React Native Performance Monitor Flipper plugin

• Usage
• Install
  • Flipper
  • Install for non-Expo projects
    • iOS
    • Android
    • Migrating from flipper-plugin-rn-performance-android
  • Install for Expo projects
    • Best practice
• Contributing

Usage

Here's a detailed article to go further

1. Disable JS Dev Mode in the settings (shake your device to open the development menu, then click settings)
2. Click Start Measuring
3. Do stuff in your app
4. Check the score!

This is how the score is calculated below, quite naively, but open to suggestions:

Note that:

• the score depends on the device used. We advice using a lower-end device to accentuate performance issues.
• the score depends on what you do on your app while measuring. If you do nothing, your score should (hopefully) be 100!

Install

Flipper

Search for rn-perf-monitor in the list of plugins.

Install for non-Expo projects

Install the plugin

1yarn add --dev react-native-flipper-performance-plugin

Then go to iOS/Android section below to continue the install

iOS

• Run cd ios && pod install

Then depending on your RN version:

>= v0.68.0

• In ./ios/yourapp/AppDelegate.mm (where yourapp depends on your app), add those 8 lines below:

(You can check how it's done in the example folder)

1// Add those 4 lines before @implementation AppDelegate
2#ifdef FB_SONARKIT_ENABLED
3#import <FlipperKit/FlipperClient.h>
4#import <FlipperPerformancePlugin.h>
5#endif
6
7@implementation AppDelegate
8
9- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions
10{
11// And those 4 lines before RCTAppSetupPrepareApp
12#ifdef FB_SONARKIT_ENABLED
13  FlipperClient *client = [FlipperClient sharedClient];
14  [client addPlugin:[FlipperPerformancePlugin new]];
15#endif
16  RCTAppSetupPrepareApp(application);

< 0.68.0

• In ./ios/yourapp/AppDelegate.m (where yourapp depends on your app), add 2 lines:

1#ifdef FB_SONARKIT_ENABLED
2...
3// Add this line
4#import <FlipperPerformancePlugin.h>
5
6static void InitializeFlipper(UIApplication *application) {
7  ...
8
9  // Add this line
10  [client addPlugin:[FlipperPerformancePlugin new]];
11
12  [client start];
13}
14#endif

Android

In ./android/app/src/debug/java/com/yourapp/ReactNativeFlipper.java (where com/yourapp depends on your app), add:

1import tech.bam.rnperformance.flipper.RNPerfMonitorPlugin;
2
3...
4
5client.addPlugin(new RNPerfMonitorPlugin(reactInstanceManager));

Migrating from flipper-plugin-rn-performance-android

You might have previously installed flipper-plugin-rn-performance-android. This is now deprecated, as react-native-flipper-performance-plugin has autolinking and cross-platform support.

You also need to run these steps:

Uninstall the package:

yarn remove flipper-plugin-rn-performance-android

Then remove those lines in ./android/settings.gradle:

1include ':flipper-plugin-rn-performance-android'
2project(':flipper-plugin-rn-performance-android').projectDir = new File(rootProject.projectDir, '../node_modules/flipper-plugin-rn-performance-android')

and in ./android/app/build.gradle:

1debugImplementation project(':flipper-plugin-rn-performance-android')

Install for Expo projects

1. This plugin does not work with Expo Go, since it adds native code. You can use an Expo custom-dev-client instead.

2. Install the Expo Flipper plugin. Documentation can be found here: Expo Community Flipper. Install the module along with react-native-flipper:

   TL;DR: yarn add -D expo-community-flipper react-native-flipper

3. Add expo-community-flipper configuration to the plugins section of your app.json. Please check Expo Community Flipper documentation if you need further settings.

4. Add the plugin to this library AFTER expo-community-flipper

1{
2  "expo": {
3    "..."
4    "plugins": [
5      ["expo-community-flipper"], // first
6      ["react-native-flipper-performance-plugin"] // add this after
7    ]
8  }
9}

Make sure to run expo prebuild or expo prebuild --clean afterwards. If the plugin is not recognized on iOS, make sure you call npx pod-install or cd ios && pod install in the root directory of your project.

Best practice

This library helps you to calculate a Lighthouse score similar to PageSpeed Insights. However, the tool is of no use to you if you cannot draw any optimizations from it. That is why it is recommended to use the plugin together with React DevTools.

The easiest way to use React DevTools is to install it as follows:

yarn add -D react-devtools-core

Then edit your App.tsx/App.js with following default settings.

1import { connectToDevTools } from "react-devtools-core";
2
3if (__DEV__) {
4  connectToDevTools({
5    host: "localhost",
6    port: 8097,
7  });
8}

With DevTools you can easily determine why your app is taking too much time for a particular task, most importantly you can find out if you are re-rendering too often. Especially with lists, this can quickly become a knitting trap. Optimize your code and measure the FPS afterwards to get a decent score.

Contributing to flipper Desktop

1. Clone the repository.
2. Add path to your local react-native-performance folder in ~/.flipper/config.json as shown on the flipper docs
3. Run yarn watch inside flipper-desktop
4. Connect your debug app with the flipper android plugin installed.
5. You should now see your plugin appear in Flipper.