Best React Native Developer Tools for designing Exceptional Apps in 2020!

Companies across the globe have hundreds of libraries and frameworks to choose from while doing mobile application development. Despite the innumerable choices, React Native by far has become one of the most preferred choices of corporate enterprises and mobile app development companies. The reason behind its popularity is the extensive benefits offered by React Native development for myriad applications! Right from simple learning curve, code re-usability, cross-platform development, high-speed development, support from a vibrant community, to the creation of native-like applications, this framework has a lot to give. And when we talk about its technical goodies, React Native developer tools just can’t be ignored. These tools are some of the most vital factors of this framework.

So this blog is all about the top-notch React Native tools available in the market. These are widely used by almost every React Native app development company out there. So let’s have a glimpse at a few of them.

8 Popular React Native Developer Tools to Know and Use in 2020

1. Visual Studio Code

Released in 2015 by the software giant Microsoft, Visual Studio Code is lightweight yet a robust source-code editor. It is open-source and free to use. It is written in JavaScript, CSS, and TypeScript. It works well with platforms like Windows, Mac, Linux, etc.

Visual Studio Code comes with in-built support for technologies like Node.js, TypeScript, and JavaScript. Besides, it has a huge ecosystem of extensions to support languages like C#, C++, Python, PHP, Java, Go, etc. It also supports runtimes like Unity and .NET.

2. Android Studio

As the name suggests, this tool enables React Native development for Android. Android Studio 4.1 was the major release. The recent version of Android Studio comes with features like Kotlin DSL support in Android Gradle plugin, newer database inspector, allows running of android emulator inside Android Studio, visual layout editor, faster emulator, APK analyzer, flexible build system, smart code editor, real-time profilers, and much more.

3. Xcode

Xcode is Apple’s integrated development environment (IDE) that contains several software development tools for building apps in iOS, MacOs, etc. This is a perfect pick for creating powerful React Native apps for iOS. It is also a great tool for debugging and installation of iOS packages. Recently, Xcode 12 was released by Apple which comes with all the more fascinating features like customizable font sizes for the navigator, new document tabs, redesigned organizer, improved code completion, enhanced auto-indentation, etc.

4. Redux

Written in JavaScript, Redux was developed by Andrew Clark and Dan Abramov and released in the year 2015. It is an open-source tool commonly used with libraries like React, Angular, etc for developing user interfaces. It is a very small tool whose file size accounts for hardly 2kB including dependencies. It helps in the creation of apps that run in different environments like native platforms, front-end, back-end, etc. and are quite easy to test. Also, it offers features like a time-traveling debugger and live code editing. As a result, it is highly recommended that React Native development services should use this tool for their projects.

5. React Native Debugger

This tool is like a standalone desktop app that goes well with Windows, macOS, Linux, etc. It is probably the best debugger tool for the React Native developers when they are already using Redux. It comes with default React’s Developer Tools and Redux DevTools embedded in it. Also, it is possible to edit the UI and inspect React Native elements using this tool.

6. React Navigation

React Navigation is written in JavaScript and is quite popular amongst the developer community as it enables them to establish the navigation and routes in the native apps with the help of navigators like Drawer, Tab, Stack, etc. It is an easy to use tool which is highly customizable and also provides Extensible Platforms. It is used for developing alluring components for both platforms- Android and iOS.

7. React Native CLI

Being the official CLI for the React Native framework, React Native CLI is an MIT licensed tool. This tool provides an original method for bootstrapping for creating a react native app using the command line. This method is required if the react native developer needs to access the native layer of the app. It is extensively used for the automation of tasks such as starting the packager, linking, creating the apps, etc. It is used as a debugging tool as well sometimes. It supports custom configurations. For instance, it can be used for the installation of React Native project pre-configured with a particular package such as TypeScript or even complete boilerplates.

8. React Native Tools

It is also a free tool developed by Microsoft but kind of an extension of the Visual Studio Code. This tool provides a supportive environment for developing as well as debugging the React Native projects. It allows debugging styles in React Native and also enables debugging for React components, making it one of the best debugging tools. Besides, it runs the react-native command with the use of “command palette”.

8 Additional React Native Tools explained in Brief:

1. Nuclide: Nuclide is a free and open-source tool that is highly customizable and helps the React Native developers to make improvements in code. Its top features include-context view, working sets, remote development, a task runner, quick open, health statistics, a debugger, code diagnostics, etc.
2. Bit: This tool is quite useful for the creation of advanced React Native component libraries. It resolves issues related to collaborating and sharing on UI components across different repositories.
3. Expo: This is an open-source tool-chain that has its own CLI and offers easy-to-use components and APIs. It also provides several services like accelerometer, real-time updates, fine documentation, powerful community support, etc.
4. React devtools: Though this tool is more concerned with React and Reactjs, it is also useful for debugging the React Native code. Also, its latest version provides support for inspecting React native styles, live editing, etc.
5. Vim Editor: This tool comes with a highly configurable text editor and provides a complete set of features for designing React Native apps. It is easy to work with and helps in effectively changing any kind of text.
6. Sublime Text: This is another amazing text editor that has numerous plugins and functionalities for app development. It also has features like “Goto Anything” for faster navigation to files, lines, symbols, etc. Other goodies that Sublime Text offers is “Command Palette” and support to multiple programming languages and markup languages.
7. Jest: Developed by Facebook, it is actually a testing framework for JavaScript but also works well with React Native, especially for functions like unit testing. Its features like Built-in code coverage, zero-configuration, and snapshot testing make it a rich tool.
8. Reduxsauce: This tool is helpful to the developers when they work on Redux codebases and need to create Reducers and Actions in Redux.

Final Words:

The React Native developer tools that we have mentioned in this blog play a significant role in not only building captivating apps but also in accelerating the development process to a great extent. These are one of the finest tools and it is essential for the React Native Developers to have the fundamental knowledge of at least the ones noted here.

Along with these tools, the knowledge of React Native component libraries is an add-on. For detailed insights on these, please have a look here.

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