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React Native 0.87 Is Out! Here’s Everything That Changed

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A new version of React Native came out in August 2026, and it brings some real changes. Nothing scary, just useful stuff that makes your app safer to build and faster to work with.

In this article, I’ll walk you through the four big changes in version 0.87. Whether you’re new to React Native or you’ve been building apps with it for years, you’ll understand exactly what’s new and why it matters.

Here’s what changed:

1. TypeScript got a lot stricter (in a good way)
2. Metro, the tool that bundles your code, is faster and lighter
3. iOS developers get a new, simpler way to add packages
4. Android moves to a newer build system

Let’s go through each one.

1. TypeScript Got Stricter

If you write React Native apps, you probably use TypeScript. It checks your code while you’re writing it, and warns you before something breaks.

Here’s the problem it had until now: the “type” files that describe React Native’s code were written by hand, separately from the actual code. So sometimes they didn’t match. TypeScript would tell you your code was fine, and then it would…