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If you want to avoid having to undertake separate native Android development and native iOS development projects, then you can develop a React Native app. React Native is a popular framework for developing cross-platform mobile apps.
Meta, formerly Facebook, launched React Native in 2015. The popularity of this open-source JavaScript framework is really down to its many advantages.
Traditional native app development creates software products that offer a great user experience, high performance, and good security, provided, of course, that you have competent developers. When developing these kinds of applications, you will need to undertake two distinctly different mobile app development projects.
Native development results in two different code bases for each of the operating systems that you are developing, i.e. Android and iOS. Unfortunately, this kind of development is costly and often requires higher maintenance costs as you are essentially developing two separate apps.
Companies found a solution to this in hybrid apps. These apps support multiple platforms but with only one code base. However, in the early days, many hybrid development frameworks left big gaps between hybrid and native applications.
For example, native Android and iOS apps previously offered a significantly better user experience, performance, and security than hybrid apps.
React Native changed this considerably. For one thing, the apps that it created came much closer in terms of the native user experience and performance.
The reusability of native components that compile directly to native platforms is a key advantage of React Native app development. The “live reload” capability of React Native expedites your mobile application development project, saving you both time and money.
There is a large and vibrant community of React Native app developers. You get good community support, furthermore, there are lots and lots of third-party plugins.
Many organizations use React Native to develop mobile applications, therefore, React Native application developers are in demand. You will likely find it hard to find good ones.
Hiring from freelance platforms can be risky. The good news is that you can expedite the hiring process by hiring React Native developers from a software development company like DevTeam.Space. More on this later.
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You need to nail your skill requirements before you hire React Native developer professionals. Since these will be unique to your individual project, we have compiled a general list of requirements to give you an example.
The skill requirements are as follows:
Primary React Native framework skills
React Native app developers need the following skills:
- In-depth knowledge of the React Native framework;
- Proficiency in JavaScript;
- Good understanding of TypeScript;
- Knowledge of programming languages like Java, Kotlin, and Swift;
- Sound knowledge of jQuery, a powerful JavaScript library;
- Experience in developing native modules for iOS and Android apps;
- In-depth understanding of React JS;
- Proficiency with React components and React modules;
- Familiarity with React Native application debugger;
- Knowledge of different third-party libraries;
- Sufficient knowledge of IDEs (integrated development environments) like Android Studio and Xcode;
- Deep knowledge of SQL vs NoSQL databases;
- Experience in MySQL, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, or other popular open-source databases;
- Good understanding of Unit testing, integration testing, regression testing, etc.
- Familiarity with DevOps processes, methods, tools, and practices.
Other software development skills
Experienced React Native programmers must also have the following additional skills:
A. Application security skills
Cyber-criminals routinely target web, cross-platform, iOS, and Android apps. You need to factor in data security and privacy when planning and executing your React Native project. Hire developers who know about application security.
Look for in-depth knowledge in the following areas:
- Key application security vulnerabilities and their mitigation measures;
- Data encryption for data-at-rest and data-in-transit;
- Tools and techniques like digital signature, antivirus, and firewalls;
- Securing APIs;
- Supporting the security and compliance testing efforts;
- Utilizing cloud computing smartly.
You need developers that proactively identify and rectify bugs. Bugs in applications give that proverbial toe-hold to hackers. Cyber-criminals extensively target such loopholes in mobile and web apps, therefore, defect prevention is important.
B. Code review
Code review is important in all software development projects, including cross-platform mobile development, native iOS development, Android app development, and web development. Not all developers know enough about code review though. Hire React Native developers who know how to review code.
They should know about the important code review strategies. You need developers that take a structured and systematic approach to code review. Keep in mind that the price for failing to spot bad code can be double with a hybrid app as both applications might then be vulnerable.
C. Software engineering and software development methodologies skills
A React Native developer’s expertise should include software engineering. React Native app developers should have a thorough understanding of testing, DevOps, defect prevention, quality management, coding best practices, and other relevant skills.
React Native experts should understand the software development lifecycle. They should know about important methodologies like Agile and Waterfall. The Agile methodology is particularly relevant since many React Native projects utilize it.
D. Software architecture skills that React Native app developers need
Knowledge of software architecture makes a big difference in complex projects. The top React Native developers know how to analyze architectural factors to pick the best ones. Hire React Native developers who understand software architectural patterns well. For, they should understand important architectural patterns like microservice architecture, etc.
E. App testing skills
The right application testing skills will help your React Native developers ensure the reliability and quality of your applications including writing test cases for unit testing, integration testing, performance testing, etc. Moreover, your app developers should have excellent skills in error and exception handling.
