React Native at Microsoft | Ep. #16

In this React Native Show Podcast episode, our host Łukasz Chludziński and his guest, Lorenzo Sciandra, Senior Software Engineer at Microsoft, discuss how React Native is used and developed at Microsoft.

Lorenzo Sciandra – Senior Software Engineer at Microsoft, React Native maintainer since ‘18.

Lorenzo has been React Native maintainer and releaser since 2018 and senior software engineer at Microsoft since 2020. Łukasz and Lorenzo dive deep into the main topic of this episode – React Native at Microsoft. 

You’ll discover:

• how Lorenzo started working with React Native,
• what he does at Microsoft, and
• what he worked on last week.

Łukasz and Lorenzo delved into the specifics of React Native usage at Microsoft. 

You’ll find out:

• how was React Native introduced to Microsoft, 
• what Microsoft apps (either brownfield or greenfield) use React Native,
• how the apps are built. 

You can find more details about Microsoft monorepo in the talk at the React Native EU 2021 conference.

The next topic on the agenda is React Native platforms. Engineers at Microsoft maintain one out-of-tree platform, React Native Windows, and fork, React Native MacOS. 

Discover:

• the difference in approach to maintenance between the out-of-tree platform and the fork,
• how the new architecture will impact React Native Windows
• how many developers write apps in React Native Windows, and what open-source libraries do they use.

When it comes to developer experience tools used at Microsoft, Lorenzo mentions extra tooling and libraries, for example, extra plugins for Metro, or open-source libraries, such as React Native Test App, Fluent UI, or RNX Kit.  

The next topic mentioned in the episode concerns how the administration of React Native works. Lorenzo shares his insights on what the process between Microsoft, Meta, and the community regarding maintaining React Native looks like in general. 

The last topic mentioned in the discussion is the current trends in React Native development, for example, new React Native architecture. Check out Lorenzo’s talk about the new architecture he delivered at the React Native Wroclaw Meetup.