The usage of mobile applications is continuously growing with time. According to a report, mobile apps are expected to generate $935 billion in revenue by the end of 2023. Hence, it is the right time for businesses to enter the world of mobile app development.
Now, for building mobile applications, the two major operating systems used are Android and iOS. Among these two platforms, Android is by far the most popular operating system worldwide with over 2.5 billion active users.
In addition to an operating system, a framework is also required to build a mobile app. There are many frameworks in the market that are used by developers globally such as React Native, Flutter, Xamarin, Ionic, and so on. But here we will specifically focus on React Native and explain how the framework helps in leveraging its resources and features to build an Android app exclusively.
So, let’s get started with this blog!
What Is React Native?
React Native is a modern JavaScript-based framework that is used for mobile app development. It has been used across a wide range of industries and adopted by a number of famous brands such as Uber, Microsoft, and Facebook.
You must be wondering what are the reasons behind React Native’s massive success. So, let’s have a look at some of the prominent features of this framework that have made it popular.
- It uses the same codebase to build mobile applications for different operating systems such as Android and iOS.
- It is an open-source platform with large community support from developers. Here mobile app developers are free to contribute their knowledge to the framework’s development, which is freely available for all.
- Another advantage of React Native is that it is cost-effective. As it uses the same codebase, there is no need to hire two separate developer teams for Android and iOS projects respectively.
Reasons to choose Android Application Development over iOS
- Android app developmentprovides high ROI (Return on Investment) because their apps are less expensive. Although, some are free to download and are easily available on the Google Play Store.
- A developer must use a mac to build an iOS application. But this is not the case with Android applications as they can be easily built on Windows, Linux, and mac as well.
- Android applications will get approved and deployed on Google Play Store within a day. While on the Apple app store, it takes half a month.
- Since Android is an open-source platform, it provides a wide range of customization features that can be used to enhance the interactivity of the app.
- The scalability and flexibility of this operating system increased after the introduction of Android Studio. It allows integration of your app with the entire ecosystem of Android which includes tablets, smartphones, wearables, and Android TV.
What Are The Advantages of Using React Native For Android App Development
1. Enhanced Performance
React Native apps perform exactly the same as native apps that were built for the specific platform. It also provides great performance because it is optimized for mobile devices. Moreover, it takes the advantage of the Graphic processing unit instead of the central processing unit. This makes theReact Native development process even faster.
2. Improved Flexibility
The type of interface used in React Native helps to improve the flexibility of the developers to a great extent. This makes it very easier for them to update and upgrade the mobile application.
3. Transferable
If in case you already own a mobile app and now you want to export it to React Native. So it can simply be done by moving it into Android Studio or Xcode. This is one of the huge benefits of using React Native for mobile app development services and adds an advantage to its flexibility.
4. Continuously Growing
React Native was launched by Facebook. Since its launch, the developers at Facebook are continuously working to improvise this framework. You will definitely get to see more new updates in this framework in the near future that will streamline the app development process.
5. “Hot-Reload” Feature
However, React Native offers many features but this “hot-reload” feature has got a bit more appreciation from all the developers out there. It allows them to view the changes they have made to the code immediately. This is a great advantage that provides real-time feedback to them.
Process of Building an Android App By Using React Native
To get started with the step-by-step process of building an Android application, you need to set up the environment and dependencies required for running React Native.
Step 1 – The first step in this process is to install npm and node. Here we have installed a version manager nvm (setup both node and npm).
sudo apt install curl
curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.35.3/install.sh | bash
source ~/.bashrc
nvm install vxx.x.x
Step 2 – Install Java SDK (Software Development Kit) 8.
sudo apt-get openjdk-8-jdk
Step 3- Install React Native cli.
npm i -g react-native-cli
Step 4– Download the Android SDK tools.
You can download the latest version of SDK tools from their official website i.e. Android Studio.
- Here you first have to extract the downloaded file.
- It will have a folder named cmdline-tools.
- Now you need to copy the content inside the cmdline-tools folder to /opt/android by
*sudo cp -r *.* bin lib /opt/android/cmdline-tools/latest
- In this step, you need to update the .bashrc in your home folder for setting the path.
Android studio cmd-line path
export ANDROID_HOME=/opt/android
export PATH=$PATH:$ANDROID_HOME/emulator
export PATH=$PATH:$ANDROID_HOME/cmdline-tools/latest
export PATH=$PATH:$ANDROID_HOME/cmdline-tools/latest/bin
export PATH=$PATH:$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools
- After this update, run the source -/.bashrc to reflect the changes you have made.
- To initiate it, run the SDK manager in the terminal.
- Now install the below dependencies for the React Native environment. (versions are subject to change)
sudo sdkmanager “platform-tools” “platforms;android-29” “tools” “patcher;v4” “build-tools;29.0.2”
- If this SDK manager does show the command. You can directly access the SDK manager by the below path.
sudo /opt/android/cmdline-tools/latest/bin/sdkmanager
- Finally, you can list the installed dependencies by the SDK manager list.
Step 5- Now, connect a physical Android device and enable USB debugging.
In settings > About phone then continuously tap the build number.
Go to settings> developer options then enable USB debugging.
Also, you can check the device connectivity by adb devices.
Step 6- Build a React Native app
react-native init projectname
cd projectname
react-native start
Step 7– In order to run the app on an Android device.
react-native run-android
If everything goes well, you will be able to deploy an Android app.
Latest Version of Android Studio
Android Studio is the official IDE used forAndroid app development. Its latest version is Android Studio Dolphin 2021.3.1
Following the new features in this version.
- It has an animation preview option that can be used to inspect and coordinate all the animations at once. Also, it allows you to freeze a specific animation.
- This version now allows the developers to define an annotation class that includes multiple Preview definitions. They can use that new annotation to generate those previews at once.
- It allows the creation of multiple tabs within Logcat so that you can easily switch between different devices or queries. Additionally, Logcat also allows you to switch between different view modes such as standard, compact, and custom.
Conclusion
As a whole, React Native is a great solution for building Android apps that will run smoothly and seamlessly on different devices. Although, any technology whether it is React Native or any other is obsolete if it will not get deployed effectively. This efficiency and effectiveness can only be expected by experienced tech-savvy professionalswith the right skill set.
So here you need a reliable React Native development company to help you build the best mobile app according to your requirements. So, what are you waiting for? Collaborate with a prominent development company and start your app development journey now!
