Before we start with what’s new, let’s look at what numbers say about React Native in the last year and how adoption went.
2025 React Native Stats
This year was the best when it comes to React Native adoption. New Architecture made react native as fast as Native. Markets are booming with new roles, and big companies are moving to React Native such as Vercel, Kraken, EA Sports, and Cal.com.
It’s never been better to build apps with React Native
React Native at all-hight downloads in 2025

React Native downloads over the last 5 years
Expo at all time downloads in 2025

Expo downloads over the years
React Native & Expo numbers say that we’re seeing a huge spike in downloads and adoptions, and when you add newly well built apps like v0 to this data, 2025 seems to be the best year for React Native for now.
What’s New
📦 rnsec a zero-config security scanner for React Native & Expo that finds secrets, vulnerabilities, and native misconfigurations with one command and all locally and private.
📦 react-native-pager-view - major release that rewrites the entire iOS implementation using SwiftUI, bringing a more modern and maintainable codebase. The API remains the same, but page transitions now use a new cycling animation, which prompted the major version bump.
📦 react-native-screens - feature-packed minor release with improved native tabs on iOS and Android, support for synchronous state updates (behind a flag), and many performance and stability fixes, while also dropping the long-deprecated native-stack v5 code.
📦 react-native-executorch - brings major performance improvements and powerful new on-device AI features, including Stable Diffusion text-to-image, voice activity detection, quantized Whisper models, and more LLM control, with an upgrade to ExecuTorch runtime v1.0.0 (note: requires Expo SDK 54)
📦 react-native-screens - solid minor update packed with improvements to native tabs on iOS and Android, experimental synchronous state updates for smoother navigation, and dozens of bug fixes, while finally removing the long-deprecated native-stack v5 code.
📦 heroui-native - beta version adds a global animation settings provider with reduce-motion support and exposes new hooks like
useButton,useChip, anduseTextComponent, making it easier to build accessible, animated UI with HeroUI Native.📦 react-native-nitro-markdown - a blazing-fast Markdown parser for React Native built with C++ md4c and Nitro Modules, delivering synchronous JSI parsing of GFM and LaTeX math into an AST for smooth, jank-free rendering on mobile
📦 react-native-zoom-grid - high-performance, pinch-to-zoom grid component built on FlashList and Reanimated that delivers smooth, iOS Photos–style transitions between layouts, with customizable zoom levels and gesture-driven interactions for media-heavy apps
📦 react-native-true-sheet - this release brings major Android improvements with smoother present/dismiss animations, smarter keyboard handling for detents, and internal refactoring for better maintainability, plus several bug fixes for more reliable sheet behavior.
Writings & Podcasts
Role Openings for React Native Geeks at Orca
Orca is hiring senior mobile engineers to build a real navigation system used offshore, fully offline, and under real-world constraints.
It’s a perfect match for engineers looking for deep React Native work combined with serious native iOS and Android engineering challenges.
Open roles:
Lead Mobile Engineer (React Native) own mobile architecture, guide technical direction, stay hands-on in RN and native code and lead mobile team
Senior Mobile Engineer (React Native) own performance-critical navigation features with native iOS/Android work where needed
This is not typical app work. React Native is used seriously, native skills matter, and engineers have real ownership

orca navigation app
Other React Native Roles
React Native 2025 Survery
The State of React Native 2025 survey is still live - and it’s a special one. This year marks 10 years of React Native and we should do our job.
👉 Do your part and take the survey if you haven’t already:
https://survey.2025.stateofreactnative.com/

Software Mansion Survey: State of React Native 2025
🎉 Happy New Year folks, and a a good start to the new one!

💬 Got questions or want to chat?
DM me on X @adnansahinovich or visit nativeweekly.com for weekly React Native digest.
