Making the Switch to React Native

I talk about why I plan to switch from Flutter to React Native, for building Cross. A todo/task app that syncs to Notion and Obsidian.

Luis Schröder

Owner

Build In Public

Build In Public

Build In Public

Hello everyone, I started building an app called Cross. Cross is a todo app that syncs to Notion and Obsidian.

And while building it, I noticed that I just can’t build a high-quality app that feels native using Flutter. So you can, but it is really hard, because Flutter doesn’t have Liquid Glass or any of the new animations and widgets. What is a huge problem, and it also doesn’t support M3 Expressive, which I think is easier to recreate, but still, it would take me multiple weeks to recreate. So I thought maybe it’s time for a new programming language. At first, I thought of learning Swift. But then I remember that at the beginning, when I learned programming, there was a second option called React Native. So I checked them out and realized that I can build an app that feels native and high quality using React Native and Expo. So I decided to release Cross using Flutter, and then after I launch, I will make the switch to React Native.

Why did I now decide to switch after the launch? I did it because starting now from scratch would take my motivation away.

Because Dart was my first programming language and I never learned JavaScript or anything else, I think this can be a deeper learning curve and will probably take a bit of time to learn it.

Why did I choose React Native over Swift now? I chose React Native over Swift because when I understand it right, I can build an app using Expo, and when something is missing, I can still add it using Kotlin or Swift, so I thought it is great still be able to code using the native language when you want.

You can follow me on Threads (most active): https://www.threads.com/@cross.task

Or on Bluesky (sometimes active): https://bsky.app/luisjourney.bsky.social

Or Twitter/X (least active): https://x.com/Cross_tasks

Join the waitlist here: https://wt.ls/cross

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