F. DevOps skills
Your React Native developers will benefit enormously if they have a good understanding of current DevOps (Development and Operations) practices, including how you go about undertaking continuous integration and continuous deployment to automatically build, test, and deploy changes to your React Native app code as well as automating the deployment of applications to various environments, like development, production, etc.
Developers should also be familiar with version control, infrastructure-as-a-code, environment configurations during the build and deployment stages, etc.
G. Soft skills that your expert React Native developers need
Hire React Native developers who have the following competencies. We often call these competencies “soft skills”.
- Communication skills:
Communication is important in any project. You need developers with good communication skills. This is especially important if you hire remote React Native developers as you can’t deal with them face-to-face in an office environment. - Commitment:
Like any other project, React Native projects face uncertainties. It would be best if you had developers who strive to meet the project’s schedule, cost, and quality objectives despite any uncertainties. This is one area where freelancers really fail as they have multiple projects that they are committed to at any one given time. - Empathy:
You might create an elegant user interface. However, it will deliver value only if it meets users’ needs. You need developers with a special sense of what works with users and so can provide better input as to how the final product must look and feel to achieve this.
How to find the best React Native developers?
Having obtained an understanding of your specific skill requirements from analyzing your project requirements, you can start the hiring process. Take the following steps:
1. Decide the kind of platform to hire a React Native app developer
The mobile app market is highly competitive. There are many, many apps on Google Play and Apple App Store. As a result, you need to offer tangible value to attract and retain users. You don’t get much of a trial period here since users have limited patience and will likely just delete your app if they are not immediately impressed.
Hiring the right developers improves your chances of launching a great app that users will love. On the other hand, having a below-par team can result in a failed project.
You have the following options to find and hire React Native app developers:
Freelance platforms
Your choice of hiring platform greatly influences your chances of hiring the right people. You might find it tempting to hire developers from freelance platforms as you can find freelancers at a low hourly rate.
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We urge you to exercise caution if you are considering this option. You might be able to execute very simple projects with freelancers, however, hiring freelancers is very risky for complex projects.
Freelancers work part-time on your project. Managing the work of part-timers can be hard. You will find it harder still if you hire remote React Native developers who are freelancers.
Freelancers might even leave your project mid-way. Added to this, freelance platforms don’t offer any project management support or comebacks for freelancers who leave with no notice. You will need to find replacement developers in such a case. Why take such a big risk?
Software Development Companies
We recommend you hire dedicated React Native developers from trustworthy software development companies like DevTeam.Space who allow companies to outsource their full-time developers. Our dedicated developers possess the right skills, furthermore, they are experienced and highly motivated.
DevTeam.Space also provides project management support via our account managers who work with your project manager to provide oversight of the work undertaken by our dedicated React Native developers.
We treat your data with the utmost sensitivity. Our management processes ensure that you get the required project status updates daily. That way you know exactly where your project is at all times.
Note: We also have considerable experience in providing React Native migration services. Our dedicated account manager will give you an estimate for app migration services for an existing app should you require them. Get in touch if you need this service.
2. Interview the shortlisted candidates
You have chosen a hiring platform and posted your job requirements. After you receive applications, you can start interviewing the applicants.
You can ask a friend or colleague to help with the interviews if you don’t know React Native but we cannot emphasize more strongly the need of having a React Native specialist who can really grill your candidates to find out their true abilities. Reach out to us if you need help.
Cover all the essential areas of knowledge that are relevant to your project requirements during the technical interview. Go beyond theoretical questions. Ask questions that help you to assess the hands-on skills of the candidates.
Explain your project requirements. Ask how the developer will approach them. Check how the candidate solved complex software development problems in their earlier projects. We advise you to get your expert to ask follow-up questions to really put your candidate through their paces. This will help you get the best developer.
Note: You won’t need to do much in the way of interviewing if you hire from a dedicated software development company like DevTeam.Space as we have already done the heavy lifting for you.
All of our developers are fully vetted, work with us full time, and are performance monitored and managed by our account managers on an ongoing basis. This ensures that you get to sleep well at night knowing your development won’t encounter any nasty surprises.
3. Provide detailed information about your application development project
Now you have finally interviewed and selected your developers, you need to onboard them effectively to your project. Provide all the required information about your project to your new developers.
Explain your project requirements in detail and share the required documents.
You need to ensure that your new developers have access to the project’s technical environment. Provide access to the coding repositories and the other relevant tools.
