React Native: iOS Build Fixes and Paper Renderer Cleanup
The React Native team resolved critical iOS build issues when Pods directories are symlinks and completed the removal of the legacy Paper renderer system. Several Android fixes for WebSocket authentication and modal status bar handling were also merged.
Duration: PT2M
Episode overview
This episode is a short developer briefing from React Native.
It explains recent repository work in plain language.
- Show: React Native
- Published: 2026-04-23T00:00:00Z
- Audio duration: PT2M
Transcript excerpt
This excerpt keeps the crawler page concise. Listen to the episode or use the RSS feed for the full update.
Good morning, this is your React Native briefing for April 23rd, 2026.
The main development today centers on iOS build stability and renderer modernization. Motiz88 merged a fix for redbox subspecs in React-debug pods, addressing static library build failures that were breaking end-to-end iOS tests after the RedBox 2.0 backport.
Alex Hunt contributed a significant fix for REACT_NATIVE_PATH resolution when Pods directories are symlinks. This addresses build failures on virtual filesystems where symlinks can break the assumption that Pods is a direct child of the Podfile directory. The solution introduces a new PODFILE_DIR build setting that…
On the renderer front, Rubén Norte completed the Paper renderer removal process with two major commits. All Paper ReactNativeRenderer files have been deleted, and the RendererProxy and RendererImplementation have been simplified to support only Fabric. This cleanup follows the complete migration of Meta's apps to…
Additional commits include Per Sjöström's fix for WebSocket authentication on Android, where cookie headers were being stripped in version 0.83 and later. Mathieu Acthernoene resolved two Android issues - measureInWindow coordinate…
The…
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