Snapchat has taken a bold step by open sourcing Valdi, its internal cross-platform UI framework. After nearly a decade of powering Snapchat’s own apps, Valdi’s public beta offers developers the promise of true native performance, without the pain of duplicating code for each platform. This release could signal a new era for teams balancing speed and user experience in mobile and desktop app development.
Valdi’s Unique Advantages
What sets Valdi apart is its approach to cross-platform development. Developers can write UI once in declarative TypeScript, then compile that code directly into native views for iOS, Android, and macOS. By avoiding the common pitfalls of web views and JavaScript bridges, Valdi delivers seamless performance and an authentic user experience.
- Automatic view recycling ensures smooth scrolling and minimal latency by reusing UI components efficiently.
- Optimized component rendering means only the necessary UI elements update, reducing unnecessary processing and improving app responsiveness.
- A powerful C++ layout engine operates on the main thread, minimizing costly data transfers and marshalling.
- Viewport-aware rendering inflates only visible views, making infinite scrolling fast and resource-friendly by default.
- Automatic code generation translates TypeScript interfaces into Kotlin, Objective-C, and Swift bindings, streamlining the cross-platform development process.
Though robust from years of internal use, Valdi’s open source release is labeled beta. Snapchat invites community feedback to further refine documentation and tooling before rolling out a stable version.
Shifting Industry Trends: Cross-Platform, AI, and Developer Experience
Valdi’s debut arrives amid a surge in cross-platform frameworks and AI-powered developer tools. The development landscape is evolving quickly:
- Nuxt’s Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server exposes content in formats AI assistants can understand, and the team has published guides for building and deploying custom MCP servers.
- Next.js 16 introduces the Adapters API, making it easier for developers to deploy outside the Vercel ecosystem and customize their deployment pipelines. Other improvements include predictable caching, clearer logs, and improved middleware naming.
- React Native’s momentum continues, with Bitrise’s Mobile Insights report showing adoption jumping from 63% to 83% for cross-platform builds between 2022 and 2025. Despite growing CI pipeline complexity, top teams are reducing build times, thanks to better tooling.
A New Chapter for Cross-Platform Apps
Snapchat’s open sourcing of Valdi could transform how developers approach multi-platform UI projects. With its native performance, developer-friendly workflow, and the backing of a proven production track record, Valdi is poised to influence the next generation of apps. Coupled with industry advancements in cross-platform tools and a growing wave of creative open source projects, developers now have more options than ever to innovate, iterate, and deliver exceptional user experiences.
Snapchat Unleashes Valdi: A Cross-Platform UI Game Changer