Why React Native Is Ideal for Cross-Platform Mobile Apps

React Native (RN) provides speed to market, enormous talent pools, and current performance now on par with native code builds for most types of products if you are developing iOS and Android in the US.

The year 2025 is when RN will be "production-proven" instead of "good enough," with the New Architecture (Fabric + TurboModules) coming of age and Hermes as the default JS engine.

Why React Native is a Top Pick

One codebase, two platforms

By cutting parallel workstreams and QA cycles, RN allows teams to deploy once and hit iOS and Android. That's why it's used in Fortune 500 firms as well as startups—Meta, Instagram, Walmart, and more are highlighted in RN's official showcase.
Here’s a simple example: a single component written once works everywhere.

import React from 'react';
import { Text, View, StyleSheet } from 'react-native';

export default function Welcome() {
  return (
    <View style={styles.container}>
      <Text style={styles.text}>Hello from React Native!</Text>
    </View>
  );
}

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: { flex: 1, justifyContent: 'center', alignItems: 'center' },
  text: { fontSize: 20, fontWeight: 'bold' },
});

Performance has caught up

Because Hermes ships by default nowadays, it enhances startup speed, memory consumption, and app size, especially on Android—by compiling the JS into efficient bytecode.
This maintains RN's iteration speed without closing the gap with fully native UIs for the majority of projects.

// Example of using React Native's Reanimated for smoother animations
import Animated, { FadeInUp } from 'react-native-reanimated';

export const AnimatedCard = () => (
  <Animated.View entering={FadeInUp.duration(500)}>
    <Text>Smooth animation with Fabric + Hermes</Text>
  </Animated.View>
);

A humongous talent pool

TypeScript and JavaScript drive RN. That is, US companies are able to move web engineers to mobile without a long native ramp-up time, scale teams faster, and make use of React Native engineers from a broad pool of JS skill.

Tooling that speeds up delivery

Expo and the RN ecosystem at large simplify builds, OTA updates, and auth, payments, and navigation libraries. Expo's 2024–2025 releases are also closely coupled with RN's New Architecture so greenfield projects get to use new APIs earlier.

# Start a new project quickly with Expo
npx create-expo-app myApp
cd myApp
npm start

What's New In React Native and Why It Matters

The New Architecture is here

• Fabric: Fabric is a new rasterization platform designed to integrate with React 18 and accelerate layouts, making scrolling smoother and animation more predictable.
• TurboModules + JSI: There are fewer module bottlenecks for cameras, media, and sensors due to TurboModules + JSI, the faster and type-safe native-to-JS and JS-to-native bridge.

Without abandoning the RN stack, these enhancements collectively reduce UI latency and enable more "native-feeling" interactions.

React Native 0.81 +:

Recent milestones continued to give Hermes the lead with emphasis on build speed, stability, and platform coverage (including Android 16 ready). Translation: fewer footguns for your team and snappy apps for your users.

Expo SDK 52+ support:

Expo along the New Architecture track (with NA default/mandate in view), permitting gradual transition of existing apps and deployment of new, future-proof apps.

Compliance & platform timelines (don't miss these)

If you go out of compliance, even the most optimal technical choice is for nothing. Two realities for 2025

• Google Play: Updates and new apps must be Android 15 (API 35) compatible by August 31, 2025; extension to November 1, 2025 is okay.
• The teams may accomplish this without having to stop developing products since RN's nature is iterative and quick.
• Apple App Store: Releases need to be built with Xcode 16 using the iOS 18 SDK (and teammates) starting April 24, 2025. Once you've got your CI in place, it's a breeze to keep current since RN projects are built using native toolchains.

When React Native is the Right Choice

• B2B and B2C products: that ship out of the gate frequently. Consider markets, social/community elements, financial dashboards, logistics, and healthcare portals (with native modules where appropriate)—feature velocity and shared code prevail.
• MVPs and iterative remakes: Ship a cross-platform testable MVP early and add native modules to harden hot flows as usage grows.
• shared user interface apps: RN's shared design system and component-based architecture are most suitable for lists, feed user interfaces, forms, and dashboards.

When to go all-native

• Heavy platform-specific behavior like pro-grade camera pipelines, 3D/AR toolchains, or extensive CarPlay/Auto interfaces are just a few examples of heavy platform-specific behavior.
• Ultra-custom graphics: use cases with advanced real-time effects or bespoke shaders.In this case, RN still functions great; slice those in-house and export them through TurboModules, leaving the rest in RN.

Practical adoption path

1. Greenfield start on New Architecture: Use Fabric and Hermes by default; avoid legacy patterns that will complicate migration later on.

2. Expo for speed, eject when necessary: If low-level access is the case, go to bare; tart managed.

3. Lock compliance into CI: To never miss a deadline, provide lanes for Xcode 16/iOS 18 builds and Android API 35.

4. Measure the correct metrics: Track RAM, JS<->native call count, cold start, and bundle size; Hermes + TurboModules should push all four in the correct direction.

Conclusion:

React Native then marries engineering gravitas (new architecture, solid performance) with boardroom maths (lowered overall cost to target both platforms). RN is a sensible default in 2025 if you prefer to outrun competition without triple mobile cost.

Do you require assistance? In order to minimize delivery risk and achieve store deadlines safely, you can hire React Native app developers who are experienced in Hermes, Fabric, and compliance-ready pipelines in case you're doing a build or migration.