Observability & OpenTelemetry in React Native

Many React Native apps ship without full observability. The result? Blind spots in performance, crashes, and user behavior once your app is in the wild. In this episode of React Universe On Air, Łukasz Chludziński sits down with Jonathan Munz (Senior Software Engineer at Embrace) and Adam Horodyski (React Native Expert at Callstack) to unpack how OpenTelemetry can bring structure and clarity to mobile monitoring. They break down why mobile observability is harder than observability on backend, what the OTLP protocol enables, and how to instrument React Native apps without locking into a single vendor. You’ll also hear how community-driven tooling like React Native OpenTelemetry and the Embrace React Native SDK can simplify setup and improve data portability. You’ll learn: ➡️ How observability and OpenTelemetry work together ➡️ The 3 core OpenTelemetry signal types for mobile ➡️ Why mobile instrumentation is more complex than backend telemetry ➡️ How OTLP improves interoperability between tools ➡️ Where auto-instrumentation is still missing in React Native ➡️ The role of Embrace and open-source libraries in reducing setup overhead Check out episode resources on our website 📚 https://clstk.com/4104nAF Catch more React Universe On Air episodes 🎧 https://clstk.com/45EWnYe Monitor what matters in your React Native app with Callstack’s help 🤝 https://clstk.com/3HoM3KI Sign up for our newsletter ✉️ https://www.callstack.com/newsletter Follow us on X 🐦 https://x.com/callstackio Chapters 00:00 Welcome to the React Universe 01:07 Meet our guests 03:07 Defining observability and OpenTelemetry 04:32 Signals in observability 11:57 Challenges with observability in React & React Native 16:04 Standardization and OpenTelemetry protocol 18:08 Embrace and Open Telemetry 21:29 Future of OpenTelemetry in mobile 27:23 Exploring React Native OpenTelemetry 29:54 Community involvement in OpenTelemetry 37:34 Real observability in React Native 46:41 Future of React Native observability 50:40 Hey, listeners, here’s what we want you to do 54:46 Conclusion and final thoughts