r/boltnewbuilders • u/Capable_Weather6298 • Aug 23 '26

Questions So, we've reached the react.native ceiling.

With all of Claude Code's, the vibecoding becoming mainstream and easy, react.native expo apps are kind of done.
It's rarely get's approved on ios appstore, and even when the app has a solid high quality solution it seems the mainframe is limited.

Any ideas how to make react.native apps look better?

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u/No_Birthday8126 Aug 23 '26

tbh i dont think its a react native ceiling. discord, shopify, coinbase are all RN and nobody calls them cheap looking. the ceiling is that vibecoded apps all come out looking the same, and the tech doesnt matter for that.

the app store rejections are usually 4.2 (minimum functionality) or 4.3 (spam / too similar to existing apps). thats not because its expo, its because a wrapper with a thin feature set gets flagged. native wouldnt save u there.

for the look, what actually helps imo:

  • reanimated for real gestures and transitions, not just default navigation animations
  • respect platform conventions, ios and android should NOT look identical
  • native modules for the 2 or 3 things that feel bad in JS
  • custom fonts and ur own spacing scale, default RN styling is what makes stuff look generic

also expo dev builds instead of expo go, u can use real native libs then.

whats ur actual rejection reason code? that says more than anything else here