Rocket Ship

In this episode, Jon Samp, head of product at Expo, shares his background in herpetology research and how he transitioned into programming. He discusses his experience developing the Codecademy app with Expo and the challenges he faced. John also talks about his other apps, including the Single Origin coffee timer and WordCheck for Scrabble. He emphasizes the ease of creating hobby apps with React Native and the importance of using native elements for good design. The conversation concludes with a discussion on EAS and how teams can work better together. Jon highlights the improvements being made to the onboarding experience and the Expo dashboard, and the focus on workflow improvements and release management. He also shares future plans for EAS, including enhancing team coordination and communication and improving device management and notifications.

Learn React Native - https://galaxies.dev

Jon Samp

• Jon Twitter: https://twitter.com/jonsamp
• Jon Website: https://jonsamp.dev

Links

• Expo EAS: https://expo.dev/eas

Takeaways

• React Native and Expo make it easy to develop hobby apps without a large team or production process.
• Using native elements and animations in React Native apps can enhance the user experience and make the app feel more polished.
• EAS (Expo Application Services) simplifies the development and deployment process for React Native apps.
• EAS allows for side-loading apps on iOS and Android, making it easy to distribute apps for development purposes.
• The easiest way to distribute iOS apps is to use EAS device calling create, which generates a QR code that can be scanned to install a provisioning profile.
• EAS supports updates and over-the-air updates, allowing for easy distribution of app updates to users.
• EAS provides a faster and more convenient way to build and distribute private applications compared to using Xcode and Android Studio.
• Future plans for EAS include improving the onboarding experience, enhancing team coordination and communication, and adding features for release management and workflow improvements.

In this episode, Henry Moulton, principal engineer at Yonder, shares the story of building the award-winning mobile app Yonder. He talks about the challenges working with private Apple and Google APIs as well as the technology stack of their React Native app. Henry also recaps his App.js talk about Maestro from 2023 and how AI is enabling developers to build even better products today. Tune in to hear what it takes to build outstanding apps with React Native!

Learn React Native - https://galaxies.dev

Henry Moulton

• Henry Twitter: https://twitter.com/HenryMoulton
• Yonder: https://www.yonder.com/

Links

• Henrys App.js talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoCzBdFCoqc
• React Native Connection: https://reactnativeconnection.io/

Takeaways

• React Native is usually a better choice for B2C apps than frameworks like Ionic
• Expo EAS is a key component of shipping weekly app updates at Yonder
• Google and Apple have private APIs for working with payments and credit cards
• Maestro is the rising star of end-to-end testing in React Native
• AI is not taking developer jobs, but makes every person capable of producing more and better ouput

In this conversation, Simon and Kitze discuss various topics including Kitze's experience as a React Native developer, his encounter with Gary Vee, and his popular product Sizzy. The conversation revolves around the challenges of building customizable UI components in React Native and the lack of comprehensive libraries. Simon and Kitze discuss their frustrations with existing libraries and the need for better primitives and components. The conversation then shifts to the Benji app and the process of building a native app from scratch. In this conversation, Kitze and Simon discuss various topics related to app development, including the challenges of building a native app with React Native based on an existing Next.js project, the use of Tailwind CSS, and the performance issues on Android.

Learn React Native - https://galaxies.dev

Kitze

• Kitze Twitter: https://twitter.com/thekitze
• Kitze Website: https://www.kitze.io/

Links

• Sizzy: https://sizzy.co/
• Zero to shipped course: https://www.zerotoshipped.com/
• Benji: https://benji.so/
• Gluestack: https://gluestack.io/

Takeaways

• The choice of libraries in development can greatly impact productivity and the developer experience.
• The React Native ecosystem offers a variety of tools and libraries that can enhance the development process.
• The challenges of building and maintaining a successful product or project require dedication, focus, and continuous improvement.
• The lack of comprehensive UI component libraries in React Native can be frustrating and lead to the need for custom solutions.
• Having better primitives and components in React Native would make app development easier.
• Being open about not having all the answers shouldn't discourage people from teaching.
• Building a native app from scratch can be challenging, especially when transitioning from a web app.
• Finding the right tech stack and considering the need for a native app early on can save time and effort.
• Building a native app with React Native can be challenging, especially when trying to maintain consistency between the web and mobile versions.
• Tailwind CSS offers a wide range of components and resources, making it a popular choice for app development.
• Android performance can be a pain point in React Native development, requiring optimization and testing on Android devices.
• Integrating Apple Health data and implementing in-app purchases can be complex tasks that require careful consideration and planning.

