Significant Differences between Creating Android and iOS Apps with React Native!
By: Martha Jones
Tags: React Native Development, Android App Development, iOS App Development, React Native Developers

The number of iOS and Android apps being developed and downloaded is exponentially rising every year and there is no sign of its slowdown. So, countless businesses have started developing outstanding apps to serve users and gain enormous profits. If you too want to build an iOS and an Android app for your project and bring them to the market faster while being cost-efficient, React Native App development is the best approach. It offers multiple benefits like the below:

· Cross-platform functionality

· Speedier development

· Time efficiency due to code reusability

· Faster time-to-market

· Performance similar to Native apps

However, there are some noteworthy differences in the development, features, testing, release process, etc. of both platforms. In this article, we have outlined those differences which will be quite helpful to the React Native developers. So, let’s analyze them.

Differences between Android and iOS that are observed while developing the React Native apps:

Tools Required for Development and Testing

Android:

For creating Android applications using React Native, the toolset that is required includes- Android Studio, Java Development Kit (JDK), Android SDK, and related configuration. Also, Android applications can only be tested using this official tool- Android Studio. Though there are some more tools available, they aren’t official and are limited in numbers.

iOS:

For creating iOS apps using React Native, Xcode is required. Xcode installs the essential tools and the iOS simulator and thus helps in iOS app development. Additionally, MacOS is also required to work with Xcode.

When it comes to testing the iOS apps, you won’t find any official operating tool. Some other tools are available, however, since they aren’t developed or approved by Apple, they aren’t considered much reliable.

Native Components or Elements

React Native developers will experience that several components or elements will appear differently on iOS and Android for the same app. This is so because the React Native framework translates the components into the respective native component for any specific platform. As a result, these cross-platform differences will always persist. To consider an example, there is a date picker component. This component appears differently in an iOS simulator and an Android emulator.

Platform-specific Style Elements

The React Native framework supports styling depending on the particular platform, so the styles that are employed in Android and iOS apps look different in both. For instance, let us consider the shadows feature. This feature will be visible in iOS apps but in Android, it won’t be visible, as Android doesn’t support this shadow element in React Native. Here, the developers will need to use the elevation property.

Linking Third-party Libraries

If you want to integrate React Native third-party libraries in your Android or iOS app, there are some differences between both these platforms that need to be considered. Though auto-linking can be used for adding native dependencies to most of the projects, but at times, manual intervention is required for linking these libraries. For doing this, the React Native developers need to have good knowledge of coding with Java and Objective-C. Usually, these libraries have strong documentation, but in some cases, there is no proper documentation available, causing issues while app development.

Differences in OS Designs

React Native may be used for faster and easier development of cross-platform applications, but, it does not allow complete code reuse in Android and iOS apps. Variations in the design structure of Android and iOS systems are somewhat responsible for this. For instance, iOS apps are very minimalistic, on the other hand, Android apps have extravagant design patterns. So, the React Native developers must be aware of this and they should ensure that the apps are well-designed to suit the respective operating systems they are developed in.

Release Process

Android: The Android apps have to be released on Google Play and the release process for Android apps is pretty straightforward and easier.

iOS: If compared with Android, the release process for iOS apps is quite stringent. Security is of the utmost importance when it comes to iOS. Hence, App store guidelines are stricter and their review process is critical. So, before releasing the app, test the apps thoroughly to meet all the guidelines for the App Store, and get it approved.

Wrap-up:

We have seen the major variations in the Android app development and iOS app development process using React Native. Most of these differences are related to app appearance, tooling, styling, etc. Knowledge of these variations is a plus for a React Native developer. So the inference we can draw from the above information is that only about 10 to 15% of the code needs to be written separately for both the platforms, the rest of the features can be handled using a single codebase.

If you are looking for the creation of top-grade React Native apps in Android and iOS, get in touch with Biz4Solutions. We are a promising React Native app development company and have a track record of developing modern-day applications for diverse business domains. We have 9+ years of experience in serving global clients and helping them achieve their goals through our React Native development services. Reach out to us at sales.enquiry@biz4solutions.com.

To know more about our other core technologies, refer to links below:

Angular App Development Company

Ionic App Development Company