You will need Node, Watchman, the React Native command line interface, a JDK, and Android Studio.
While you can use any editor of your choice to develop your app, you will need to install Android Studio in order to set up the necessary tooling to build your React Native app for Android.
We recommend installing Node and Watchman using Homebrew. Run the following commands in a Terminal after installing Homebrew:
brew install node
brew install watchmanIf you have already installed Node on your system, make sure it is Node 12 or newer.
Watchman is a tool by Facebook for watching changes in the filesystem. It is highly recommended you install it for better performance.
We recommend installing JDK using Homebrew. Run the following commands in a Terminal after installing Homebrew:
brew cask install adoptopenjdk/openjdk/adoptopenjdk8If you have already installed JDK on your system, make sure it is JDK 8 or newer.
Setting up your development environment can be somewhat tedious if you're new to Android development. If you're already familiar with Android development, there are a few things you may need to configure. In either case, please make sure to carefully follow the next few steps.
Download and install Android Studio. While on Android Studio installation wizard, make sure the boxes next to all of the following items are checked:
Android SDKAndroid SDK PlatformAndroid Virtual Device
Then, click "Next" to install all of these components.
If the checkboxes are grayed out, you will have a chance to install these components later on.
Once setup has finalized and you're presented with the Welcome screen, proceed to the next step.
Android Studio installs the latest Android SDK by default. Building a React Native app with native code, however, requires the Android 10 (Q) SDK in particular. Additional Android SDKs can be installed through the SDK Manager in Android Studio.
To do that, open Android Studio, click on "Configure" button and select "SDK Manager".
The SDK Manager can also be found within the Android Studio "Preferences" dialog, under Appearance & Behavior → System Settings → Android SDK.
Select the "SDK Platforms" tab from within the SDK Manager, then check the box next to "Show Package Details" in the bottom right corner. Look for and expand the Android 10 (Q) entry, then make sure the following items are checked:
Android SDK Platform 29Intel x86 Atom_64 System ImageorGoogle APIs Intel x86 Atom System Image
Next, select the "SDK Tools" tab and check the box next to "Show Package Details" here as well. Look for and expand the "Android SDK Build-Tools" entry, then make sure that 29.0.2 is selected.
Finally, click "Apply" to download and install the Android SDK and related build tools.
The React Native tools require some environment variables to be set up in order to build apps with native code.
Add the following lines to your $HOME/.bash_profile or $HOME/.bashrc (if you are using zsh then ~/.zprofile or ~/.zshrc) config file:
export ANDROID_HOME=$HOME/Library/Android/sdk
export PATH=$PATH:$ANDROID_HOME/emulator
export PATH=$PATH:$ANDROID_HOME/tools
export PATH=$PATH:$ANDROID_HOME/tools/bin
export PATH=$PATH:$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools
.bash_profileis specific tobash. If you're using another shell, you will need to edit the appropriate shell-specific config file.
Type source $HOME/.bash_profile for bash or source $HOME/.zprofile to load the config into your current shell. Verify that ANDROID_HOME has been set by running echo $ANDROID_HOME and the appropriate directories have been added to your path by running echo $PATH.
Please make sure you use the correct Android SDK path. You can find the actual location of the SDK in the Android Studio "Preferences" dialog, under Appearance & Behavior → System Settings → Android SDK.
React Native has a built-in command line interface. Rather than install and manage a specific version of the CLI globally, we recommend you access the current version at runtime using npx, which ships with Node.js. With npx react-native <command>, the current stable version of the CLI will be downloaded and executed at the time the command is run.
If you previously installed a global
react-native-clipackage, please remove it as it may cause unexpected issues.
React Native has a built-in command line interface, which you can use to generate a new project. You can access it without installing anything globally using npx, which ships with Node.js. Let's create a new React Native project called "AwesomeProject":
npx react-native init AwesomeProjectThis is not necessary if you are integrating React Native into an existing application, if you "ejected" from Expo, or if you're adding Android support to an existing React Native project (see Platform Specific Code). You can also use a third-party CLI to init your React Native app, such as Ignite CLI.
If you want to start a new project with a specific React Native version, you can use the --version argument:
npx react-native init AwesomeProject --version X.XX.XYou can also start a project with a custom React Native template, like TypeScript, with --template argument:
npx react-native init AwesomeTSProject --template react-native-template-typescriptYou will need an Android device to run your React Native Android app. This can be either a physical Android device, or more commonly, you can use an Android Virtual Device which allows you to emulate an Android device on your computer.
Either way, you will need to prepare the device to run Android apps for development.
If you have a physical Android device, you can use it for development in place of an AVD by plugging it in to your computer using a USB cable and following the instructions here.
If you use Android Studio to open ./AwesomeProject/android, you can see the list of available Android Virtual Devices (AVDs) by opening the "AVD Manager" from within Android Studio. Look for an icon that looks like this:
If you have recently installed Android Studio, you will likely need to create a new AVD. Select "Create Virtual Device...", then pick any Phone from the list and click "Next", then select the Q API Level 29 image.
Click "Next" then "Finish" to create your AVD. At this point you should be able to click on the green triangle button next to your AVD to launch it, then proceed to the next step.
First, you will need to start Metro, the JavaScript bundler that ships with React Native. Metro "takes in an entry file and various options, and returns a single JavaScript file that includes all your code and its dependencies."—Metro Docs
To start Metro, run npx react-native start inside your React Native project folder:
npx react-native startreact-native start starts Metro Bundler.
If you use the Yarn package manager, you can use
yarninstead ofnpxwhen running React Native commands inside an existing project.
If you're familiar with web development, Metro is a lot like webpack—for React Native apps. Unlike Kotlin or Java, JavaScript isn't compiled—and neither is React Native. Bundling isn't the same as compiling, but it can help improve startup performance and translate some platform-specific JavaScript into more JavaScript.
Let Metro Bundler run in its own terminal. Open a new terminal inside your React Native project folder. Run the following:
npx react-native run-androidIf everything is set up correctly, you should see your new app running in your Android emulator shortly.
npx react-native run-android is one way to run your app - you can also run it directly from within Android Studio.
If you can't get this to work, see the Troubleshooting page.
Now that you have successfully run the app, let's modify it.
- Open
App.jsin your text editor of choice and edit some lines. - Press the
Rkey twice or selectReloadfrom the Developer Menu (⌘M) to see your changes!
Congratulations! You've successfully run and modified your first React Native app.
- If you want to add this new React Native code to an existing application, check out the Integration guide.
If you're curious to learn more about React Native, check out the Introduction to React Native.