Performance Degradation on Android after New Architecture Migration

Description

After upgrading React Native to the New Architecture, react-native-reanimated causes severe performance issues on Android. Animations that previously ran smoothly now stutter and lag heavily, making the app nearly unusable.

I tested Reanimated versions from 3.16.0 to 4.0.0, and none of them resolved the issue. Performance is excellent on the Old Architecture, but significantly degraded with the New Architecture — only on Android.

Steps to reproduce

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Setup a React Native project with New Architecture enabled.
2. Add a simple screen with Reanimated-based animations (nerly all type of animation will cause that).
3. Add a Pressable or Touchable element that triggers animation. (prefered if this elements are also animated)
4. Run the app on Android, you will notice severe animation lag or stuttering.
5. Run the same app on Old Architecture — animations are smooth.
6. Run the same app on iOS — animations are smooth.

Screenshots or video

Can provide video comparison if needed (Old Arch vs. New Arch on Android).

Many libraries we rely on require the New Architecture, and all work great except Reanimated.

This issue is blocking our production work. We’ve confirmed it’s not our app logic — the problem occurs on minimal examples too. It’s easily reproducible.

This bug is affecting multiple teams and developers. There are many reports and mentions of degraded Reanimated performance on Android after enabling the New Architecture.

• Is this a known issue?
• Are there any workarounds or optimizations we can try?
• Is a fix in progress?

🙏 Thank you!

We appreciate the amazing work the Reanimated team does and hope this can be resolved soon. Please let us know how we can help in debugging or testing.

Snack or a link to a repository

https://snack.expo.dev/@abdelalim_chicha/19f04f

Reanimated version

3.17.4

React Native version

0.78

Platforms

Android

JavaScript runtime

Hermes

Workflow

Expo Dev Client

Architecture

Fabric (New Architecture)

Build type

Debug app & dev bundle

Device

Real device

Host machine

Linux

Device model

Galaxy s9 with android 10

Acknowledgements

Yes

Start with the linked Snack and reproduce the lag on Android using React Native 0.78, Reanimated 3.17.4, Hermes, and Fabric/New Architecture. Compare the same animation under the Old Architecture and on iOS, then identify a confirmed cause or actionable workaround and validate it against the minimal example.