Add draft 0.81.0 blog post

Author: motiz88

website/blog/2025-08-11-react-native-0.81.md

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+---
+title: 'React Native 0.81 - Android 16 support, faster iOS builds, and more'
+authors: [motiz88, vzaidman, gabrieldonadel, chrfalch]
+tags: [engineering]
+date: 2025-08-11
+---
+
+# React Native 0.81 - Android 16 support, faster iOS builds, and more
+
+Today we are excited to release React Native 0.81!
+
+This release increases the target Android version to Android 16 (API level 36) and includes a variety of other stability improvements and bugfixes, as well as **experimental** support for faster iOS builds using precompilation.
+
+### Highlights
+
+- [Android 16 support](#android-16-support)
+- [SafeAreaView deprecation](#safeareaview-deprecation)
+- [Community-maintained JavaScriptCore support](#community-maintained-javascriptcore-support)
+- [[Experimental] Precompiled iOS builds](#experimental-precompiled-ios-builds)
+
+<!--truncate-->
+
+## Highlights
+
+### Android 16 support
+
+Android apps built with React Native 0.81 will now default to targeting Android 16 (API level 36). Android 16 mandates that [apps are displayed edge-to-edge](https://developer.android.com/develop/ui/views/layout/edge-to-edge) with no support for opting out. To this end, we are also deprecating the `<SafeAreaView>` component ([see below](#safeareaview-deprecation)) in favor of alternatives that provide better edge-to-edge support.
+
+Another big change for apps targeting Android 16 is that the [predictive back gesture](https://developer.android.com/guide/navigation/custom-back/predictive-back-gesture) is enabled by default. With this change, [`onBackPressed()`](<https://developer.android.com/reference/androidx/activity/ComponentActivity#onBackPressed()>) is not called and [`KeyEvent.KEYCODE_BACK`](https://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/KeyEvent#KEYCODE_BACK) is not dispatched anymore. So existing apps updating to `targetSdk` 36 may not behave as expected unless the code is migrated properly. You can opt-out for now but this option will likely be removed in the next major Android release. Refer to [this post in the discussions-and-proposal repository](TODO: add link) for additional information around handling predictive back in React Native apps.
+
+To learn more about the edge-to-edge requirements, predictive back and other changes to expect when migrating, read the official guidance for Android developers on [behavior changes in Android 16](https://developer.android.com/about/versions/16/behavior-changes-16).
+
+Here is also a [video from Google I/O 2025](https://youtu.be/IaNpcrCSDiI?si=K0N9Qm21oBE0Z8_k&t=2333) announcing the changes.
+
+### SafeAreaView deprecation
+
+<!--alex ignore simple retext-equality-->
+
+The built-in `<SafeAreaView>` component was originally designed to provide **limited, iOS-only support** for keeping content in the "safe areas" of the screen (away from camera notches, rounded corners, etc). It is not compatible with edge-to-edge rendering on Android, and does not permit customization beyond simple padding. As a result, many apps have opted for more portable and flexible solutions, such as [`react-native-safe-area-context`](https://appandflow.github.io/react-native-safe-area-context/).
+
+In React Native 0.81, the legacy `<SafeAreaView>` component is deprecated, and you will see warnings in React Native DevTools if your app uses it. It will be removed in a future version of React Native. We recommend that you migrate to `react-native-safe-area-context` or a similar library now to ensure your app looks its best across all platforms.
+
+### Community-maintained JavaScriptCore support
+
+[As we announced last year](./2025-04-08-react-native-0.79.md#jsc-moving-to-community-package), support for the JavaScriptCore (JSC) engine has moved to a [community-maintained package](https://github.com/react-native-community/javascriptcore) that is released separately from React Native itself. In React Native 0.81, we're removing the built-in version of JavaScriptCore. All apps that require JavaScriptCore should now use the community package in order to upgrade to 0.81. [Read the installation instructions](https://github.com/react-native-community/javascriptcore#installation) for the details.
+
+This change does not affect apps that are using Hermes.
+
+### [Experimental] Precompiled iOS builds
+
+React Native 0.81 introduces precompiled iOS builds, cutting compile times by up to 10x in projects where React Native is the primary dependency. This is the result of a collaboration between Expo and Meta, and expands on [work we previously shipped in 0.80](./2025-06-12-react-native-0.80.md#experimental---react-native-ios-dependencies-are-now-prebuilt).
+
+This feature is still experimental, but we are hoping to enable it for all apps in a future release. If you'd like to try precompiled builds in your own app, you can enable them by specifying the following environment variables when you run `pod install`:
+
+```bash
+RCT_USE_RN_DEP=1 RCT_USE_PREBUILT_RNCORE=1 bundle exec pod install
+```
+
