One of the best things about React Native is that it’s not even that old yet it has so many open source components and libraries you can use in your projects, here are 5 of the most useful ones that I have used in my projects and found very useful:

Airbnb React Native Maps

When I started using Airbnb maps for my project it was the only complete maps library for React Native out there, made by none other than Airbnb for thier own React Native app. Later on React Native team decided to make it the official map solution for React Native and I agree with thier decision. It’s a pretty awesome and robust solution to your mapping needs, I have used it for a directory app with great success and found it to be very performant as well.

https://github.com/airbnb/react-native-maps/

React Native Swiper

This is probably one of the most commonly used one in my apps. You can use it create photo galleries and app intros. Simple and performant!

https://github.com/leecade/react-native-swiper

React Native Blur

Blur effects are a big part of iOS design language so it makes sense that you would want to use them in your Apps as well, this component allows you to implement blur effect in your apps with ease.

https://github.com/react-native-community/react-native-blur

React Native Linear Gradient

Another component to help you make your app look pretty. Quite simple, does what it says.

https://github.com/react-native-community/react-native-linear-gradient

React Native Lazy Load

This component can be really important for user experience if you have many images in a single view, you don’t want to load a lot of images at once especially on a mobile phones with limited and/or slow data packages. Apart from images it also allows you to lazy load views. I recently worked on a project where we had to make an API request only when the user had scrolled to the component, I ended up using an invisible Lazy Load view component to trigger the API request.

https://github.com/magicismight/react-native-lazyload

React Native Vector Icons

This is one of the best libraries out there. you can use it to add font icons to your projects easily, it comes pre bundled with some of the free ones like FontAwesome but you can also generate icons from custom font icons downloaded from places such as FlatIcon, very handy.

https://github.com/oblador/react-native-vector-icons

Hopefully some of you find these useful. I plan on making more such posts in the future so watch this space.