The React Native Skills Gap
React Native's promise is one codebase for iOS and Android. The reality is that shipping a production app requires understanding both platforms: their entitlements, background execution models, native module bridging, App Store review requirements, and the ways they diverge from each other in ways that the React Native docs do not always cover.
A React Native developer who has only built web apps with a thin mobile layer is very different from one who has actually shipped apps to both stores and dealt with rejection, background audio permissions, and Xcode certificate hell. Here is how to tell them apart.
Skills That Matter for Production React Native
Expo vs bare workflow judgment
Expo's managed workflow accelerates early development significantly: OTA updates, easy builds, and a large library of pre-built native modules. But some requirements force you to eject to the bare workflow or use Expo with custom native modules. A strong candidate can explain when managed Expo is the right call and when it is not, and has experience with both. Candidates who have only used the managed workflow will hit walls on projects with complex native requirements.
Platform-specific behavior
iOS and Android diverge in ways that matter for real apps. Background audio requires an audio session category on iOS and a foreground service with a persistent notification on Android. Biometric authentication uses FaceID on newer iPhones and fingerprint or face recognition on Android, with different API shapes. File access and permissions work differently on both platforms. A developer who has not shipped apps with these requirements will discover the platform differences after you have launched, not before.
Performance and the bridge
React Native's JavaScript thread and native thread communicate across a bridge (or via JSI in the new architecture). Heavy computation on the JS thread causes dropped frames. A developer who understands this architecture knows when to offload work to native modules, when to use Reanimated for animations that need to run on the UI thread, and how to use the Flipper profiler to diagnose jank.
EAS Build and submission
Expo Application Services (EAS) Build is now the standard for building and submitting React Native apps. It handles certificates, provisioning profiles, and the submission pipeline to both stores. Developers who have only used local builds will struggle when CI/CD, OTA updates, and multi-environment configurations enter the picture.
App Store Submission Experience
Getting an app accepted by the App Store is not automatic. Apple reviews for guideline compliance, and rejections can delay a launch by days. A React Native developer who has been through multiple App Store submissions knows the common rejection reasons, what the review team looks for in apps that handle sensitive data or payments, and how to respond to a rejection efficiently.
Interview Questions
- How would you implement background audio that continues when the phone is locked, on both iOS and Android?
- Walk me through how you have handled App Store submission, including any rejections you dealt with.
- What is the difference between the old bridge architecture and JSI? When does it matter?
- How do you implement offline-first data sync in a React Native app?
- How would you set up a multi-environment (dev, staging, production) build configuration with EAS?
Red Flags
- Has never submitted an app to the App Store or Google Play
- Cannot explain what a native module is or when you need one
- Uses
expo gofor development but has no experience with EAS Build for production - Has no opinion on Reanimated vs the Animated API
- Has only built apps that do not use the camera, biometrics, background tasks, or audio
Our React Native Work
We built BeSound, a mental health audio app, from design to investor-ready prototype in six weeks. The app required background audio playback with lock screen controls on both iOS and Android, progressive audio download, session tracking, and biometric app lock for sensitive user data. We handled the EAS build configuration and both store submissions.
The six-week delivery was only possible because we had built these platform-specific requirements before and knew exactly where the traps were.
If you are building a mobile app and need a React Native developer with real shipping experience, tell us what you are building.