react-native-macos
An experimental fork of React Native for building macOS desktop applications using Cocoa.
What is react-native-macos?
React Native macOS was an experimental fork of React Native that enabled developers to build native macOS desktop applications using React and JavaScript. It extended the React Native framework to support macOS as a target platform, allowing the creation of desktop apps with native UI components. The project aimed to bring the React Native development experience to desktop application development.
React Native developers looking to build desktop applications for macOS without learning a completely new framework. It was also suitable for web developers familiar with React who wanted to create native macOS apps.
It allowed developers to use their existing React Native knowledge and codebase to target macOS, reducing the learning curve for desktop development. By leveraging Cocoa for native rendering, it provided a way to create performant macOS apps with a consistent development experience across platforms.
Overview
[deprecated in favor of https://microsoft.github.io/react-native-windows/] React Native for macOS is an experimental fork for writing desktop apps using Cocoa
Use Cases
Best For
- Building native macOS applications with React Native
- Extending existing React Native mobile apps to desktop
- Creating cross-platform apps that include macOS support
- Developing desktop utilities with React component architecture
- Prototyping macOS apps using JavaScript and React
- Leveraging React Native ecosystem for desktop development
Not Ideal For
- Projects requiring long-term maintenance and security updates
- Teams targeting the latest macOS versions or React Native APIs
- Applications where production stability and community support are critical
- Developers needing a mature ecosystem with extensive third-party libraries
Pros & Cons
Pros
Renders React components to native macOS elements using Cocoa, providing a authentic desktop look and feel without web views.
Follows the same APIs and patterns as React Native for mobile, allowing developers to reuse skills and code across platforms.
Offers RNTesterApp with demos to test and understand component behavior on macOS, aiding in development and prototyping.
Enables building for macOS alongside iOS and Android, leveraging the 'learn once, write anywhere' philosophy of React Native.
Cons
The project is explicitly marked as no longer maintained, with no updates or bug fixes, making it risky for any current development.
As an experimental fork, it lacks the community support, plugins, and detailed guides of official React Native, relying on sparse README instructions.
Adding macOS target to existing projects requires merging configs and manual adjustments, as noted in the README, increasing initial overhead.
Frequently Asked Questions
Related Projects
react-native-webCross-platform React UI packages
react-native-windowsA framework for building native Windows apps with React.
reactxpLibrary for cross-platform app development.
@areslabs/alita一套把React Native代码转换成微信小程序代码的转换引擎工具。我们不造轮子，不发明新框架，只是提供工具把RN扩展到微信小程序端。
Found a gem we're missing?
Open-Awesome is built by the community, for the community. Submit a project, suggest an awesome list, or help improve the catalog on GitHub.