Why does create-react-app now use a function component for App?

Question

Used to be:

class App extends Components{
  //...
}

Now create-react-app has this in App.js:

function App(){
  //...
}

Anyone know why this change was made? Are they suggesting we shouldn't have state in App?

Answer 1

Since the introduction of hooks in React, you can have state in a function component (cf. useState).

According to React 16.x roadmap post, it might be a good move to slowly transition class components to function components:

Hooks don’t deprecate classes. However, if Hooks are successful, it is possible that in a future major release class support might move to a separate package, reducing the default bundle size of React.