFly React Native SDK

1. Write code from scratch, yourself. 
2. Integrate a pre-built chat SDK 

I’ll recommend the second option. Writing every piece of code by yourself is a tiresome task. It takes a lot of time and effort, and the after-launch maintenance brings in its own complexities. This is where MirrorFly chat SDK comes for the save. 

You can simply create an account with MirrorFly, download the SDK and integrate into your chat project in just a matter of 10 minutes!

Yes, it is possible to get your app up and running faster than you think. You also get to add more than 150+ features along with performance factors like 99.999% uptime SLA, <100ms uptime SLA and ultra-low latency. 

Interested? 

Here’s what you can do next.

• Explore MirrorFly React Native Chat SDK
• Contact the Tech Team
• Build your chat platform right away! 

Happy developing!  

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