React Native to PWA with AI: Migration Guide

Home → Blog → From React Native to PWA: How AI Tools Accelerate Migration

Imagine you’re running a mid-sized logistics business. You’ve been relying on a custom React Native app to manage drivers and warehouse operators, and it’s been a solid productivity multiplier so far. Management at all levels sees the cost-saving potential of this app.

Now, you want to enable access to the app for dispatchers, clients, and other remote workers. However, there’s a hiccup: they require browser access. You, in turn, need to preserve the app’s installability on mobile devices.

Progressive web apps (PWAs) are your solution. However, rebuilding a React Native app for the web from scratch is a slow, tedious process prone to human error. But when you turn to Teamvoy, we suggest using AI-assisted web development tools to speed up migration.

AI tools automate rewriting navigation logic, converting storage to localStorage or IndexedDB, and replicating Figma layout styling. The result? You get a responsive, installable PWA with faster performance at a lower cost and with fewer bugs.

All of this isn’t a hypothetical anymore. Here’s how we help SMEs leverage AI-powered automation for a faster, smoother, and more cost-efficient React Native to PWA migration.

“In our experience, AI development tools can cut down the React Native to PWA migration time from months to weeks by streamlining certain tasks. For example, creating a responsive navigation pane is 83% faster with AI tools. ” — Zhanna Yuskevych, Teamvoy CPO.

Key Takeaways

Migrating to a PWA means future-proofing your application. PWAs enable true cross-platform access and long-term component reuse and scalability.
AI tools can automate tedious React Native to PWA migration tasks. Those include adapting the layout and navigation, introducing changes to the app logic, and debugging.
AI-enhanced migration is a high-ROI opportunity. AI involvement means fewer billable hours, faster time-to-market, and lower technical debt for you.
Making the most out of AI tools requires a robust methodology. At Teamvoy, we employ best practices like meticulous prompt engineering, senior oversight and code verification, stringent security measures, and iterative code generation.

Why Move from React Native to Web?

Hiring PWA development services requires an extra investment, and your React Native app works fine. So, why migrate at all?

In our experience, PWAs have the upper hand over React Native apps in these four regards.

True Cross-Platform Access

React Native is a mobile-focused JavaScript framework. It’s designed for developing Android and iOS mobile apps with a single codebase (case in point: our Players Journey app for museum visitors). But if your current or future user segments want to access the same application logic via the browser, the React Native codebase won’t cut it.

Enter a PWA, a web-based app that users can access via the browser and install as an app on any mobile device. In addition to being platform-agnostic, PWAs are typically more lightweight, meaning they load and update content faster.

Long-Term Component Reuse

Of course, you could develop a separate web app that mirrors your React Native app and maintain both in the long run. Yet, that would effectively double your development and maintenance budget.

Choosing a PWA for business applications allows you to avoid duplicating work across platforms: the same application logic can be used and reused within the same codebase.

No App Store Required

Users can install PWAs on their Android and iOS devices without having to go through the app store. For you, that means you don’t have to comply with the store’s constraints (e.g., monetization, security limitations). If you’re planning to accept in-app payments, you won’t have to give a cut of it to the store, either.

That translates into better visibility and accessibility for your app as you can make it available directly to your users.

Smarter Scalability Down the Road

When you need to update the PWA’s codebase, you don’t have to jump through hoops to get the store’s approval. You can roll out the new functionality or patches instantly. What’s more, developing them doesn’t require Swift and Kotlin development skills, as is the case for React Native apps. Web development skills (HTML/CSS/JavaScript) suffice.

As a cherry on top, PWAs rely on web infrastructure. It’s usually more cost-efficient and easier to maintain than mobile CI/CD and backend integrations.

Your application’s tech stack isn’t cutting it anymore? We can help you move to a modern tech stack better suited for your current and future use cases.

Let’s Talk!

AI-Powered Acceleration: What’s New?

Before generative AI tools entered the scene, developers had to manually refactor code to convert a React Native app into a web app. They also had to adapt the layout to new devices, tweak the logic accordingly, and debug the new codebase.

How Do AI Development Tools Change the Game?

Our developers use tools like Windsurf and Cursor AI for React Native migration throughout all of its stages. These tools automate menial tasks like:

Adapting the layout and navigation
Changing the application logic
Creating responsive page layouts (CSS Grid, Flex), media queries, and responsive images
Debugging with automated analysis, error explanation, and fix suggestions

How It Works in Practice: Our Example

During migration, developers need to adapt and rebuild a responsive navigation pane. If a developer does it manually, this task takes two hours to complete. With AI-powered frontend migration, our developers can finish it in 20 minutes, with even cleaner code that contains reusable styles.

“While AI tools are a significant productivity booster, that doesn’t mean you can convert your whole app in a couple of clicks with their help. Yes, AI can make easy work of routine coding tasks. Still, advanced or unconventional tasks require engineering expertise. You also need developers to write clear prompts and check the output for errors.” — Zhanna Yuskevych, Teamvoy CPO.

