I picked up React Native a few weeks ago, and I almost quit on day one.
Not because of the code. Because of the setup, gradle builds taking forever, my PC sounding like it wanted to give up on life every time I ran the CLI 😭, but I didn't quit.
I pushed through, managed to build one project through all that pain, and kept it moving.
Then I stumbled on Expo.No Gradle issue. No CLI headaches. No PC struggling.
Just scan a QR code and your app is live on your phone. Like magic.
And the routing? File-based. Exact same concept as Next.js.
Create a file → route exists. No NavigationContainer. No manual stack setup. Nothing.
Mobile development is actually fun when the tooling gets out of your way.
I still use Android Studio to preview, runs smooth as ever. But if you're a web dev curious about mobile, just start with Expo, don't do what I did first 😂🔥
What's your React Native setup story? Drop it below 👇
And if you're seeing my posts for the first time, hello, I'm Prime, a Software Engineer from Nigeria building web and mobile experiences. I write about frontend, React Native, and the things I learn along the way. Check out my work at https://prime-codes.vercel.app
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