+Please provide feedback in [this GitHub discussion](TODO).
+
+There are two limitations we are already aware of, and are working to resolve:
+
+- In precompiled builds, you cannot debug and step into React Native's internals like you can when building from source. You can, however, still debug your own native code while using a precompiled version of React Native.
+- Precompiled builds are not supported in Xcode 26 Beta out of the box, since it builds all targets with [Swift explicit modules](https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode-release-notes/xcode-26-release-notes#Resolved-Issues-in-Xcode-26-Beta:~:text=Starting%20from%20Xcode%2026%2C%20Swift%20explicit%20modules%20will%20be%20the%20default%20mode%20for%20building%20all%20Swift%20targets)). You can use precompiled React Native builds with Xcode 26 by setting `SWIFT_ENABLE_EXPLICIT_MODULES` to `NO` in your Xcode project. We will address this limitation in an upcoming React Native 0.81 patch release.
+
+You can read more about this feature in Expo's full blog post, [Precompiled React Native for iOS: Faster builds are coming in 0.81](https://expo.dev/blog/precompiled-react-native-for-ios).
+
+## Breaking Changes
+
+### Minimum Node.js bumped to 20
+
+React Native now requires [Node.js](http://Node.js) version 20.19.4 (the latest [Maintenance LTS](https://nodejs.org/en/about/previous-releases) version at the time of writing) or higher. You may need to upgrade Node.js in your development or CI environment when you upgrade to React Native 0.81.
+
+### Minimum Xcode bumped to 16.1
+
+React Native now requires [Xcode 16.1](https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode-release-notes/xcode-16_1-release-notes) or higher to build iOS projects. You may need to upgrade Xcode in your development or CI environment when you upgrade to React Native 0.81.
+
+### Metro: Better support for advanced configuration in Community CLI projects
+
+Metro now respects the [`resolveRequest`](https://metrobundler.dev/docs/configuration#resolverequest) and [`getModulesRunBeforeMainModule`](getModulesRunBeforeMainModule) options if specified in the `metro.config.js` file of a React Native Community CLI project. Previously, setting them would have no effect. If you have custom values for these options in your [`metro.config.js`](metro.config.js) file, you may need to delete them in order to restore the previous behavior.
+
+### Improved reporting of uncaught JavaScript errors
+
+React Native DevTools now shows the original message and stack trace of uncaught JavaScript errors, as well as the error's [cause](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Error/cause) if any, and an Owner Stack for errors thrown by components. This makes errors easier to debug and fix.
+
+![Example error including a cause and Owner Stack](../static/blog/assets/0.81-improved-uncaught-error.png)
+
+If you are logging JavaScript errors to your backend or to a third-party error reporting service, this may affect the logs you see after upgrading to React Native 0.81 (for example: you might see more thrown errors that used to be reported via `console.error`), and you may need to update some backend logic accordingly.
+
+### Miscellaneous API changes
+
+You may be affected by these changes if your app (or a library you use) relies on the old or private version of a particular API. For most apps, we don't anticipate any changes other than upgrading some libraries to their latest versions.
+
+- Android: MountingManager is now Kotlin `internal`.
+- Android: Cleaned up measurements path and ReactTextViewManagerCallback injection.
+
+Read the full list of breaking changes [in the CHANGELOG for 0.81](https://github.com/facebook/react-native/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md#v0810).
+
+## Acknowledgements
+
+React Native 0.81 contains over 1110 commits from 110 contributors. Thanks for all your hard work!
+
+<!--alex ignore special retext-equality-->
+
+We want to send a special thank you to those community members that shipped significant contributions in this release:
+
+- [Christian Falch](<[https://github.com/chrfalch](https://github.com/chrfalch)>) for the amazing work on precompiled iOS builds.
+- [Mathieu Acthernoene](https://github.com/zoontek) for crucial contributions to Android edge-to-edge support
+- &lt;TODO> for helping test Android 16 and the SafeAreaView deprecation.
+
+Moreover, we also want to thank the additional authors that worked on documenting features in this release post:
+
+- &lt;TODO>
+
+## Upgrade to 0.81
+
+Please use the [React Native Upgrade Helper](https://react-native-community.github.io/upgrade-helper/) to view code changes between React Native versions for existing projects, in addition to the Upgrading docs.
+
+To create a new project:
+
+If you use Expo, React Native 0.81 will be supported in the upcoming Expo SDK 54 as the default version of React Native.
+
+::: info
+
+0.81 is now the latest stable version of React Native and 0.78.x moves to unsupported. For more information see React Native's support policy. We aim to publish a final end-of-life update of 0.78 in the near future.
+
+:::