As a sole dev in a 3-person startup, I’ve managed to build a pretty large app with React Native, having zero prior native experience (although, that’s not to say that I haven’t had to learn a _lot_ about Xcode!)
Based on my limited experience with native iOS app development, RN actually requires an almost completely different way of working.
I managed to localise a relatively large cross-platform app built in Electron and React Native using gettext and had no problem with it. It supports 18 languages and people send me update from time to time, which are very easy to integrate.
yes, so reminiscent of “enterprise” situations where SAP (or put any of your other favorite's name here) is so dominant. In a recent situation, the marketing side of the business kept asking for newer agile mobile technologies, and so the cio-purchasing-manager engages Gartner (or put any of your other favorite consultant’s name here) for guidance. Well, the result is to start an in-house prototyping team composed of who -- folks seeped in SAP maintenance but who wants to learn the newer mobile technologies for career development. They do create some prototypes but so many things remain open while they are busy doing their daily SAP work, their forte. The CIO then steps in to satisfy the marketing folks: We buy SAP’s packaged solution for mobility and an outside consultant will integrate it. Problem solved. Or is it? The answer waits another three years when the integration is really completed, by then the CIO leaves and the issues need to be visited again.
2. The app starts with a launch image (the logo in the center), which then fades away to show another launch image (with the logo on the top half of the screen): https://imgur.com/0n3Zbof (probably because ReactNative must load the JS bundle before it can show anything)
3. The login screen of the application fits on the screen, yet it can be scrolled up/down for seemingly no reason. The amount you can scroll feels suspiciously close to the height of the iOS status bar: https://imgur.com/P6conGz (probably because ReactNative sets the UIScrollView's contentInset incorrectly)
4. Text fields / buttons look like on a website.
5. When you navigate back from the login screen after a failed login, there's a brief moment while the "Unsuccessful login with Facebook" message is visible, which then quickly disappears: https://imgur.com/hTTKbIt
Sorry, but it feels like a webapp to me. Though it might be perfect for your use case!
Update: I've found some other issues:
6. You can't interact with buttons (e.g. "Next" button on registration) while the keyboard is visible: https://imgur.com/dpy5xv8
7. The first time you switch to a tab, it's completely empty, then suddenly the content pops into place: https://imgur.com/JKaCJED
8. Tapping on the search button makes the content of the previous page jolt against the top of the screen while navigating to the search page: https://imgur.com/BJDYvda (focus on the panda)
9. The "sidebar" menu feels very out of place on iOS. Also, when you select e.g. "Settings", the content on the right does a very weird fade/slide animation: https://imgur.com/ChNzvwW
10. When you switch between two non-adjacent tabs, the viewport slides over the in-between tabs too: https://imgur.com/BZFU0Sv
1. This can easily be fixed with a module, however time pressure didn't allow for additional "tweaks"
2. Same as 1.
3. Using Scrollview for this, since some android devices with smaller screens can make the Login screen look very ugly and small, so in that case scroll looked better.
4. Do they look like or feel like ones on a website? It is by design, but interested to see how you feel about the fields as a user (although we don't support the app anymore)
5. Caused by implementation logic
See UberEats, the former Airbnb app and others using ReactNative that can seamlessly deliver native style UX.
2. The Airbnb and UberEats apps were written by expert native developers (I happen to know a few of them), using some React Native.
You see, expert native engineers can deliver quality apps using native frameworks. And surely, if they look into React Native, most of the time they can manipulate it from the JS side to get the desired outcome on the native side. The middleware is a hinderance for them as it gets in their way of implementing what they want in the first place.
It's like building those ship models in a bottle: if you know how to build the ship, you just have to learn how to do it through the neck of the bottle. If you don't know how to build it in the first place, well... that's a different story.