Hey notJust Developers,

This week brings exciting news as the React Native core released Native 0.79! Now featuring Swift-compatible native modules for iOS and faster Android startup, seems interesting, right?

Let's dive into today's highlights.

1. React Native 0.79 released 🔥
2. Expo SDK 53 beta is now available 💯
3. React Native Gesture Handler 2.25.0 is out. 🚀

React Native 0.79 released 🔥

The new version of React Native 0.79 was released last week, This update contains over 944 commits from 100 contributors! Here are the major highlights:

1. Metro: Faster startup and package exports support.
2. JavaScriptCore (JSC) is moving to a Community Package.
3. iOS: Swift-Compatible Native Modules registration.
4. Android: Faster App Startup.

Metro: Faster startup and package exports support.

React Native 0.79 includes Metro 0.82, which uses deferred hashing to make yarn start over 3x faster, especially in large projects and monorepos. Additionally, the exports and imports fields in package.json are now stable and enabled by default. This change provides a more standards-compliant way to organize your project.

JavaScriptCore (JSC) is moving to a Community Package.

In React Native 0.79, the JavaScriptCore (JSC) engine has been moved to a community-maintained package called @react-native-community/javascriptcore. This change allows for more frequent updates and access to the latest features. You can use this version by following this installation instructions. The JSC version provided by React Native core is still available in 0.79 but is planned for removal soon.

iOS: Swift-Compatible Native Modules registration.

From this new version, you can now register your iOS Native Modules into the React Native runtime in a more Swift-friendly way. You can now add a modulesProvider field under codegenConfig.ios in your package.json file.

"codegenConfig": {
  "ios": {
    "modulesProvider": {
      "JS Module Name": "Objective-C Module Provider"
    }
  }
}

Android: Faster App Startup.

Starting with React Native 0.79, the JavaScript bundle (files) is shipped uncompressed by default in the APK. Previously, it was compressed by default, and Android needed to decompress this bundle before starting the app, causing delays. The Margelo team tested this change on the Discord app and observed a 400ms reduction in Time-to-Interactive (TTI), a 12% speedup, with just a one-line change. If storage space is a concern, you can toggle this behavior using the enableBundleCompression property in your app/build.gradle file.

//  app/build.gradle
react {
  // ...
  enableBundleCompression = false // Default `false`
}

Expo SDK 53 beta is now available 💯

​Expo team just released the SDK 53 beta for approximately 2 weeks. This beta is a chance for you to test the new SDK and ensure it works well with your app setup. Your feedback helps catch any issues before the final release.

What's New in Expo SDK 53 beta? 🚀

SDK 53 beta includes a lot of exciting features, including React Native 0.79.0 and React 19.0.0. The most interesting among them are:

1. New Architecture Enabled by Default: The New Architecture is now the default for all projects. You can opt out if needed.
2. Edge-to-Edge Display on Android: Edge-to-edge display is enabled by default in Expo Go and new projects, aligning with upcoming Android 16 requirements.
3. Improved SwiftUI and Jetpack Compose Integration: An experimental Expo UI package provides access to native UI components from SwiftUI and Jetpack Compose, including toggles, sliders, context menus, pickers, and lists.
4. React Compiler (Experimental): A new React Compiler automatically memorizes components and hooks to enable fine-grained reactivity, potentially improving performance. It's currently experimental and not enabled by default.
5. Updated expo-maps Package: Version 1.21.0 of expo-maps includes full support for the New Architecture. Developers are encouraged to test this version before it's set as the default.
6. Beta Testing Period: The beta period will last approximately two weeks. Developers are encouraged to test the SDK and report any issues.

Some of the other updates in SDK 53 beta include: Expo Router v3.5 Enhancements, EAS Updates Web UI Enhancements, expo-camera/next as Default, expo-sqlite/next as Default, iOS 18 Tinted Icons Support, React Native DevTools Integration, Android Splash Screen Improvements, Expo Modules Core Updates.

React Native Gesture Handler 2.25.0 is out. 🔥

Recently, Software Mansion released Gesture Handler 2.25.0, introducing several enhancements to gesture handling in React Native applications. Let’s take a look at what’s new in v2.25.0:

1. New Gesture API with GestureDetector: Simplifies gesture declarations by handling state transitions internally, reducing boilerplate code.
2. Builder Pattern for Gesture Configuration: Allows for more readable and maintainable code when configuring gestures.
3. Gesture Composition API: Enables combining multiple gestures using Gesture.Simultaneous, Gesture.Exclusive, or Gesture.Race for complex interactions.
4. Improved Callback Handling: Provides new callbacks like onBegin, onStart, onUpdate, onChange, onEnd, and onFinalize for finer control over gesture state changes.
5. Updated Web Implementation: Enhances the web implementation to better mirror native platform behaviors, with an option to revert to the legacy implementation if needed.

🔴 Join us live

This Friday we will Deploy NodeJS API to AWS ECS Fargate. It's going to be a tutorial packed with value, so set a reminder and don't miss it out 👇

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🔁 In case you missed it

Build the Audible clone in React Native Build a fully functional Audible clone using React Native, Supabase, and Clerk. You’ll learn how to create an end-to-end app with modern UI, real audio playback, user authentication, and database integration. Watch now

Build Your First Full-Stack Application You’ll learn how to build a full-stack Apple Reminders clone using Expo, React Native, ExpressJS, and PostgreSQL. We'll cover how to structure your project for easy scaling, and perform essential CRUD operations. We'll explore basic SQL commands and how to organize your app to meet industry standards. Watch now

🔥 Press worthy

1️⃣ Try Genezio, a powerful serverless platform for scalable full-stack apps with easy deployment, low costs, and great framework compatibility 🚀

2️⃣ React Native Emoji Popup released 0.3.0 with proper Android dark mode support.

3️⃣ Cursor v1.3.0 introduces Tool Filtering, enabling you to disable specific tools via an environment variable for more control over Cursor's behavior.

4️⃣ Cursor Free VIP v1.9.03 adds support for Opera, Brave, Edge, and Firefox browsers, and includes a hotfix for the JWT expiration issue.

5️⃣ React Native Quantum integrates React Native with Majorana's quantum processor, delivering ultra-fast performance (10Mfps), concurrent rendering, a useQuantumState() hook, and Quantum Modules.

6️⃣ Software Mansion announces that ExecuTorch v0.4.0 will be released at the end of May. This version introduces powerful new features like Universal LLM Runner.
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The newsletter was written by Anis and edited by Vadim Savin.

Vadim Savin Helping you become a better developer together with notJust.dev team