Why I Use TypeScript in Every React Native Project
After shipping 3+ production React Native apps, TypeScript isn't a preference anymore — it's the difference between a 3am incident and a good night's sleep.
I didn't always use TypeScript. My first React Native project was plain JavaScript, and it worked fine — until we had five developers, three API versions, and a navigation stack that nobody fully understood anymore.
The most common argument against TypeScript is 'it slows you down'. In my experience, it slows you down for the first two hours and saves you two days over the next month. The ROI compounds as the codebase grows.
For React Native specifically, TypeScript shines in three places: navigation params, API response types, and component props. Navigation params are the classic pain point — passing untyped data between screens is how you get 'undefined is not an object' at 3am from a user who somehow hit an edge case you never tested.
I use a simple pattern: define all API response interfaces in a single `types/api.ts` file, co-locate component prop types with the component, and use Zod for runtime validation at API boundaries. This way TypeScript catches compile-time errors and Zod catches runtime surprises.
The setup cost is real but low. Create Expo App with the TypeScript template, add `@tsconfig/react-native` as a base, and you're done in 5 minutes. There's no good reason not to start typed.