There are plenty of reasons why companies migrate their native mobile apps to React Native. Some of them decide to switch to this cross-platform framework to solve critical pain points with their current technology, including growing technical debt that makes maintenance of existing codebases too difficult and costly. Others execute migration to achieve significant, long-term business benefits, such as faster time-to-market for new features, as developers can write code once and deploy it across multiple platforms.
Regardless of the reasons behind migrating from native technologies to React Native, companies often face similar, recurring challenges during this process. Understanding these common challenges and their solutions before the migration is critical, as by addressing them proactively, companies can ensure a quicker, more cost-effective, and smoother transition.
In this article, Itransition’s team of React Native developers highlights the common challenges of migrating native apps to React Native and offers recommendations to mitigate them.
Choosing the Right React Native Migration Approach
Migrating native mobile apps to React Native generally involves choosing between a Brownfield approach, which implies gradually embedding React Native components into an existing native app, and a Greenfield approach, which implies creating a new React Native app from scratch. As both approaches have their strengths and limitations, and neither can be considered ultimately “better” than the other, companies, especially those without prior experience in React Native migration, often face challenges in making the right choice.
Recommendations
To decide between Greenfield and Brownfield approaches, along with their overall project goals, companies should consider and carefully weigh multiple factors:
- Technical debt
It is critical that companies carefully assess the technical state of their existing applications and take it into account when making the decision. For instance, if existing apps have major architectural flaws or outdated codebases that are difficult to maintain, starting fresh with the Greenfield approach can be better. Vice versa, if apps are built on a well-structured architecture and have maintainable codebases, incrementally modernizing them with React Native components may be a more suitable option.
- Time and money constraints
As the Greenfield approach involves rebuilding all existing native features from the ground up, it generally requires a higher upfront investment of time and resources than the Brownfield approach. Therefore, for companies that cannot afford this upfront cost, Brownfield migration is generally considered a better fit.
- Team expertise
To rewrite the entire application at once, a company requires a highly experienced team that is proficient in both native (iOS/Android) and React Native technologies. So, if a company’s developers are new to React Native, an incremental Brownfield approach can be preferable.
Reorganizing Developer Teams Properly
Product-driven companies that develop native applications commonly have separate, dedicated teams for each platform (Android team, iOS team, etc.). When such a company decides to consolidate current native codebases into a unified React Native architecture, it can choose to align the organizational structure with this new architecture and transition from platform-specific, siloed teams to a unified React Native team. Failure to effectively reorganize teams can lead to reduced development productivity, increased time-to-market for new features, and other issues.
Recommendations
Building a structured change management strategy is crucial for successfully managing team reorganization during a migration from native to React Native. This strategy should define clear roles and responsibilities within the new unified team structure, while ensuring personal accountability for each developer. It should also include comprehensive training programs to equip native developers with the necessary React Native skills and ensure they are prepared for new technology.
Optimizing the App for Different Platforms
While React Native allows developers to use a single codebase across multiple platforms, achieving a truly high-level, native-like user experience and optimal performance often requires additional platform-specific optimizations. However, the process of optimizing React Native applications for all platforms can be challenging, as it necessitates a deep understanding of both underlying native environments and React Native optimization best practices. It can also be time-consuming, especially if multiple adjustments are required.
Recommendations:
One efficient way for companies to facilitate and accelerate the optimization process is to build a unified design system before this process starts. This visual design guide can provide a React Native team with universal rules for information architecture and spacing and specify which UI components (e.g., layouts, forms, buttons, navigation menus) team members should use and how. This way, a company can guarantee that the application consistently looks and feels across all platforms, which is vital for providing a smooth user experience.
Moreover, a unified design system can encompass a library of ready-to-use UI components already pre-optimized for different platforms. By incorporating and reusing these pre-built elements from a centralized library, React Native teams can achieve a more responsive user experience without needing to create components from scratch and optimize them manually, which can lead to significant time and cost savings. At the same time, it’s important to ensure secure data handling across components, especially in distributed environments where visibility and control are key to reducing risk.
Final ThoughtsÂ
Most companies migrating from native technologies like iOS and Android or other technologies to React Native encounter similar challenges. The need to define the right migration approach, restructure existing teams, and optimize cross-platform apps are a few examples of the common challenges they encounter. But companies can use diverse measures to mitigate them, some of which are listed in this article.
If you recognize that your company lacks the in-house expertise to manage a React Native migration successfully, consider engaging professional React Native developers who are aware of the common pitfalls and challenges of this process. They can convert your app to a cross-platform solution, either by gradually integrating React Native components into it or by fully rewriting the existing codebase, to help you provide a native-like experience to users across all platforms.
