How Do I Enable Hermes in React Native App?

React Native is a popular framework for developing cross-platform mobile applications. One of the key features of React Native is its ability to improve app performance by using Hermes, a lightweight JavaScript engine. In this tutorial, we will learn how to enable Hermes in a React Native app.

What is Hermes?

Hermes is an open-source JavaScript engine optimized for running React Native apps on Android devices. It was developed by Facebook and is designed to improve app startup time, reduce memory usage, and improve overall performance.

Step 1: Create a new React Native project

Before we can enable Hermes in our React Native app, we need to create a new project. To do this, open your terminal and run the following command:

  • npx react-native init MyProject

This will create a new React Native project called “MyProject” in your current directory.

Step 2: Enable Hermes

To enable Hermes in our React Native app, we need to modify the build.gradle file located in the android/app directory. Open this file and add the following lines of code at the bottom:

// Add these lines at the bottom of build.gradle file

  • project.ext.react = [
    • enableHermes: true
  • ]

This code tells React Native to enable Hermes in our app.

Step 3: Verify that Hermes is enabled

To verify that Hermes is enabled in our React Native app, we can run the following command:

  • npx react-native run-android --variant=release

This command will build and run our app in release mode. Look for the following output in the terminal:

“JS engine: hermes”

If you see this output, then Hermes is enabled in your app!

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we learned how to enable Hermes in a React Native app. By using Hermes, we can improve app performance and provide a better user experience. Happy coding!