Installing React Native

If you are coming from a web background, the easiest way to get started with React Native is with Expo tools because they allow you to start a project without installing and configuring Xcode or Android Studio. Expo CLI sets up a development environment on your local machine and you can be writing a React Native app within minutes. For instant development, you can use Snack to try React Native out directly in your web browser.

If you are familiar with native development, you will likely want to use React Native CLI. It requires Xcode or Android Studio to get started. If you already have one of these tools installed, you should be able to get up and running within a few minutes. If they are not installed, you should expect to spend about an hour installing and configuring them.

We will be installing for Android Studio on Windows.

Installing Dependencies

You will need Node, the React Native command line interface, Python2, 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.

Node, Python2, JDK

We recommend installing Node and Python2 via Chocolatey, a popular package manager for Windows. React Native also requires a recent version of the Java SE Development Kit (JDK), as well as Python 2. Both can be installed using Chocolatey.

Open an Administrator Command Prompt (right click Command Prompt and select “Run as Administrator”), then run the following command:

choco install -y nodejs.install python2 jdk8

If you have already installed Node on your system, make sure it is Node 8.3 or newer. If you already have a JDK on your system, make sure it is version 8 or newer.

The React Native CLI

Node comes with npm, which lets you install the React Native command line interface.

Run the following command in a Command Prompt or shell:

npm install -g react-native-cli