November 2025 Summaries

In iOS 26, the behavior of the bottom sheet has evolved to include a liquid glass appearance and new transition states, offering a floating effect with visible gaps at different detents, similar to the interaction seen in Apple Maps. The text explores various methods to replicate this effect in Expo, an open-source toolchain for React applications, including using expo-swift-ui BottomSheet, Expo Router formSheet Presentation, and TrueSheet by Jovanni Lo. Each approach offers different levels of control and customization; expo-swift-ui provides a native experience still in beta, Expo Router offers a simple implementation with limitations on customization, and TrueSheet allows extensive control over animations, detents, and appearance using native APIs. While these methods can achieve the liquid glass effect, they present different challenges and suitability depending on the desired level of detail and control, catering to developers interested in advanced React Native animations and UI design.

Vexo offers a seamless integration with Expo, allowing developers to embed Session Replays directly within the Expo dashboard to gain insights into user interactions with their app following each EAS Update. This integration enables the observation of user behavior, feature discovery, and engagement or frustration points without leaving Expo, while providing easy access to the full Vexo dashboard for more comprehensive analytics. Vexo, an analytics platform for React Native and Web apps, simplifies tracking user interactions and engagement through advanced tools like heatmaps and session replays, which aids in making informed product decisions. The straightforward integration process involves just a single line of code, automatically populating the dashboard with core metrics, and offers a special launch offer for Expo users.

A small development team transformed their Expo app and Next.js web app into a universal application without a major rewrite, by gradually merging components and features into a single codebase. Starting with a monorepo setup using Turborepo, they shared a single button component across platforms, which set the stage for further integration. Utilizing shared React Native components adapted with react-native-web, and platform-specific hooks, they ensured that new features were developed once and operated on both mobile and web platforms. The migration involved moving to a file-based routing system with Expo Router and adopting shared packages for features like a universal payment interface. The process was characterized by incremental steps taken during regular development cycles, allowing the team to maintain product delivery while enhancing feature parity and reducing code duplication. This approach not only streamlined their workflow but also improved consistency and bug management across platforms, demonstrating the potential of universal app development to improve efficiency for small teams.

EAS Workflows is a CI/CD service tailored for React Native apps, designed to work seamlessly with existing CI/CD solutions like Github Actions, enhancing mobile-specific processes such as build, update, and submit jobs with minimal configuration. While developers often compare it to Github Actions, EAS Workflows offers distinct advantages, such as simplifying signing, accelerating builds, and reducing complexity in build credential management. It integrates with Github events and can be used alongside or as a replacement for existing CI systems, allowing developers to optimize their CI/CD pipelines by selectively using EAS Workflows where it benefits the most. The service also provides powerful tools for conditional job execution based on unique Expo app characteristics, such as native fingerprints and the ability to perform "repack" jobs, which can significantly speed up testing and deployment processes. By offering a flexible and efficient approach, EAS Workflows presents an opportunity to enhance and streamline the CI/CD processes for mobile-focused development teams without necessitating a full migration from existing systems.

Phantom, a leading crypto wallet, has achieved a streamlined, high-performance mobile app by utilizing a unique engineering structure and leveraging the Expo framework. Instead of a large dedicated mobile team, Phantom's platform team, comprised of experienced React Native engineers, maintains the app's foundation, while full-stack product engineers across the company contribute to its features. This horizontal and open approach empowers engineers to impact various areas beyond their core responsibilities, despite limited backgrounds in React Native. Phantom integrates Expo SDK with tools like React Query, TypeScript, and Signalium to ensure scalability, security, and cross-platform consistency. The app's development is facilitated by Expo Dev Client and EAS Build, enabling weekly production releases and efficient end-to-end testing. Moreover, Phantom's Wallet SDK allows other developers to embed crypto functionalities into their apps, promoting broader crypto adoption. This case study highlights that with the right tools and structure, a lean team can build an efficient and secure app, exemplifying Expo's capability to meet the high standards of crypto wallets while fostering rapid development and innovation.

EAS Hosting, introduced earlier this year, aims to simplify the deployment of Expo apps for the Web and API endpoints using Expo Router, offering streamlined functionality from the outset without deployment concerns. It features granular request logging, crash reporting, and platform-grouped metrics for API monitoring. Following its release, Expo Launch was built using EAS Hosting and Workflows, and future improvements are planned to make it a go-to choice for Expo projects. The new expo-server library in Expo SDK 54 introduces essential APIs, replacing the @expo/server package, and is designed to unify functionality across runtimes while avoiding vendor lock-in. The update also includes experimental support for middleware in Expo Router, enhancing server-side code flexibility. EAS Hosting is based on Cloudflare Workers, and recent runtime improvements allow compatibility with Node.js libraries. Its increased reliability supports millions of requests weekly, with new features like wildcard custom domains and a deployment file browser enhancing user experience. The ongoing development focuses on expanding server-side capabilities, including stateful features and storage APIs, alongside stabilizing web and server-side support in Expo Router, positioning EAS Hosting as a foundation for future hosting innovations.