Seeking Guidance on Supporting Lower iOS Versions with the New React Native Architecture

[jackiecookie]

Hi there,

I'm working on a hybrid application that embeds React Native to implement certain features. While we've successfully upgraded our Android app to the new architecture without issues, I'm encountering challenges with iOS version support during the React Native upgrade.

Our iOS app needs to support a minimum version of iOS 13.1 and above. we still have a portion of our user base on versions below iOS 15.1.

Given that the new architecture specifies min_ios_version_supported=15.1, I'm wondering if there might be any recommended approaches to ensure all our iOS users can still benefit from the full React Native new architecture? I'd be extremely grateful for any guidance you could offer on this matter.

Here's what I've tried so far for iOS:

Directly launching with the new architecture:

On iOS 15.1+: Works correctly

On iOS 14.6: Crashes on launch

import UIKit
import React
import CLUI
import React_RCTAppDelegate
import ReactAppDependencyProvider

class XMRNViewController: CLBaseViewController {
   
    private func loadShopRootView() {
        userInfo { [weak self] url, name in
            self?.avatarURL = url
            self?.userName = name
            guard let self = self else { return }
            
            reactNativeDelegate = ReactNativeDelegate()
            reactNativeDelegate?.url = self.url
            reactNativeFactory = RCTReactNativeFactory(delegate: reactNativeDelegate!)
            let view = reactNativeFactory!.rootViewFactory.view(withModuleName: self.moduleName)
            view.frame = self.view.bounds
            self.view.addSubview(view)
        }
    }
    
    
}


class ReactNativeDelegate: RCTDefaultReactNativeFactoryDelegate {
    
    var url: String?
    
    override func sourceURL(for bridge: RCTBridge) -> URL? {
        self.bundleURL()
    }
    
    override func bundleURL() -> URL? {
        return URL(string: self.url ?? "")
    }
    
    override func fabricEnabled() -> Bool {
        return true
    }
    
    override func bridgelessEnabled() -> Bool {
        return true
    }
    
    override func newArchEnabled() -> Bool {
        return true
    }
}

[cortinico]

Hey @jackiecookie
We bumped the min iOS version to 15.1 one year ago:

• [0.76] iOS `minimum OS` version bump to `15.1` Announcement react-native-community/discussions-and-proposals#812

From React Native 0.76 the minimum iOS version will be 15.1.

The New Architecture is not relevant here. You won't be able to ship apps for versions below 15.1 on React Native 0.76+, that's regardless of you using old or new architecture.

Sadly, you'll have to either stay on React Native 0.75 or use a different tool.

We try to give ample time to our users whenever we bump a minimum versions of our tools. Maintaining React Native is a huge challenge and we want to make sure we focus our limited capacity on supporting the majority of users.

[jackiecookie]

Thanks for response. I understand your point. However, as I mentioned above, our app is a hybrid application where most features are native, with React Native handling only certain functionalities. We aim to maintain a smooth transition when users navigate between native pages and RN components. Following this goal, we first upgraded the RN version on Android. However, due to iOS minimum version constraints, we're unable to maintain version consistency between Android and RN. This has become a challenging issue for us to resolve. would it be advisable to either:
Use an older version of React Native across both platforms, or
Maintain different React Native versions for Android and iOS separately?

[cortinico]

It's hard to answer not knowing your situations exactly. Are you looking to drop support for iOS 13 anytime soon? How many users do you have on that iOS version?

[NickGerleman]

As an example of a concrete issue: Is is still possible to run an iOS 13 simulator, on a version of macOS receiving security updates?

[jackiecookie]

It's hard to answer not knowing your situations exactly. Are you looking to drop support for iOS 13 anytime soon? How many users do you have on that iOS version?

We don't have plans to deop version 13 in the short term. About 4% of users are still using version 13, and since our app is just getting started, we don't intend to give up on this portion of users.