#047 - Challenges of Building an On-call App with Rory Bain

Rocket Ship

In this conversation, Simon interviews Rory Bain, a product engineer at Incident.io, about his experience building a multi-platform on-call mobile app using React Native. Rory shares his background in native mobile app development and his transition to React Native. They discuss the reasons for choosing React Native over frameworks like Flutter or Kotlin Multiplatform. Rory also explains the process of developing the on-call app, including the use of Expo and the challenges of implementing push notifications and critical alerts on Android. They also dive into the differences between iOS and Android development, the use of libraries like Tailwind and SWR, the challenges of CI/CD integration, and debugging issues with Expo's EAS.

Learn React Native - https://galaxies.dev

Rory Bain

• Rory X: https://x.com/rorybain
• Rory GitHub: https://github.com/rorydbain

Links

• Building a multi-platform on-call mobile app: https://incident.io/hubs/building-on-call/building-a-multi-platform-on-call-mobile-app
• Behind the Flame: Rory: https://incident.io/blog/behind-the-flame-rory
• incident.io On-call: https://incident.io/on-call
• Vercel SWR: https://github.com/vercel/swr

Takeaways

• The on-call mobile app at Incident.io was developed using React Native and Expo, which allowed for quick prototyping and hot reloading.
• Choosing React Native over other frameworks like Flutter or Kotlin Multiplatform was influenced by the familiarity with JavaScript and web-based tooling, as well as the desire for a native feel on each platform.
• Implementing push notifications and critical alerts on Android required writing custom native modules and using data-only notifications to wake up the app and display the notifications.
• The use of Expo and managed projects simplified the development process and eliminated the need for developers to install Android Studio or Xcode. Building a multi-platform on-call mobile app requires considering the differences between iOS and Android development.
• Libraries like Tailwind and SWR can enhance the development experience and provide consistent styling and API handling across platforms.
• Integrating CI/CD for mobile apps can be challenging, especially when dealing with versioning and remote updates.
• Debugging issues with Expo's EAS may require trial and error and using local build processes to identify and resolve problems.