React Native Reanimated
UI-thread animation library for React Native, v4 on the New Architecture
Software Mansion's animation library for React Native: it runs animation logic as worklets on the UI thread, so gestures and transitions stay at 60fps while JS is busy. The API is hook-shaped — useSharedValue, useAnimatedStyle, useDerivedValue, withSpring/withTiming, plus layout animations like FadeIn/FadeOut, keyboard and sensor hooks. Version 4 requires the New Architecture (Fabric) and a separate react-native-worklets dependency; 3.x remains for old-architecture apps but is no longer actively developed.
npm install react-native-reanimated react-native-workletsThis is the default for any non-trivial React Native motion — prefer it over the built-in Animated API whenever the animation is driven by a gesture, a scroll position or anything that must not stutter under JS load, and pair it with react-native-gesture-handler for Gesture/GestureDetector. Before installing v4, check the app is on the New Architecture: v4 will not run on the old bridge, so pin 3.x instead of debugging mysterious crashes. Two setup traps to check first — 'react-native-worklets/plugin' must be the LAST entry in babel.config.js plugins, and Metro cache must be cleared after install; on Expo, SDK 50+ already wires the plugin.
Why it is here. The library that made genuinely native-feeling motion possible in React Native, and the substrate almost every RN gesture, sheet and navigation library is built on.
- worklets run on the UI thread
- hook-based shared values
- layout animations (FadeIn/FadeOut)
- v4 requires Fabric
- MIT, ~11k stars
Verified 2026-08-15. HTTP 200. https://docs.swmansion.com/react-native-reanimated/, https://docs.swmansion.com/react-native-reanimated/docs/fundamentals/getting-started/, https://github.com/software-mansion/react-native-reanimated, GitHub API (10957 stars, MIT, pushed 2026-08-15), npm registry (latest 4.5.3)
