React Native in 2027: What Changed, What Comes Next, and Why Shopify Went Native

React Native spent the past two years finishing its biggest rebuild. Since version 0.82, the New Architecture is the only one, and in February 2026, Meta handed the project to an independent foundation. Then, in September, Shopify, its best-known all-in adopter, announced a move back to native code. So what does React Native in 2027 look like for the teams that build on it?

Last week we looked at Flutter in 2027. This week covers React Native: what shipped, the deadlines that will force upgrades, and how to read the Shopify news.

The New Architecture rebuild is finished

React Native 0.82, released on October 8, 2025, was the first version to run entirely on the New Architecture. Switching back is no longer possible. Then 0.84, in February 2026, made Hermes V1 the default JavaScript engine and stopped compiling legacy code into iOS builds. Expo followed with SDK 55, which dropped the old architecture completely.

Most of the ecosystem has caught up. In the State of React Native 2025 survey, 79% of respondents had migrated. React Native Directory marks 69.6% of its 2,757 libraries as compatible, while 29.9% remain untested. Some compatibility layers for older libraries also remain, and the team says they will stay “for the foreseeable future.”

The performance gain is modest but real. Meta measured Hermes V1 on the Expensify app, where time to interactive improved by 7.6% on a low-end Android device and 2.5% on iOS. However, Meta also notes that results “strongly depend on the details of your apps.”

Why there is still no React Native 1.0

React Native has used 0.x version numbers since its 2015 launch, and its versioning policy says so plainly: “We follow the 0.x.y versioning schema.” Breaking changes therefore ship in minor releases. A Meta engineer’s talk at React Universe Conf 2025 was billed as a look at “the path towards React Native 1.0.” Still, no plan, date, or document has followed.

The practical point is the support window. The team maintains only the latest three minor series, and a new minor ships roughly every two months. For example, 0.84 arrived in February 2026 and became unsupported in August, when 0.87 shipped. In other words, a React Native release gets about six months of fixes. Staying supported means upgrading at least twice a year.

The urgent one: iOS 27 crashes on launch

Apple’s rule is simple. Apps built with the iOS 27 SDK must adopt the UIScene lifecycle; “otherwise, your app won’t launch.” From April 2027, every App Store upload must use that SDK.

React Native added the required SceneDelegate support in version 0.88. At the time of writing, however, 0.88 is still a release candidate, and it has already slipped past its planned October 12 date. A backport to 0.87 has been requested but not merged. On October 6, a contributor summed it up in the project’s issue tracker: “every released stable RN version crashes on startup on iOS when built with Xcode 27.”

Expo moved faster. SDK 57 supports Xcode 27 from version 57.0.23, although apps must opt in to the scene lifecycle through a build property. SDK 58, still in beta, turns it on by default.

A second Xcode 27 problem hits apps whose third-party pods ship resource bundles. Our article on iOS 27 and Android 17 explains that build error and its workaround. The fix is merged in React Native’s main branch, but it is not yet in any release.

CocoaPods freezes on December 2

React Native still builds its iOS dependencies through CocoaPods. The central CocoaPods repository will become permanently read-only on December 2, 2026. Existing builds will keep working, but no new pod versions will arrive.

React Native’s own core uses local pod specifications, so the core is largely unaffected. Instead, the exposure sits in third-party native SDKs. Once the repository freezes, anything that comes through it stops receiving updates.

The replacement is not ready yet. Swift Package Manager support arrived in 0.87 as an experiment, and the release notes are blunt: “Do not use it in production yet.” The team’s migration plan also sets no date for retiring CocoaPods, and Expo’s SDK 58 beta still makes it the default. By comparison, Flutter made Swift Package Manager its default in May 2026.

Android: two dates to put in the calendar

Google Play adds two deadlines in 2027. From February 1, app updates that don’t support 16 KB memory pages can no longer be released. React Native’s core has been ready since 0.77, but every native library in your app must comply too.

Then, in August 2027, Play will require apps to target Android 17 (API 37), according to Google’s Android Developers Blog. From that point, orientation locks are ignored on screens at least 600dp wide, which covers tablets and unfolded foldables. Current React Native templates still target API 36, while the main branch has already moved to 37.

Meanwhile, 0.86 shipped broad fixes for the edge-to-edge display rules of Android 15 and later. That’s another reason not to sit on an old version.

Liquid Glass: where React Native has an edge

Here React Native differs from Flutter in a useful way. Flutter draws its own widgets, so its Cupertino library still lacks Apple’s Liquid Glass design. React Native, by contrast, can render real native components.

