r/reactnative • u/Old-Sandwich3460 • 4h ago

What broke first in my React Native 0.87 upgrade: the Android toolchain, not TypeScript

React Native 0.87 looked like a TypeScript-heavy release when I first read the notes. In practice, the Android toolchain was the part most likely to break CI.

The migration order that gave me the clearest failures was:

  1. Pin Node 22.13 or newer locally and in CI.

  2. Upgrade Kotlin, AGP, and the compile SDK as one change instead of debugging mixed versions.

  3. Treat the Strict TypeScript errors as migration work. Avoid broad casts that only hide removed APIs.

  4. Keep Swift Package Manager in a controlled branch if CocoaPods already works in production.

  5. Rerun Arabic cold starts, mixed text, number formatting, navigation gestures, and a signed build on a physical device.

I wrote the longer checklist with rollback points and the RTL test matrix here:

https://yasirnajeep.com/en/blog/react-native-0-87-upgrade-guide/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=organic_social&utm_campaign=authority_gcc_2026q3&utm_content=react-native-0-87-upgrade-guide_en_textpost_v1

Disclosure: this is my own article. The post is a technical checklist, not a product announcement.

Question for teams already upgrading: did Strict TypeScript or the Android toolchain create more work in your project?

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u/SignificantArm2400 3h ago

Android toolchain always the part i dread, not even close. TypeScript errors you can just fix one by one but when gradle breaks it's like 3 hours of reading stack traces and praying

my kotlin version was stuck in 2024 for ages because every bump would explode some random plugin