Host Platform
Also called Platform, Host
- Part of
- React Native Glossary
- Also known as
- Platform, Host
- Updated
What is Host Platform in React Native?
The host platform is the operating system embedding React Native — iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, tvOS or the web — and the source of the real views your components render to.
The host platform is whatever operating system is hosting your React Native app and providing the real UI widgets it renders into. React Native itself is platform-agnostic; the host supplies the views, the threading model, and the APIs.
The supported hosts split into two groups:
- Maintained by Meta — iOS and Android.
- Maintained by partners — macOS and Windows by Microsoft, tvOS, and visionOS, plus React Native Web for the browser.
The concept matters because it explains React Native's core promise and its main caveat. A <View> is not one thing: it is a host component resolved to a UIView, a ViewGroup, or a <div> depending on where it runs. Shared code describes intent; the host decides the pixels.
You handle host differences with the Platform module or platform-specific files, and you reach host capabilities that React Native does not wrap through a native module.