React Digest
React Digest
#544 – February 15, 2026
strange performance bug that made a web app 10 times slower
A broken heart
8 minutes by Allen Pike
Allen shares the story of a strange performance bug that made a web app 10 times slower. After testing many possible causes, he discovered that a single heart emoji was triggering a Safari layout bug. The real issue was the Noto Color Emoji font. Removing it fixed the problem instantly, leading to a 100x speedup and a lesson about debugging and AI coding tools.
Clerk's new pricing: 50,000 MRUs free
sponsored by Clerk
We just shipped our first major pricing update since 2023. The free tier now covers 50,000 monthly retained users (up from 10,000), MFA is included in every Pro plan, and unlimited apps come standard. If you've been evaluating auth solutions for your React app, the math just changed. See what's new.
React native 0.84
4 minutes by Christian Falch et al.
React Native 0.84 makes Hermes V1 the default JavaScript engine, delivering faster execution and lower memory usage without any configuration needed. The release ships precompiled iOS binaries by default to reduce build times and continues removing Legacy Architecture code from both platforms to shrink app size.
React Compiler and why class objects can work against memoization
5 minutes by IlDon
React Compiler simplifies memoization for function components, but class-based objects can still trigger extra computations due to reference-based dependencies. Using plain, immutable data with pure helper functions makes inputs explicit, improves compiler memoization, and reduces unnecessary re-renders. For optimal performance, pass primitive values to components and keep render-time logic in pure, data-focused functions.
A React trick to improve exit animations
6 minutes by Max Barvian
While building a React component library, Max noticed exit animations became distracting when content updated mid-animation. He explored saving state and delaying updates but found them cumbersome. Inspired by React Suspense, Max created a Freeze wrapper that prevents DOM changes during exit animations, keeping content visually stable. This approach works well with React Aria Components and could inform future React features for “visible but inactive” UI states.
Unresponsive buttons on my fastest hardware ever
3 minutes by Jim Nielsen
Jim argues that modern apps feel sluggish despite running on the fastest hardware ever. Jim focuses on button clicks in single-page applications that trigger server requests. Even small delays between clicking and seeing feedback create frustrating moments of uncertainty. Adding loading states solves the problem but introduces complexity around implementation, error handling, and maintaining consistency across multiple triggers.
And the most popular article from the last issue was: