Cross-platform development: React Native 0.85 gets new animation backend
The open-source framework introduces an experimental animation backend and outsources the Jest testing framework into its own package.
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Meta has released React Native 0.85. Developers can use a new animation backend and get new features in the DevTools. Node.js versions that have reached their end-of-life date, as well as Node.js releases before version 20.19.4, are no longer supported by React Native. With the release of React Native 0.85, support for version 0.82 ends.
React Native is an open-source cross-platform UI framework for building native apps for Android, iOS, Windows, and macOS using the JavaScript library React. React was also once developed by Meta, but has been under the umbrella of the Linux Foundation since February 2026 in an independent foundation, the React Foundation.
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Shared Animation Backend
The latest release React Native 0.85.1 introduces the Shared Animation Backend as an experimental feature. This internal engine was developed in collaboration with the company Software Mansion. It controls how React Native handles animations under the hood for the library React Native Reanimated, developed by Software Mansion, and for the Animated library. Since the main logic for Reanimated is now included in the React Native core, the library benefits from performance improvements, among other things. Layout properties can now be animated in Animated via the Native Driver.
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Updates for DevTools and Jest Usage
A breaking change in version 0.85 affects the handling of the Jest testing framework: The React Native team has removed the Jest preset from react-native and outsourced it to the new package @react-native/jest-preset. This reduces the size of the core package. The jest.config.js file can be updated as follows:
- preset: 'react-native',
+ preset: '@react-native/jest-preset',Developers will also find some new features in the React Native DevTools. For example, multiple CDP (Chrome DevTools Protocol) connections can now be established simultaneously, and native tabs are available on macOS.
The Upgrading documentation provides hints for updating, and the React Native Upgrade Helper shows the code changes between versions in existing projects.
Further details about the new release can be found in the React Native blog.
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