Learning React Native can feel overwhelming at first. For startups, React Native can be a bit difficult to learn and understand.
Fortunately, with a well-structured learning process, absorbing the basic concepts of React Native is not that difficult. Especially if you’re starting out with apps that aren’t too complex and will teach you the basic fundamentals of React Native development.
In this blog post, we suggest the best app ideas that new companies can build using React Native.
Start-ups can ensure the success of these apps in terms of usability and performance by hiring React Native developers.
1. Book application
One of the easiest mobile apps you can build with React Native is the Book app. For a startup company, building a simple Book app can be a great way to get started with React Native.
You will also learn how to create a few basic functions that are the basic principles of mobile app development in general.
You can create your own version of the Books app in React Native. You can use an existing app like Goodreads, Audible, or Amazon Books as inspiration.
We recommend starting with a static application where books and categories are hard-coded in React Native code (like arrays or dictionaries).
After the core features and UI are complete, you should consider adding Firebase as a backend for your first React Native app to serve as a dynamic database for your books, categories, and users.
2. Tracking expenses
Using your knowledge and creativity, you can create your own version of the Budget app in React Native. You can use an existing mobile app like Wallet, Expensify, or Expense Manager as inspiration.
You can start with static mock data, where expenses and categories are hard-coded in React Native code (like fields or lists).
Once you’re done with the core features and UI, you can add Firebase or other backend databases as the backend for your first React Native app to serve as a dynamic data store for expenses, categories, accounts, and users.
3. Recipes application
The Food app can be a great way to get started with React Native due to its simplicity and use of basic components. You can use existing mobile apps like Tasty, Yummly, and Cookpad as inspiration.
Don’t forget to also browse Mobile Templates, UI8, Dribbble, and Behance for more mobile design inspiration.
As with other mobile app ideas, you can start with static mock JSON data, where the list of recipes along with the name, description, and required time are hardcoded in React Native code (as arrays, lists, or sets).
Once you’ve finished your design components and UI, you can start using Firebase or other databases as your backend. You can then integrate a video plugin that will provide the video URL through the backend.
4. Bidding app in React Native
By building a bidding app, startups developing on React Native can gain basic programming knowledge as well as the basic in-depth workings of React Native projects.
Feel free to use an existing app as inspiration to design an app for deals like the Coupon app, DG Coupon, and SavYour.
After all, these apps are very successful, so you need to emulate that level of success by providing the best possible features for your deals app.
The complex working mechanism of getting data from different sites and integrating it into your own application can be very complex, to begin with.
However, there is still a basic understanding of using React Native components and other required plugins, along with some basic knowledge of integrating data from different sites. This means development teams learn a lot more, right from the start.
You can start with static sample data, where a list of coupons along with discount rates, expiration date/time, and coupon provider is hard-coded in React Native code (as arrays, sets, or lists).
After you complete your design components and UI, you can contact various sales sites and integrate their coupons and cards into your database and pass them to your front end. If you choose to take this turn, you can also create a social network above the initial offers application.
5. Messages application
A company can use this opportunity to learn how to use the core components and plugins of the React Native UI and how to integrate different news sources in different formats from multiple pages.
Before you start writing code, check out some existing news apps for inspiration, like Medium, Bloomberg, or BBC News.
Note that some blogs expose an API where you can directly retrieve structured data. For example, WordPress has a REST API, WooCommerce, etc.
Most blogs provide data in various formats such as RSS or JSON feeds. For example, our news reader app template does exactly that: a news app with a WordPress backend.
6. Friends Around Me app
“Friends Around Me” can be considered a social application. It’s an awesome app idea for a React Native start-up developer. They can get a basic understanding of how to build React Native interfaces as well as more advanced social features.
Before you start writing code, you can use an existing app for design inspiration, such as Facebook, Find My Friends, and Nearby. Check out all their cool features and try to pick the ones that make sense for your mobile app idea.
To get started first read about the various map plugins and WebSocket integrations. Once you are sure which plugin best suits your needs for your app, integrate the map plugin into your app.
In the list below the application, you can create a list of friends who are nearby. Click on them to mark their location and go to the chat screen to chat with them.
Location, latitude, and longitude data can be stored in a database and passed to the front-end map plugin for navigation.
7. Radio/Music application
With this app idea, you can implement your own mobile app for playing music and streaming radio broadcasts. You can integrate the audio npm package to play music in your app, natively.
You can also use the React Native radio package to capture radio frequencies and stream them. You can also create a music playlist based on albums, artists, and different genres.
There are many more music features that you can add to any radio app, such as repeat mode, shuffle mode, queues, equalizer, etc.
To get started, create a list of all the data and audio files you want and put them in your backend database. You can then pass this data and audio files to the front end and integrate them with an audio package to play songs/radio streams.
As for the radio broadcast functionality, the React Native package will do all the work for you: you’ll only need to feed the frequencies to the API.
8. Note-taking app
The Note-Taking app might be the simplest app idea that a startup can easily implement in React Native.
From basic note management features to more advanced text editing features, it’s up to you how deep you want to dive into React Native’s core components.
You can provide them with a rich text editor by leveraging an existing React Native package like Quill.JS to give users an amazing note-taking experience. You can also use the date and time component to track the date a note was inserted.
You can also implement image upload.
That’s a wrap. Let us know in the comments your React Native app ideas for startups.
