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Comment by sheeshkebab | Hacker News Reader

That assumes that building quality mobile apps in js doesn’t require knowledge of native app dev and specialization in mobile app dev (it does). And if those things don’t matter you might as well just hire anyone willing to learn native mobile dev - react native wont make their job any easier beyond the first day (in fact it would make it more complex).

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Your definition of quality is different than mine. I think most native apps are unstable, unlearnable, gratuitously animated messes. Even supposedly “quality” apps. I can’t tell you how many voice memos I’ve lost because of Apple’s “lickable” and totally broken (but very pretty) UI.

I would prefer a simple, well designed web app to the vast majority of them.

The native toolkits have too big a surface to reliably product high quality UIs. Yes, it’s possible but they push you away from making the choices that lead to good user experience, in favor of UIs that look impressive on an interaction designer’s or a developer’s portfolio.

This is what native mobile devs tell themselves to preserve their self worth... but unfortunately it's no longer true that you need a dedicated native iOS or android dev to make a useful and performant app.

I’m actually not a mobile dev, just deal with a bunch tech surrounding that space. Also, nothing against react native - used it for building quick things myself too - it’s just not something I’d pick to build say an Uber app, or something. And if you’re not building that level of an app, why bother? Web is enough.

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