Your Benefits: Faster Launch, Lower Costs, Less Technical Debt

Here’s how automating React Native to PWA migration tasks with AI translates into better outcomes for your business:

Faster code refactoring = fewer billable hours, which reduces the overall project costs
Faster migration = faster time-to-market, which helps accelerate time-to-ROI and secure competitor advantage
Cleaner code and enhanced debugging = lower technical debt, which reduces maintenance costs and improves long-term maintainability, scalability, and flexibility

What the Migration Process Looks Like

To meet the needs of our SME clients, we tested multiple AI tools to build a time-saving migration pipeline. Here are the tools we tested:

Cursor
Sonnet
Devin
Deepseek
Codeium
Grok
Windsurf
Google Gemini

Our testing and evaluation have put two tools, Cursor and Windsurf, at the forefront as the best AI tools for frontend automation. Gemini and Sonnet, in turn, are best suited for explanation-related tasks.

Here’s how our progressive web app development company accelerates React Native to ReactJS migration with Cursor and Tailwind CSS.

1. Preparing the Project

We create a new project for the ReactJS version of the application. This isolates ReactJS components from the original React Native ones, allowing developers to avoid conflicts in the codebase and gradually migrate the application.

2. Replacing Components

Next, our developers swap native mobile components like View and Text for their equivalents in HTML (<div> and <p>, respectively). These HTML elements are browser-friendly. Here’s an example of the initial prompt with the React Native component and the AI tool’s output:

Please generate me react js component from react native
```
import React, { useState } from 'react';
import { Text as RNText } from 'react-native';
import AsyncStorage from '@react-native-community/async-storage';

export const calculateFontSize = (baseSize, scaleType = 'normal') => {
  if (scaleType === 'normal') {
    return baseSize;
  } else if (scaleType === 'big') {
    return baseSize + 2;
  } else if (scaleType === 'large') {
    return baseSize + 3.5;
  } else {
    return baseSize;
  }
};

const CustomText = ({ style = {}, ...restProps }) => {
  const [fontSizePreference, setFontSizePreference] = useState('normal');

  useEffect(() => {
    const savedFontSize = localStorage.getItem('font_size');
    if (savedFontSize) {
      setFontSizePreference(savedFontSize);
    }
  }, []);

  const computedStyle = {
    fontFamily: 'SFProText-Regular',
    ...style,
    fontSize: style.fontSize
      ? calculateFontSize(style.fontSize, fontSizePreference)
      : undefined,
  };

  return <p {...restProps} style={computedStyle} />;
};

export default CustomText;
```

To convert your React Native component to a React JS component, you'll need to make several changes. Specifically, you'll replace React Native components with HTML elements, adapt the styles, and replace AsyncStorage with the browser's local storage. Here's how it can be done:

import React, { useState, useEffect } from 'react';

export const calculateFontSize = (baseSize, scaleType = 'normal') => {
  if (scaleType === 'normal') {
    return baseSize;
  } else if (scaleType === 'big') {
    return baseSize + 2;
  } else if (scaleType === 'large') {
    return baseSize + 3.5;
  } else {
    return baseSize;
  }
};

const CustomText = ({ style = {}, ...restProps }) => {
  const [fontSizePreference, setFontSizePreference] = useState('normal');

  useEffect(() => {
    const savedFontSize = localStorage.getItem('font_size');
    if (savedFontSize) {
      setFontSizePreference(savedFontSize);
    }
  }, []);

  const computedStyle = {
    fontFamily: 'SFProText-Regular',
    ...style,
    fontSize: style.fontSize
      ? calculateFontSize(style.fontSize, fontSizePreference)
      : undefined,
  };

  return <p {...restProps} style={computedStyle} />;
};

export default CustomText;

N.B. To improve the generated code’s alignment with design requirements, we add screenshots of the page’s mockup in Figma or another tool.

3. Migrating Styles

In React Native, styles are defined via JavaScript objects, which aren’t reusable as-is in PWAs. So, we convert these styles into CSS files used in ReactJS. To that end, we add modular stylesheets or leverage scalable Tailwind CSS with AI suggestions that speed up the process.

Here’s the before and after of the style migration:

<MenuItem
  navigateTo={Navigation.ExploreScreen}
  label={labels.mapTitle}
  iconSource={require('../assets/images/compass.png')}
/>
<MenuItem
  navigateTo={Navigation.CounterScene}
  label={labels.numberTitle}
  iconSource={require('../assets/images/numbericon.png')}
/>
<MenuItem
  navigateTo={Navigation.GameScene}
  label={labels.playTitle}
  iconSource={require('../assets/images/playicon.png')}
/>
</Container>
);

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  mainContainer: {
    flex: 1,
    marginTop: 25,
  },
  menuItem: {
    flex: 1,
    paddingVertical: 40,
    backgroundColor: theme.primaryColor,
    borderRadius: 10,
    justifyContent: 'space-between',
    alignItems: 'center',
    paddingHorizontal: 20,
    flexDirection: 'row',
  },
  menuText: {
    fontSize: 40,
    color: theme.textColor,
  },
  menuIcon: {
    fontSize: 60,
    height: 80,
    width: 80,
    alignSelf: 'center',
    color: theme.textColor,
    fontSize: 26,
  },
});

Home.css:

.mainWrapper {
  display: flex;
  margin-top: 25px;
}

.menuCard {
  display: flex;
  padding: 40px 20px;
  background-color: #00FF00; /* Replace with theme.primaryColor */
  border-radius: 10px;
  justify-content: space-between;
  align-items: center;
  flex-direction: row;
}

.menuLabel {
  font-size: 40px;
  color: #FFFFFF; /* Replace with theme.textColor */
}

.menuIcon {
  font-size: 60px;
  height: 80px;
  width: 80px;
  align-self: center;
  color: #FFFFFF; /* Replace with theme.textColor */
}

Home.js:
import React, { useEffect, useState } from "react";
import { useSelector } from "react-redux";
import { Navigation } from "react-native-router-flux";
import Container from "../../components/Container";
import translations from "../../config/localization";
import useGetMessageCount from "../../hooks/useGetMessageCount";
import "./Home.css"; // Import the CSS file

function Home() {

  const galleryData = useSelector((state) => state.galleries.galleries);
  const messageCount = useGetMessageCount();
  const [exhibitsCount, setExhibitsCount] = useState([]);
  
  useEffect(() => {
    setExhibitsCount(galleryData.exhibits.filter((exhibit) => exhibit.is_hidden));
  });

N.B. To improve the generated code’s alignment with design requirements, we add screenshots of the page’s mockup in Figma or another tool.

4. Replacing Navigation Libraries

React Native uses react-navigation to power navigation across the app. To power smooth navigation between web pages, we replace it with react-router-dom, which is a web-native router.

5. Adapting APIs and Libraries

React Native APIs and libraries can’t be lifted and shifted to ReactJS applications as-is. So, our developers identify ReactJS equivalents for all the APIs and libraries used. We then replace the corresponding React Native APIs and libraries with their equivalents. If no suitable substitutes exist, we find alternative ways to implement the same functionality.

6. Reconfiguring App Storage

AsyncStorage is one of the most popular storage systems for React Native applications, but it’s not supported by browsers. So, we swap it for localStorage or IndexedDB to enable your ReactJS PWA to store data and work offline.

The localStorage approach is most effective for simple datasets. IndexedDB, in turn, is more suitable for complex data structures and large data volumes (e.g., large JSON files, object arrays). In either case, AI tools help us quickly find and replace relevant components to speed up this step.

7. Adapting Platform-Specific Code to the Web

Some React Native code is platform-specific, i.e., it works only for Android or iOS. This code needs to be adapted for the web environment instead. For example, we can reuse logical operations by transforming JavaScript code into TypeScript.

Using AI for More Than Just Speed

While frontend automation with AI code generation can help you save time and money, it’s not its only benefit. AI tools can also improve documentation, styling, error handling, and testing by mitigating human error and executing standardized tasks at scale.

Overall, AI can perform tasks at the same level of expertise as a junior developer, provided there are guardrails in place to ensure its efficiency and output accuracy. At Teamvoy, we follow these four best practices to that end:

Iterative approach. The first solutions suggested by AI can miss the mark. So, we iterate through solutions by adding more context to the initial prompt or suggesting other solution methods.

Meticulous prompt engineering. AI tools need clear, structured prompts that specify the programming language and context. They also handle standard, smaller tasks more effectively. So, we break down complex tasks into more manageable chunks.

Senior oversight. Our senior developers always check the generated code to catch hallucinations or inaccuracies in the output.

Stringent security controls. We never share sensitive data in the prompt and manually check the code for vulnerabilities. We also use Git for version control to ensure quick recovery if necessary.

What You Gain as a Business

Not sure if AI-powered React Native to PWA migration is right for you? Here are the four main arguments for taking advantage of this opportunity:

Accelerated time-to-market: Cut down the project duration from months to weeks
Optimized costs: Reduce the need for manual development to cut down costs
Futureproof tech stack: Ensure a long-term ROI with a lightweight PWA that’s easier to maintain and scale than a React Native mobile app
Broader use cases: Unlock new use cases for your application (internal portals, client dashboards, or cross-device UX) while reusing business logic

Conclusion: Transform Once, Scale Everywhere

As AI tools for developers automate routine modernization tasks and fast-track complex ones, SMEs stand to benefit the most from this shift to AI-enhanced development. Simply put, thanks to AI, you no longer have to put off React Native to PWA migration for budgetary reasons.

The result? You can turn your React Native application into a truly cross-platform PWA that can be scaled from a single codebase faster and at a lower cost.

At Teamvoy, we help businesses of all sizes capitalize on this high-ROI opportunity. Our recipe for success? We combine AI-enhanced workflows with senior oversight and expert delivery.

Connect With A Technology Expert

Ready to turn your React Native app into a PWA?

Zhanna Yuskevych,
Chief Product Officer

Schedule a Call

Connect on LinkedIn →