In this conversation, Simon Grimm interviews Giovanni Laquidara, a developer advocate at Amazon, about TV app development with React Native. Giovanni shares his experience working with React Native at Amazon and explains how React Native can be used to develop TV apps. He also discusses the challenges and considerations when developing for TV, such as the 10-foot UI, navigation, and remote control interaction. Giovanni recommends using separate repositories for different TV platforms and emphasizes the importance of designing for readability and accessibility in TV apps. Building TV apps with React Native requires handling fragmentation, focus management, and performance considerations. Integration with TV remotes can be challenging due to different key mappings. Testing on various platforms is crucial. TV apps often focus on streaming media, but there are opportunities for educational, fitness, and gaming apps. The developer experience is improving, and AI services may be integrated into TV apps in the future.

Learn React Native - https://galaxies.dev

Giovanni Laquidara

• Giovanni LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/glaquidara/
• Giovanni Twitter: https://x.com/giolaq

Links

• Giovanni App.js talk: https://www.youtube.com/live/s0wn7qpBoB8?t=12161s
• Build Expo apps for TV: https://docs.expo.dev/guides/building-for-tv/
• React Native tvOS Github: https://github.com/react-native-tvos/react-native-tvos
• IgniteTV template: https://github.com/react-native-tvos/IgniteTV

Takeaways

• React Native can be used to develop TV apps for platforms like Android TV, Fire TV, and tvOS.
• Developing for TV requires considering the 10-foot UI, where users are typically three meters away from the screen.
• TV app navigation should be easy and seamless, with a focus on simplicity and avoiding complex interactions.
• Separate repositories are recommended for different TV platforms due to the fragmentation and differences in SDKs.
• Designing for readability and accessibility is crucial in TV app development. Building TV apps with React Native requires handling fragmentation, focus management, and performance considerations.
• Testing on various platforms is crucial for TV app development.
• TV apps often focus on streaming media, but there are opportunities for educational, fitness, and gaming apps.
• The developer experience for TV app development is improving.
• AI services may be integrated into TV apps in the future.
• Deployment to app stores follows similar processes as mobile apps.

Delphine Bugner, Mobile Tech Lead at BAM, discusses the inner workings of Yoga in React Native. Yoga is responsible for positioning components on the screen based on their dimensions and styling props. Delphine emphasizes the importance of understanding how things work under the hood and why they were designed that way. She shares her uncommon journey into becoming a React Native tech lead and her passion for exploring the technical aspects of technology. She also discusses the architecture of Yoga and how it works under the hood, including the translation of JSX into native views, the creation of shadow nodes and Yoga nodes, and the communication between JavaScript and native code. The conversation concludes with a discussion about the future of Yoga and its alignment with React on the web.

Learn React Native - https://galaxies.dev

Delphine Bugner

• Delphine Twitter: https://twitter.com/DelphineBugner
• Delphine Github: https://github.com/delphinebugner

Links

• Delphine "The Yoga Enigma" talk in Berlin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU3vK3IbprY
• Yoga: https://www.yogalayout.dev/

Takeaways

• Yoga is responsible for positioning components on the screen based on their dimensions and styling props in React Native.
• Understanding how things work under the hood and why they were designed that way is important for developers.
• Yoga was created as a replacement for CSS in React Native and provides a common platform-agnostic layouting solution.
• The architecture of Yoga involves the translation of JSX into native views, the creation of shadow nodes and Yoga nodes, and the communication between JavaScript and native code.
• The new architecture in React Native improves code maintenance and performance.
• View flattening is a concept in Yoga that minimizes unnecessary containers in the view hierarchy.
• Debugging Yoga can be done by using breakpoints in C++ to understand the algorithm and identify the source of bugs. The new architecture in React Native brings more conformity with the web and allows for features like suspense and transitions that were not possible before.
• Working with native modules in React Native is not as difficult as it may seem, and developers can use tools like Bob or Create React Native Library CLI to simplify the process.
• Expo provides a more maintained and active ecosystem compared to the community libraries, making it a good choice for new projects.
• Yoga is continuously evolving to align React Native with the web, and future updates will offer more configuration options for developers.