🔔 Industry Updates
• CSS Grid lands in React Native’s layout engine with an early Yoga implementation now supporting the core Grid spec — introducing grid templates, sizing functions, and a roadmap for advanced features like masonry and subgrid.
• Apple launches the Mini Apps Partner Program, enabling developers to host mini web-powered experiences inside native apps while earning 85% of qualifying in-app purchases under expanded App Store rules.
• Radon IDE releases a free tier, giving individual developers access to its advanced React Native debugging tools. Including an element inspector at no cost for non-commercial use.
• Meta announces the Horizon Developer Competition, offering over $1.5M in prizes for apps built with React Native on Meta Quest, creating a big incentive for VR-driven React Native development.
🎁 New Releases
📦 react-native-skia-2.4.0 introduces long-awaited
zIndexsupport, fixing several stacking and rendering issues and making it easier to layer Skia components alongside standard React Native views.📦 react-native-ble-nitro introduces a JSI-powered BLE stack built on Nitro Modules, bringing faster native BLE operations, scan filters, RSSI thresholds, MTU negotiation, iOS state restoration, and a fully type-safe API, along with an Expo config plugin for zero-native-setup BLE integration across iOS and Android.
📦 detox-20.46.0 adds configurable Android system UI controls, allowing tests to customize status bar, navigation bar, keyboard, touches, and emulator indicators for more consistent and predictable E2E test environments.
📦 expo-speech-transcriber adds offline iOS speech transcription powered by Apple’s Speech framework, including real-time and file transcription, automatic permissions, support for older and new APIs, and privacy-focused local processing.
📦 react-native-nitro-torch introduces a high-performance flashlight controller built on Nitro Modules with zero-bridge overhead, offering brightness control on iOS and Android 13+, real-time state updates, a simple React hook API, full TypeScript safety, and robust cross-platform error handling.
📦 react-navigation/[email protected] fixes an issue where heavy screen renders overlapped with transition animations, improving the smoothness and reliability of stack navigation transitions.
📦 expo-brownfield-target improves dependency resolution and provides an Expo config plugin that helps integrate Expo modules into existing native codebases, making brownfield app setups smoother and more reliable.
📦 react-native-bootsplash delivers a plugin revamp that updates its Sharp-based image processing pipeline, moves to the latest Sharp release, resolves a high-severity tar-fs vulnerability, and modernizes the underlying tooling for better long-term stability.
📘 Deep Dives
⬇️ Callstack x Zalando - How Brownfield Migration Paid Off
💼 Jobs
Mission.dev (Remote USA) - Apply Now ($125,000 - $185,000)
Abridge (Remote USA) - Apply Now ($162,000 - $234,000)
iTRex Group (Remote USA) - Apply Now ($162,000 - $234,000)
Preply (Remote Europe) - Apply Now
Parser (Remote Europe) - Apply Now
Happy Friday and see you next week!
💬 Got questions or want to chat?
DM me on X @adnansahinovich or visit nativeweekly.com for weekly React Native digest.