Hey notJust Developers,
The React Native team made a great announcement last week, about 0.77. Why wait? Let's dive into today's highlights.
- React Native 0.77 RC-0 Released π
- Unistyles 3.0 Released π₯
- Meet Cali: an AI agent for React Native
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Now, letβs explore each news story in detail.
React Native 0.77 RC-0 Released π
In October, the React Native team released V0.76, and the great news is that within one month, just last week, they launched the first Release Candidate (RC-0) of V0.77 π. Let's take a look at all the exciting & new features coming in 0.77 (thanks to MichaΕ PierzchaΕa for the highlights).
- Added support for
{ πππππππ’: ππππππππ } style - New Swift Template for iOS
- βNative APIs (New Architecture Turbo Modules) are now more stable
- Support for better tvOS integrationβ
- Improved Animated performanceβ
- Upgraded to React DevTools 6 (supports Server Components)
Added support for { πππππππ’: ππππππππ } style
By adding the display: contents style, you can directly ignore an element (like a <View>) from the component tree (known as the DOM tree in React or Web). This means all the children (e.g., <Text> components) of that element will treat their grandparent as their direct parent. This can be useful when a wrapper (e.g., <View>) has no value (impact) in the final tree.
New Swift Template for iOS
In September, Oskar KwaΕniewski worked on a PR that removed Objective-C from the template. The React Native team has finally merged it with the 0.77 release. So, starting from 0.77, you will see AppDelegate.swift instead of AppDelegate.mm.
NOTE: When the stable release of 0.77 is out, you will find a dedicated blog post on our notjust.dev/blog.
Unistyles 3.0 Released π₯
After months of development, Jacek has finally released Unistyles 3.0 beta-1, packed with tons of new capabilities. Unistyles is a cross-platform styling library that extends the default Stylesheet in React Native. Letβs take a look at whatβs exciting in v3.
- Zero Re-renders π₯
- V3.0 now follows 100% of the Stylesheet API
- Powered by Nitro Modules
- Facility to add custom style classes (e.g., Classes from Tailwind)
Zero Re-renders
Before Unistyles 3.0, any native change in the app (such as a theme change triggered by the user or a phone orientation change) triggered a re-render across the app. But now, with version 3, Unistyles uses C++ to handle styles much more efficiently, so those re-renders don't happen anymore π₯.
Powered by Nitro Modules
Unistyles is now using Nitro Modules, created by Marc! Nitro Module helps you to build extremely fast Native Modules (e.g., Camera Module) that are type-safe (safe from type errors at runtime) and statically compiled (optimized for performance before they run), all while allowing JS to interact with those Native Modules easily. So, by using the power of Nitro Module, Unistyles is now fully type-safe, offering strong typing from TypeScript through C++ to Kotlin and Swift (instead of Java and Objective C) π.
Thatβs incredible! Why not give Unistyles V3 a try today? The documentation is fantasticβyou'll love reading it.
Meet Cali: an AI agent for React Native
Last week, Mike & Oskar KwaΕniewski released a new and interesting CLI named CALI. CALI is an AI agent that is powered by the Vercel AI SDK and React Native CLI, and it helps you build React Native apps. Pretty exciting!
Benefits of using CALI
The most interesting benefits of CALI include:
- Simplified Commands: You donβt need to remember any specific commands for React Native CLI. For example, you can simply write βInstall podsβ instead of the command
pod install. - Enhanced Troubleshooting: CALI is super helpful for troubleshooting errors, making development smoother.
- Comprehensive Library Search: It can search & list React Native libraries in your cli from the React Native Directory.
But that's not all! CALI offers even more capabilities such as:
- Listing and managing connected Android and iOS devices and simulators.
- Installing and managing npm packages and CocoaPods dependencies.
- And much more.
Use CALI today
Use CALI today with the command npx cali, and write βHey, build an App" in your terminal. It will take care of the rest for you π€·ββοΈ.
Thatβs it π
So, last week was a big release week! We saw the first Release Candidate of React Native 0.77, the first beta version of Unistyles 3 & a new CALI AI agent for building React Native apps π. Before we wrap up, a question for you: Is this TRUE or NOT π?
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π΄ Join me live
Throughout December, weβll be hosting daily livestreams as part of the hackathon! π Join us every day at 2 PM UTC for insightful tutorials that you wonβt want to miss. Set a reminder and tune in! π
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βπ In case you missed it
 Building 4 apps in 4 weeks with ExpoCome watch Vadim begin a journey to build 4 apps in 4 weeks. We'll learn about how he plans to execute this challenge and what tricks he uses to build apps fast with Expo. | |  Are you ready to build, launch, and win? Join the ultimate online hackathon for mobile developers this December and turn your app ideas into reality. |
π₯ Press worthy
1οΈβ£ New blog post on React Native Screens 4.0 by Software Mansion.
2οΈβ£ WebAssembly is coming to React Native with native performance!
3οΈβ£ New Edge-to-Edge display article by Mathieu on Expo Blog.
4οΈβ£ Radon IDE 1.0 Released. Build React Native apps without leaving VSCode
5οΈβ£ React Native Bottom Tabs 0.7.0 is out! Added support for React Navigation v7.
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Did you learn something new today?
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The newsletter was written by Anis and edited by Vadim Savin.
| | Vadim SavinHelping you become a better developer together with the notJust.dev team |
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