React Native is increasingly supporting the web platform. From libraries to routing patterns, everything is moving toward a more unified approach to creating user interfaces for both web and mobile at the same time. But what is the real cost of trying to achieve this, and is it the right direction overall?

In this talk, I’m diving deep into how to build universal libraries that work on all platforms – a React Native first approach that works everywhere including the browsers! Together, we’ll explore the nitty-gritty challenges and innovative solutions associated with creating tools that seamlessly bridge the gap between web and mobile platforms. Expect a concoction of creativity, practicality, and actionable insights as we journey from idea to implementation.

Both React Native and Electron.JS offer abstractions which allow developers to use established web technologies to build applications on native mobile and desktop platforms respectively - the concept of “Universal” Apps takes this a step further. In this talk, James will discuss how Theodo used this pattern to create a single app which was distributed natively across all platforms.

In this talk we will examine the state of deploying web apps with React Native web. To meet modern standards, we will use NextJS to deploy to web and Expo to build the native app. In addition, we will take a look how much code can be shared between these two platforms and how easily set a project up.

We will also take a look at cross platform component libraries and libraries that you will be using along the way.
This setup is great for any dev who wants to deploy to multiple platforms, but only wants to write his code once.