Expo makes the most of this. Since SDK 55, its form sheets adopt Liquid Glass “with no code changes.” Native tabs in Expo Router use the system tab bar, which draws the glass effect on iOS 26, and they become stable in SDK 58. Expo UI also offers SwiftUI and Jetpack Compose components, stable since SDK 56.

There is a catch, though. Most React Native screens are plain views styled in JavaScript, and those do not turn into glass on their own. The native advantage applies only to the parts of your app built from native components. Similarly, Expo’s SDK 58 beta promises “deep integration with iPhone Duo from day one,” while React Native’s own foldable APIs are still open proposals.

Expo is now the default way to build

The official React Native docs now recommend starting with a framework, and they name Expo. Expo releases three SDKs a year, each supported for about a year. In the State of React Native 2025 survey, 86% of respondents used its command-line tools. In April 2026, Expo also raised a $45 million Series B, after being profitable for some time.

Its paid services are optional but popular. EAS handles cloud builds, store submission, and over-the-air updates, from a free tier up to $199 a month for production teams. Over-the-air updates have limits, however. They can ship JavaScript changes, but not native code, new permissions, or SDK upgrades. Apple also forbids using them to change an app’s primary purpose.

Who is behind React Native in 2027

Meta no longer owns React Native. Since February 24, 2026, the React Foundation, hosted by the Linux Foundation, has owned React and React Native. Its eight platinum founding members are Amazon, Callstack, Expo, Huawei, Meta, Microsoft, Software Mansion and Vercel. Meta committed more than $3 million over five years, and it says it keeps engineers working full-time on React and React Native.

Large users remain. Microsoft reported more than 40 Office experiences built with React Native in 2025, including the Copilot experience in Office. Amazon’s new Fire TV operating system, Vega OS, uses React Native under the hood. Zalando also moved its shopping app toward React Native in October 2025.

One signal deserves watching. Commits to React Native’s main branch fell from 4,480 between January and mid-October 2025 to 2,734 in the same period of 2026. The cause is not clear, so treat it as a question rather than a verdict.

Why Shopify left, and what it means for you

Shopify adopted React Native in 2020 and became its most visible champion. On September 10, 2026, it announced: “We are going to migrate all our mobile apps to Swift and Kotlin using AI throughout the process.” Its Shop app went from proof of concept to a native release in 12 weeks.

Notably, it wasn’t React Native’s quality. Shopify still calls it “an excellent framework” and says “React Native apps can be fast.” Instead, “LLMs changed one of the core assumptions behind our 2020 decision.” In short, AI coding tools made two native codebases cheaper to build and maintain.

Our reading is that this trade-off favors large teams with strong native engineers, like Shopify’s. For a small team, one codebase still means one set of features, tests, and bugs. There is also direct fallout to check. FlashList is looking for a new steward, React Native Skia will continue under a new name after 2026, and Restyle is being archived.

Should you start a new React Native project in 2027?

For many teams, yes. React Native remains a strong fit when:

• Your team already works in React and TypeScript.
• You want native iOS components, including Liquid Glass, without writing Swift.
• Over-the-air updates for JavaScript fixes matter to your release process.
• You plan to build with Expo and can follow its upgrade rhythm.

On the other hand, think twice when:

• Your app depends on many native SDKs, each with its own CocoaPods and 16 KB exposure.
• Nobody on the team can debug Xcode and Gradle when an upgrade breaks.
• You cannot budget for two upgrades a year.

Part 4 of this series compares React Native, Flutter, and Kotlin Multiplatform side by side.

How to prepare your React Native app for 2027

1. Don’t ship Xcode 27 builds on 0.87 or older. Plan the move to 0.88, or to Expo 57.0.23 with scene support, as soon as you can.
2. Migrate AppDelegate to SceneDelegate. Then test deep links, because launch URLs can break if launch options are not passed through.
3. List every pod that comes from the CocoaPods repository. Check each vendor’s plan before the December 2 freeze.
4. Check native libraries for 16 KB page support. Updates that fail it are blocked from February 1, 2027.
5. Review FlashList, Skia, and Restyle. Follow each handover, or plan a replacement.
6. Budget two upgrades a year. A React Native release gets about six months of fixes.

How Pegotec helps

Whatever your app is built with, the 2027 work looks similar: a dependency audit, an upgrade plan, and a test pass on new devices. We scope that work before the deadlines, so your releases do not stall at the store. As a result, you know what the app needs while you still have time to plan it.

If you want a 2027 readiness check on a React Native app, talk to us.

Read next

• Flutter in 2027 — the same outlook for Google’s framework.
• iOS 27 and Android 17: What Developers Need to Know — the platform changes behind the 2027 deadlines.
• iOS App Store vs Google Play 2026 — fees, review times and release planning.

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