Different hydration and rendering strategies

#564 – July 05, 2026

web apps have evolved many ways to close the gap between a page that looks ready and one that actually works

Different hydration and rendering strategies
27 minutes by Neciu Dan

Web apps have evolved many ways to close the gap between a page that looks ready and one that actually works. Static generation and islands architecture suit content-heavy sites, shipping little or no JavaScript for non-interactive parts. Server Components and streaming SSR cut bundle size and improve load times for dynamic apps by keeping heavy logic on the server. Fine-grained reactivity and resumability go further, but are best saved for specific performance problems you can actually measure.

How toOpen a modal dialog in React with the invoker commands API
3 minutes by Sergio Xalambrí

React modal dialogs often start with useState, refs, click handlers, and a dialog component library. That makes sense when you need animations, controlled state, nested overlays, or custom focus behavior, but it is a lot of code for a simple "open this dialog" interaction.

Writing custom renderers for React
9 minutes by Maciej Jastrzębski

React Test Renderer was deprecated in React 19, forcing a rebuild of React Native Testing Library's core. Rather than rely on a full device environment or an unsupported internal tool, a custom test renderer was built from scratch. It works by implementing a host config interface that tells React's reconciler how to create and update a lightweight, JavaScript-only tree of objects instead of real native views.

Building a video call app with filters
15 minutes by Ritesh Shukla

Real-time video filters like background blur and virtual backgrounds are possible in React Native by combining VisionCamera with LiveKit. VisionCamera owns the camera, a native engine processes each frame, and the result is pushed directly into the WebRTC video source LiveKit already publishes. Adding a new filter usually means changing only what gets composited behind the person.

Next.js 16.3: Instant navigations
10 minutes by Andrew Clark

Next.js 16.3 preview is out now with a feature called Instant Navigations. It makes server-driven apps feel as responsive as single-page apps by letting routes either stream content with Suspense or serve cached UI, so users see something the moment they click a link. A smarter prefetching system now downloads one reusable shell per route instead of firing a request for every link on screen. New dev tools, a test helper, and in-browser inspector help catch slow navigations early.

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