React Conf 2025: React Compiler 1.0 and Key Updates

React Conf is the official conference for the React ecosystem, organized by the React team. It’s a two-day event where developers, framework authors, and companies come together to share announcements, new features, best practices, and demos for React, React Native, and related tools.

You can catch all the talks on YouTube; they’re absolutely worth a watch! And make sure to read the full post to explore the highlights from React Conf 2025.

React Conf 2025 – Day 1:

React Conf 2025 – Day 2:

5 Key Takeaways from React Conf 2025 

1. React Foundation

Previously, most of React and React Native’s updates and maintenance were led mainly by the Meta core team.

Now, with the new React Foundation officially formed, companies like Amazon, Expo, Callstack, Microsoft, Software Mansion, and Vercel are stepping in to collaborate.

The goal is to keep the React/React Native ecosystem, community-driven and evolving with support from multiple major contributors, not just one company.

More details can be found in the Meta Engineering Blog announcement.

2. React Compiler 1.0 Stable

React Compiler has officially hit version 1.0, and it’s now stable and ready to use in real projects. The big idea behind it is to take over a lot of the manual optimization work developers usually do, like using useMemo and useCallback just to avoid unnecessary re-renders.

With the Compiler handling these optimizations automatically, you can focus more on writing clean components instead of manually addressing performance issues.

For anyone starting a new Expo project, the Compiler comes enabled by default, so developers will benefit from these optimizations without needing to configure anything.

See the migration guide for existing projects to start using it.

3. React Router & React Server Components Adoption

React Router now supports React Server Components (RSC), joining frameworks like Parcel, Vite, Redwood, and TanStack.

The cool part is that you don’t need to rewrite your app; RSC can be enabled just by switching a plugin, and components or entire routes can be gradually moved to the server when needed.

Server Actions are also supported, letting developers use regular <form> elements that call server functions with the "use server" directive, making form handling simpler and less tied to route logic.

Since React Router isn’t locked to a specific bundler, developers can swap between tools like Parcel or Vite and still get RSC support with a consistent developer experience.

4. New & Upcoming React Features

• <Activity />: Manage visibility states, helping React prioritize updates and keep idle components from consuming resources.
• useEffectEvent: A new hook designed to trigger events inside useEffect without causing unwanted re-renders.
• Performance Tracks: A built-in profiling view in DevTools that shows exactly how React schedules and renders work, making performance debugging much easier.
• Partial Pre-Rendering: Lets the server pre-render parts of the UI ahead of time and finish rendering dynamically when needed, speeding up initial load.
• <ViewTransition />: A new built-in way to animate page and view transitions using the browser’s View Transition API.
• Fragment Refs: Enables attaching refs directly to Fragments so you can interact with DOM behavior without adding extra wrapper elements.

Explore these updates in the React 19.2 release notes.

5. React Native Updates

• RN 0.82 — New Architecture Only: The legacy architecture is now officially frozen and deprecated. All new development is on the New Architecture, which enables smaller app bundles and lays the foundation for future features.
• Hermes V1 (Experimental): The next-generation JavaScript engine is available in version 0.82, demonstrating approximately 60% performance gains on synthetic benchmarks. It also supports modern JS features like ES classes natively, reducing the need for Babel or polyfills.
• <VirtualView /> (Experimental): A new primitive for memory-efficient layouts, perfect for lists inside a ScrollView. It pre-renders items just before they enter the visible viewport, guaranteeing that content appears smoothly without blanking. React temporarily blocks the main thread to ensure children are fully rendered, effectively managing rendering across threads automatically.
• DOM Node APIs: Starting in RN 0.82, native components now expose DOM-like nodes via refs. Previously, refs returned RN-specific objects with limited methods like measure and setNativeProps. Now, they provide a subset of the DOM API, letting developers traverse the UI tree, measure layouts, and interact with components similarly to how they would on the web.
• Performance Panel (RN 0.83): Shipping around Christmas, this major DevTools update brings:
  • A Performance Panel integrated with React’s Performance Tracks.
  • A Network Panel to inspect fetch, XHR, and images.
  • A desktop DevTools app, so you no longer need Chrome to debug React Native apps.

Why These Updates Matter for Businesses

React Conf 2025 wasn’t just a technical milestone; it signaled how modern product teams will build and scale applications in the years ahead.

• Shared governance means long-term stability: With the React Foundation, companies using React can expect more consistent maintenance, better cross-company collaboration, and a more predictable release cadence.
• React Compiler reduces engineering overhead: By handling optimizations automatically, the Compiler cuts down on repetitive boilerplate and review cycles. Teams can spend more time shipping features rather than managing re-renders.
• Performance improvements lead to better user experience: Partial Pre-Rendering, View Transitions, and Hermes V1 combine to make apps faster and smoother across devices, improving engagement and conversion rates.
• React’s direction aligns with AI and Edge computing: Features like Server Components and incremental rendering position React to integrate easily with distributed, real-time, or AI-driven workloads.
• Security and compliance: React 19’s tighter integration with the server layer simplifies data handling and validation between client and server, helping teams strengthen compliance with data privacy and security standards.

For teams building or scaling applications with React, these advancements directly lead to lower maintenance overhead, greater scalability, and faster release cycles.

How to Prepare Your Existing React Apps

If you’re running React 17 or 18, now is a good time to start planning your migration to React 19. Here’s how to do it safely.

1. Audit your dependencies: Use npm ls react or yarn why react to confirm library compatibility with React 19, especially for frameworks like Next.js, Remix, and Expo that are integrating React Compiler and Server Components.
2. Adopt incrementally: There’s no need to rewrite your entire app. Both the Compiler and RSC support gradual migration. You can enable them module by module without breaking existing logic (you can check the reference here.)
3. Monitor performance early: Use React DevTools’ Performance Tracks and React Native’s new Performance Panel to benchmark rendering behavior before and after enabling the Compiler.
4. Coordinate with backend teams: Server Actions and Partial Pre-Rendering bring the frontend and backend closer together. Consider how caching, SSR, and edge deployments will fit into your new architecture.

Partner with React experts.

At Cheesecake Labs, we help companies to modernize legacy applications, including their React and React Native apps, upgrade architectures, and implement the latest features with minimal disruption.

React 19 represents more than an upgrade; it’s a shift toward automation, collaboration, and performance at scale. Teams that start preparing now will be the first to reap the benefits.

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