[bobbygoodlatte]

You might want to look into Exponent. They're a YC startup that build a framework on top of React Native. https://getexponent.com/

The team is made up of a few React core devs and some ex-FB folks. They actually helped organize the last official React conf. The scope of what can be built using Exponent is expanding rapidly. And you can build apps that are virtually indistinguishable from Swift/Java apps.

If you want an example, I'd encourage you to download the Android version of this app: https://li.st/

[FlyingSnake]

> you can build apps that are virtually indistinguishable from Swift/Java apps

That is a very tall claim to make without any citations. All the cross-platform toolkits lag behind native swift/java apps by at least some margin, and the claim that JS indistinguishable from swift/Java is highly questionable.

[hobofan]

How would you distinguish between the two if both are running above 60fps, which RN effortlessly can?

[FlyingSnake]

> which RN effortlessly can*

I respect RN and the engineering behind it, however how can it beat the raw, on-metal performance of Swift/Java? I'm not talking about CRUD/TODO list apps like https://li.st, but performance critical apps like Spotify etc. Facebooks own apps are written in native code, IIRC.

I would love to be proven wrong here, and it would be great if you can provide some sources.

[jamesisaac]

React Native is primarily aimed at writing cross-platform UI code. When it comes to performance critical code, or integrating heavily with native UIs (eg the media streaming abilities of Spotify) it's perfectly fine to drop down to native code. RN provides an easy way to bridge between the JS and these native components.

[Mayzie]

> Facebooks own apps are written in native code, IIRC.

They are written in React Native. See: https://facebook.github.io/react-native/showcase.html