Getting Stuck in App Development: When Missing Knowledge Significantly Slows You Down (React Native)

Intro

I think it's exciting to start developing an app. But it isn't always as smooth as we would want. And it's definitely frustrating to hit a wall because you don't know a crucial part of the technology stack. It's the knowledge gaps that prevent you from implementing key features. In this post, I discuss this common pitfall using a real-world example of building a mobile app with React Native while lacking expertise in Java. We'll explore why it happens, how it feels, and most importantly, ways to break through and keep moving forward.

Diving into React Native Without a Full Toolkit

Let's imagine: you are a front-end developer with solid JavaScript skills, excited to build a cross-platform mobile app. React Native appears to be the perfect tool for you. It lets you write once and deploy to both iOS and Android using familiar React syntax. You start planning and developing the app, everything feels productive until you need to touch native code for some reason. This is what happened to me when I was developing the Voice Timer app.

When I was developing the Voice Timer app, I wanted to customize a notification from a library for background work. But I didn't know Java/Kotlin, and therefore, I couldn't do that. Some functionalities weren't available through React Native, but there was a possibility to write custom native modules. With AI, I still wrote some Kotlin code, but when you do not even know the basics of the native language, it sucks. Not knowing Java/Kotlin significantly slowed down my progress.

If you're like many React Native devs who come from a pure JS background, Java might feel like a foreign language. Certainly, it was for me. You've never dealt with Android's Activity lifecycle, permissions in the Manifest file, or writing custom modules in Java to expose APIs to your JS code. Before starting to develop, you are excited about learning React Native once and writing anywhere, but then after you get your hands dirty, you realize that "anywhere" sometimes requires platform-specific expertise.

Why This Happens: The Gap Between High-Level Tools and Low-Level Realities

A modern development framework like React Native is designed to abstract away complexity. It allows you to focus on logic and user experience without having to rewrite everything for each platform. But abstraction isn't elimination. Under the hood, these tools rely on native languages and APIs. If you only need stuff that is offered by React Native itself or libraries for React Native, no native involvement is required. But if you need something advanced like custom camera integrations, background services (there are libraries for that, but sometimes you need to customize or write something yourself), or OS-level permissions, you suddenly need to know some Java/Kotlin if writing for Android.

In the React Native + Java example, the problem stems from Android's architecture. React Native uses a JavaScript bridge to call Java code for native modules. If a pre-built library doesn't exist for your needs, you have to write or modify Java code yourself. Without Java basics, understanding classes, interfaces, and intents, you are just stuck. This knowledge gap blocks you from finishing your app.

Now It Is Not That Exciting

After experiencing such a situation, you start questioning your choices: "Why didn't I pick a framework I'm fully comfortable with?" or something similar. I definitely had some thoughts about working with a technology that I know well. I thought that this would have been nice, but instead I had to deal with Android's complexity. It was definitely the problem of not being able to customize a notification from a library for background work in Java. The workaround was that I had to use a really good notification library. I also couldn't make the background execution work without the awesome library called "Background Actions", which had that notification that I couldn't customize.

In React Native, the Java barrier may frustrate you, especially after you heard all the good things about React Native, and you thought that you could write code with only JavaScript. But then reality comes, and you are stuck. This means you need to change your approach.

How to Overcome "I am Stuck" Situation

You don't need to become a Java expert quickly to unstick yourself. Here are a couple of guidelines to get back on track:

Access and Prioritize: First, confirm if you really need the native feature. Can you use a third-party library like react-native-fs for file access or Expo's APIs to avoid Java altogether? Tools like Expo abstract even more, letting you build without touching native code in many cases.
Learn Just Enough: You do not need the whole Java or Android courses. For Java in React Native, start with the official docs on writing native modules. Find tutorials that get you up to speed on Java and Android basics, learn from them, and practice by setting a simple Java project in Android Studio to experiment. I wish I had embraced this mindset earlier instead of hoping to avoid Java/Kotlin altogether. Of course, if the app is quite complex, you probably need to have better Java skills than just the basics.
Check forums like Reddit's r/react-native or Stack Overflow. You can also join Discord servers for React Native. Real-time chats can resolve issues faster than solo debugging.
Build Around the Gap: Build the rest of the app first. This keeps momentum going and might reveal workarounds you hadn't considered. This may not be easy to stop working on the problem you are having, as you may feel like you are ready for the challenge. But in my experience, tackling the part you lack knowledge in may take so much time.... It's a good idea to resist the temptation of diving into the challenge and continue building other functionalities first.
Reflect and Document: Once unstuck, blog about it. Sharing your struggle helps others and reinforces your own learning. And this is even more important in the age of AI, where you need to stand out from the crowd.

Conclusion

That's it! This is a post about how to get unstuck when developing an app. If you work with React Native long enough, you'll probably encounter a situation where native code knowledge helps. Even beyond React Native, there is stuff without which you may be slowed down. This means you either need to fill the knowledge gap or find a good enough alternative.

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