React Native makes it easy to move quickly in a simulator or emulator. That is great for day-to-day development, but it is also how teams end up shipping bugs that only appear on real hardware.
Touch handling, keyboard behaviour, safe areas, permissions, notifications, and performance often feel "close enough" in a simulator right up until they are not.
Use simulators and emulators for fast iteration, then confirm important flows on real devices before you call the work done.
The login screen looks fine in the simulator. On a real device, the keyboard covers the submit button and the push permission flow behaves differently.
❌ Figure: Bad example - Bad example - Stopping at simulator testing
Use the simulator to build the screen quickly. Then test the same login flow on a real iPhone and Android device, including keyboard behaviour, permissions, and perceived performance.
✅ Figure: Good example - Good example - Use simulators for speed and real devices for confidence
Real devices are especially important when testing:
If you support both iOS and Android, test on both. If you support older OS versions or a wider device range, check the flows that are most likely to break there too.
If your team does not already have access to physical devices, see Do you have a device policy for your mobile dev teams?