Legacy vs New Architecture
Also called New Architecture, Old Architecture, Paper, Bridgeless
- Part of
- React Native Glossary
- Also known as
- New Architecture, Old Architecture, Paper, Bridgeless
- Updated
What is Legacy vs New Architecture in React Native?
The New Architecture replaces the asynchronous bridge with JSI, Fabric and TurboModules. It has been the default since React Native 0.76.
React Native has two architectures. The legacy architecture (often called Paper) sent every instruction between JavaScript and native code as serialised JSON over an asynchronous bridge. The New Architecture removes that bridge and lets the two sides call each other directly through JSI.
| Legacy (Paper) | New Architecture | |
|---|---|---|
| JS ↔ native | Async JSON bridge | JSI, direct and synchronous |
| Renderer | Paper | Fabric |
| Native modules | Loaded eagerly at startup | TurboModules, loaded on demand |
| Type safety | Hand-written, unchecked | Codegen from TypeScript specs |
| Layout | Yoga | Yoga, integrated in C++ |
The New Architecture became the default in React Native 0.76 (October 2024), and 0.80 began winding down legacy support. New apps get it automatically; older apps migrate by upgrading and checking that each native dependency has a New Architecture build.
For newcomers the practical takeaway is that tutorials written before late 2024 may describe bridge behaviour that no longer applies.