This setup is a must have for large apps.
This setup is a must have for large apps.
Looks great!
IMO itβs actually really good. Itβs been my go-to solution since 2018, and it keeps getting better all the time.
Are you thinking about developing an app, or just curious?
Oh, Iβd love to give that a try! Widgets were already possible, but any simplification is always welcome.
Thanks for sharing! Curious if you also looked into the React Compiler for this kind of optimization.
Do you have a specific scenario in mind?
Would love to see what you end up building with it. These things often lead to really interesting UI patterns.
@sebastienlorber.com maybe interesting for the newsletter?
Classic!
Great post from Julian on how to create app variants with @expo.dev. Thereβs some neat tricks on how to declare your configs in @typescriptlang.org and also pointers on how to leverage the `extra` property too. Check it out below π
Illustration of three differently colored mobile app icons labeled Dev, Preview, and Production, symbolizing build variants or app flavors for separate development and release environments.
Shipping the βsameβ app in dev, preview, and production without release chaos?
Weβre using App Flavors with Expo + EAS to keep builds cleanly separated.
Full post:
bitglow.de/blog/app-fla...
Curious how others structure their builds.
Less is more: Bundle diffing comes to EAS Update.
Instead of downloading the full bundle on every update, devices now receive a binary patch of only what changed.
Result: ~75% smaller downloads.
β¦ A 3MB update drops to ~0.75MB
β¦ Opt-in beta, safe fallback to full bundles
expo.dev/blog/ship-sm...
Expo SDK 55 is out π
RN 0.83, React 19.2 & a long list of things that make your app faster, smaller, & easier to build
β¦ Hermes bytecode diffing cuts update sizes by ~75%
β¦ Brownfield support gets a serious upgrade
β¦ MCP now queries EAS + TestFlight crashes
Full changelog: expo.dev/changelog/sd...
Great! A lot has improved in terms of tooling and onboarding over the last years. Glad to hear it shows π
One of the nice things with React Native is that you rarely need to do a full native build.
If you run into any difficulties along the way, feel free to reach out.
Haha, now imagine being a classic native developer. Move a view 2pt --> recompile π€£
But sounds like a great test app. Howβs it been so far?
Yeah, same thought here. The ecosystem size definitely matters.
Plus React usually follows quite consistent patterns which probably helps as well.
Completely agree. Itβs probably not just JS, but the huge amount of React code available.
And React tends to follow clearer patterns. Other areas are often more individual, which makes suggestions probably less reliable.
How did the build go in the end? π
And what were you building on a Friday afternoon?
Working both with React Native and iOS native, Iβve noticed that AI tools seem to be more helpful (at least for me) in React Native projects.
Curious if others have similar or completely different experiences?
Especially the relocating views part looks amazing. I once implemented something similar on the native side for a video player. Having a simpler way to achieve that sounds really promising.
I actually read about Teleport in a newsletter this morning already. It looks awesome.
I have a side project where weβre currently trying to move away from portals because they tend to cause issues. I hope Iβll find some time soon to give Teleport a try.
I published a guide on how to build Instagram-like shared transitions in React Native across all three major platforms:
kirillzyusko.github.io/react-native...
Even Android Instagram and web donβt have this beauty implemented in their apps - but itβs possible in React Native. Check out how!
The last six months were pretty intense. Two projects with tight timelines and some interesting challenges along the way.
So I barely had time to be active here.
Time to change that again π
Who from the React Native community is still around?
React Native 0.84 is now available!
This release makes Hermes V1 the default JavaScript engine and ships precompiled iOS binaries by default β bringing significant performance improvements and faster build times to all React Native apps.
reactnative.dev/blog/2026/0...
Huge thanks to @expo.dev for featuring our journey with DEPOT on their blog! Big thank you as well to @baumstumpf.bsky.social for the editorial support π
The path to success was built one step at a time - and those incremental improvements compounded to really pay off. π
π€ Learn how bitglow modernized DEPOT's React Native app with Expo Prebuild, cutting upgrade time by 80% & boosting performance scores from 36 to 90.
The blog from @bonesyblue.bsky.social is a blueprint for speeding up an RN e-comm app and protecting rev with OTA updates.
expo.dev/blog/how-to-...
Do it!
And congratulations π
We shipped compiler caching for EAS builds today π
30% faster builds (both platforms), free for everyone, literally just set one env var. ccache does the heavy lifting on native compilation.
SDK 53+ for Android, 54+ for iOS
expo.dev/changelog/co...
React Native 0.83 is now available!
This release includes React 19.2, new React Native DevTools features, and support for new Web APIs. And, it's the first React Native release with no user facing breaking changes.
reactnative.dev/blog/2025/1...
Reanimated 4.2.0 is here, and it brings gifts! π₯
π Long-awaited Shared Element Transitions π Not production-ready yet, so theyβre behind a feature flag. Please, test it out and give us feedback!
π Experimental performance fixes, inspired by real apps...
I'm using both professionally and would take RN over Swift for pretty much all standard use cases.
* Faster time-to-market
* OTAs
* Multiplatform
* etc.
In your case, an MVP for a startup idea, just take what makes you get to MVP fastest, I'd say.