React Native 0.76: What’s New?
In this article
This article explores the significant updates in React Native 0.76, such as New Architecture by default, performance enhancements, improved DevTools, new styling features, and their impact on app development.
React Native has long been a popular choice for building cross-platform mobile applications, allowing developers to write code once and deploy it on both iOS and Android. With the release of React Native 0.76, the framework introduces significant improvements to its New Architecture by default, paving the way for even more robust and efficient development. These updates aim to streamline cross-platform development, offering developers enhanced performance, better tooling, and a more seamless integration of native modules.
New Architecture Now Default
New architecture in React Native 0.76. Taken from Dev.to
Starting with React Native 0.76, the New Architecture is now enabled by default in all projects and is officially ready for production use!
The New Architecture introduces full support for modern React features such as Suspense, Transitions, automatic batching, and useLayoutEffect (although it is still recommended to use the useEffect hook because useLayoutEffect can hurt the performance).
It also includes revamped Native Module and Native Component systems, enabling developers to write type-safe code with direct access to native interfaces, eliminating the need for a bridge.
The previous architecture, which relied on an asynchronous bridge, faced several challenges, including delayed updates, performance bottlenecks, synchronization issues, and limitations in handling layouts efficiently. To address these issues, the New Architecture introduces four key improvements:
- The New Native Module System
- The New Renderer
- The Event Loop
- Removing the Bridge
According to the official documentation: “The New Module system allows the React Native Renderer to have synchronous access to the native layer, which allows it to handle events, schedule updates, and read layout both asynchronously and synchronously. The new Native Modules are also lazily loaded by default, giving apps a significant performance gain.”
New Native Modules unlock powerful new capabilities since they are entirely built on C++:
- Synchronous Communication
- Type Safety
- Cross-Platform Support
- Lazy Loading
- Performance Optimizations
In the old system, handling responses from native functions required callbacks and return values had to be serializable:
// ❌ Old architecture example
nativeModule.getValue(value => {
// ❌ Cannot reference a native object
nativeModule.doSomething(value);
});
The New Architecture simplifies this process:
// ✅ New architecture example
const value = nativeModule.getValue();
// ✅ Values can reference native objects directly
nativeModule.doSomething(value);You can explore the New Architecture and its benefits in detail in the New Architecture is here blog post in the official React Native documentation.
New Dev Tools
A picture from the official React Native documentation
It has always been hard to debug React Native Apps due to overlapping tools like Flipper and Hermes. But now, the new DevTools combines all the debugging tools into one seamless stack, with zero setup required— ready to go by default with zero configuration. You can open it from the in-app Dev Menu or use `j` to debug directly in the CLI server, which now supports multiple emulators and devices.
One of the most interesting UX improvements is a new “Paused in Debugger” overlay that makes it crystal clear when your app is paused at a breakpoint. Plus, warnings in LogBox are now summarized and hidden when DevTools is attached.
For more information, check out updated debugging docs.
15x Metro Resolution
The latest update to Metro Resolver (v0.80.11) brings significant performance improvements, notably optimizing module loading. This update has made Metro’s resolver—responsible for finding modules from import paths — about 15 times faster. As a result, Metro’s overall performance has improved, with warm builds running around 4 times faster. These enhancements make a noticeable difference, especially in reducing build times and improving development efficiency.
New Style Props: boxShadow and filter
boxShadow
The boxShadow property allows you to add a shadow to an element with customizable settings for its position, color, size, and blurriness. This gives you full control over the appearance of shadows. For a complete breakdown of each argument and its options, check out the MDN documentation. You will also find a fiddle there to try out yourself.
Below are a few examples of the shadow you can take from the React Native documentation:
Examples of boxShadow from the official React Native documentation
filter
The filter property applies graphical effects to an element, such as color modifications (brightness, saturation, and hue) or non-color adjustments like blurs and shadows. This property offers a wide range of filters for creative control over your visuals. For an in-depth guide to each filter function, visit the MDN documentation, which provides a fiddle for hands-on testing. Below is an example, taken from the official React Native Documentation, of a hot dog image with various filters applied:
Examples of filter from the official React Native documentation
Android App Bundle Recuded by ~3.8MB
React Native 0.76 introduces an update that enhances both app size and startup performance on Android by consolidating multiple native libraries into a single library, libreactnative.so. This change reduces the app size by approximately 3.8MB and cuts startup time by 15ms. The smaller APKs improve download and installation times, which is especially beneficial for users in emerging markets. However, developers will need to make some adjustments to ensure compatibility with the new structure. Refer to the official React Native documentation for the details.
Expo SDK 52 Update
Expo SDK 52 (beta) supports React Native 0.76, making it easier to leverage these new features within the Expo ecosystem.
Summary
React Native 0.76 combines years of development into a game-changing update that enhances performance and developer experience. With the new architecture now the default, React Native has become more efficient, providing faster build times and smoother app performance. The update introduces faster debugging with streamlined DevTools, making it easier than ever to diagnose issues. New styling capabilities, including `boxShadow` and `filter` properties, offer developers more flexibility in creating visually dynamic applications. Additionally, Android apps now benefit from a smaller size and improved startup times, thanks to the consolidation of native libraries.
To understand how React Native differs from React and why this update is significant, check out this detailed comparison: What is the difference between React and React Native .
Overall, React Native 0.76 sets the stage for building more efficient, performant, and polished applications, making it a significant step forward for the framework.