Introduce the new developers to your existing team. Explain their roles and responsibilities. Describe the project plan and explain the milestones including the next sprint. Implement a system to submit tasks and measure project progress. We strongly recommend that you performance monitor your developer too.
Set up a communication process with the new team members. Establish accountability.
Interviewing tips to hire React Native developers
Review the following tips when hiring React Native developers:
A. Pay attention to non-functional requirements (NFRs)
React Native offers performance, scalability, and maintainability. However, you need developers who know how to use React Native in the best way for your project. Look for developers that met NFRs like scalability, performance, maintainability, testability, etc. in their previous React Native projects.
B. Hire a competent lead if you hire remote developers
Engaging a skilled team leader to manage your remote team will make a big difference. Experienced remote team leaders help considerably when it comes to avoiding the roadblocks associated with remote development, i.e. poor time overlap management, disappearing freelance developers, etc.
Look for an experienced remote team leader when you hire remote software engineers.
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C. Hire a cohesive team instead of multiple developers from different platforms
You might need multiple React Native developers. To ensure you get the best ones, you might plan to hire them from different platforms. However, different developers hired from different platforms will work in siloes. You will likely incur considerable management overhead to continually integrate their work.
We recommend you hire a cohesive team from a software development company like DevTeam.Space instead. All of our teams work together on a full-time basis so are already a cohesive and efficient team.
Such a team will work together effectively and deliver your project successfully.
Examples of coding questions to ask during the interview when hiring React Native developers
Ask questions that go beyond theoretical knowledge and help you assess the relevant skills of developers. The following are a few examples:
A. Can you explain the difference between React and React Native, and how does React Native achieve cross-platform compatibility?
Answer:
React is a JavaScript library for building user interfaces, primarily for web applications. React Native, on the other hand, is a framework for building native mobile applications using JavaScript and React concepts.
The key difference is that React Native allows developers to create mobile apps that have a native look and feel across multiple platforms (iOS and Android) while sharing a significant portion of the codebase.
React Native achieves cross-platform compatibility by using a bridge that translates JavaScript code into native components and modules, which interact with the underlying platform’s APIs. This approach ensures a high degree of code reusability and maintains a consistent user experience across different devices.
B. Explain the concept of “props” and “state” in React Native. When would you use one over the other, and how do they contribute to building reusable components?
Answer:
In React Native, “Props” (short for properties) and “State” are fundamental concepts for managing and passing data between components. “Props” are used to pass data from parent to child components, and they are read-only within the child component. They are suitable for passing static data or configurations.
A “State,” on the other hand, is a mutable object within a component that holds dynamic data that can change over time. It is used for managing a component’s internal state and rendering UI elements based on changes.
When building reusable components, it’s essential to use “Props” for inputs that are constant across instances of the component and a “State” for managing unique and dynamic behavior within a specific instance.
C: How would you optimize the performance of a React Native application, especially when dealing with a large and complex UI? Mention some techniques and tools you would use.
Answer:
Optimizing the performance of a React Native application is crucial for providing a smooth user experience. Some techniques and tools include:
- Component Lifecycle Methods: Properly using lifecycle methods like shouldComponentUpdate and componentDidUpdate to prevent unnecessary re-rendering of components and to handle updates efficiently.
- Virtualization: Leveraging FlatList and SectionList components to efficiently render large lists of data by rendering only the visible items on the screen, which reduces memory and processing overhead.
- Memoization: Using the React.memo higher-order components to memorize and cache the rendering of functional components, preventing redundant renders when props have not changed.
- Performance Profiling: Utilizing tools like the React DevTools and React Native Debugger to analyze component renders, identify performance bottlenecks, and optimize the rendering process.
- Code Splitting: Employing code splitting techniques to load only the necessary code and assets for the current screen, reducing the initial loading time.
- Minimizing UI Thread Blocking: Offloading heavy computations and operations to worker threads or native modules to avoid blocking the UI thread and maintain a responsive UI.
- Bundling and Compression: Using bundling tools like Metro to bundle and compress the JavaScript code and assets, reducing the overall app size and improving loading times.
These strategies, along with continuous testing and profiling, can help ensure that your React Native app performs well under various conditions and on different devices.
Submit a Project With Zero Risk
Despite being one of the most popular frameworks, React Native development is complex and requires good developers to get it right. Why take the risk of hiring anything but the best React Native experts?
DevTeam.Space is a community of experienced field expert software developers. All of our dedicated React Native developers have been vetted and trained in our unique Agile software development process.
We match only the most suitable developer or development team to your project specifications. If you would like to learn more, simply fill out our DevTeam.Space product specification form and one of our experienced account managers will get in touch to answer any questions you might have.
