February 2026 Summaries

SDK 55 introduces bundle diffing in EAS Update, aimed at reducing download sizes by allowing devices to download only the changes between updates rather than full bundles, resulting in up to 75% smaller downloads. This new feature, currently in beta and opt-in, uses the bsdiff algorithm to create patches that are applied locally on devices, significantly decreasing download times for Hermes bytecode and JavaScript on both Android and iOS. To utilize bundle diffing, apps must be on Expo SDK 55 or later and enable the feature in their configuration. However, bundle diffing has limitations, such as not supporting embedded bundles and requiring devices to be running the latest published update to receive a patch. Although patches are generally generated soon after an update is published, there may be a short delay during which full bundles are served. Developed to lower bandwidth costs and improve update efficiency, the team invites feedback through Discord or their website to further refine this feature.

Expo SDK 55 introduces support for React Native 0.83.2 and React 19.2, maintaining compatibility with Android API level 36 and Xcode 16.1, while requiring adoption of the New Architecture as support for the Old Architecture ends. It emphasizes the importance of consulting the changelog for potential breaking changes and encourages developers to use development builds over Expo Go for a stable transition. The SDK includes enhancements like the separation of expo-av into expo-audio and expo-video, and an opt-in Hermes v1 compiler for performance improvements. The upgrade process involves using Claude Code and Expo's skills library to manage package updates and breaking changes, while emphasizing careful testing, particularly in development builds, to ensure smooth integration. Developers are advised to upgrade to the New Architecture separately from the SDK to isolate and troubleshoot issues effectively, with support available through community channels and detailed troubleshooting guides.

Over-the-air (OTA) updates are essential for React Native teams, enabling them to deploy updates directly to users' devices without needing new binaries or store submissions. Successful implementation involves using preview and production channels to test updates before full deployment, detecting native changes through fingerprinting to decide if a new build is necessary, and understanding which changes can be safely delivered via OTA. Gradual rollouts and the ability to quickly roll back updates minimize risks, while the expo-updates API offers control over update timing to ensure users receive critical fixes promptly. By embedding these practices into their workflows, teams can deploy more confidently and efficiently, minimizing downtime and enhancing user experience.

Onespot, a platform for building custom-branded mobile apps for schools, has streamlined its deployment process for over 200 React Native apps by automating over-the-air (OTA) updates using Expo, GitHub Actions, and a mobile phone. This approach eliminates the need for manual updates on a developer's laptop, transforming the deployment into a data-driven solution. Onespot's system leverages a centralized JSON registry to manage app-specific configurations, and a Python script, "onescript.py," generates necessary config files for each app. Deployments are triggered via API, enabling team members, even non-developers, to initiate updates through a secret admin dashboard in the apps themselves. The automation reduces the complexity and time involved in deploying updates, ensuring scalability and efficiency while maintaining security and oversight through CI/CD practices. This innovative approach highlights the importance of treating deployment as a first-class system, ultimately making the process more reliable and less error-prone by separating repetitive tasks from human intervention.

Expo's OTA update service, EAS Update, allows developers to deploy updates rapidly to users while maintaining control over the process through staged rollouts, monitoring, and rollback strategies. This approach enables developers to test updates in real-world conditions by initially limiting exposure to a small percentage of users, thereby observing how the update performs before wider distribution. Real-time monitoring via the EAS dashboard helps track update adoption, detect crashes, and evaluate trends, ensuring updates are stable before expanding rollout. Rollbacks and reverts are available for handling issues that arise, providing mechanisms to revert to previous states if problems occur. Additionally, updates can be optimized for bandwidth efficiency using features like Hermes bytecode diffing. Despite the potential challenges, EAS Update aims to streamline the update process, offering a robust framework for continuous app improvement while allowing developers to confidently introduce changes to their user base.

EAS Workflows is Expo's comprehensive CI/CD orchestration system designed to automate the entire mobile app delivery process through YAML-defined pipelines. It allows developers to manage builds, tests, updates, and notifications in a single configuration file, offering more flexibility and power than previous systems like GitHub build triggers. EAS Workflows enables the customization of build processes by allowing the replacement or creation of new build steps, which are now integrated into a unified workflow that can trigger on events such as pushes and pull requests. The system supports custom build job configurations and pre-packaged job types for common tasks such as submissions, updates, and notifications, enhancing automation and efficiency. This orchestration platform allows for full integration with existing CI systems, managing mobile-specific tasks while enabling teams to maintain their current workflows. EAS Workflows continues to evolve, aiming to provide new job types and deeper integrations, making it a robust tool for teams to ship mobile applications more reliably and quickly.

The article describes the development of an AI-first Photos app built with Expo and the Coreviz SDK, emphasizing a seamless user experience similar to native iOS Photos but with the added power of AI features. The app aims to bridge the gap between professional and consumer photo apps by offering intuitive organization and editing tools without overwhelming users. The focus on a native-feeling interface is achieved using React Native and Expo, which allow for cross-platform development while maintaining high performance and aesthetics. A significant challenge was replicating the pinch-to-zoom interaction of iOS Photos, solved by using multiple virtualized grids with cross-fading transitions rather than recalculating layouts, ensuring smooth performance. The solution led to the creation of an open-source component, react-native-zoom-grid, enabling developers to incorporate a similar zoomable grid feature in their applications. The app's design, interactions, and AI capabilities are showcased in the Studio app, available on the App Store.

Over the past month, the website team has delved deeply into using Claude Code to enhance their development process and workflow, sharing their insights with the company and now publicly. They found Claude Code particularly effective for knowledge retrieval in unfamiliar code areas, executing well-specified tasks, and working within codebases with strong patterns, while recognizing its limitations in context management and the necessity for ongoing guidance and engineering judgment. The team highlighted the importance of onboarding Claude with concise system prompts and utilizing skills and context management strategies to optimize performance. Parallelizing work using tools like Git worktrees was also recommended to maximize productivity. Despite its challenges, Claude Code is seen as a valuable tool that, with proper utilization, is enhancing workflows across the company, encouraging a cautious yet enthusiastic approach to integrating AI into their daily operations. The team is committed to continuous learning and improvement in agentic coding and is open to sharing further insights and answering questions about AI integration and their work with Expo in the future.

DEPOT, a home décor retailer in Germany, faced significant challenges with an outdated React Native setup for their app, resulting in user dissatisfaction and technical debt. Collaborating with bitglow, they leveraged the latest features from Expo and React Native to overhaul the app, resulting in a more efficient and future-proof codebase. The transformation involved auditing the existing codebase, optimizing performance, automating build processes, and implementing over-the-air updates to quickly address issues without waiting for app store approvals. These improvements reduced technical debt, accelerated upgrade cycles, improved user experience, and increased developer efficiency. The project highlights the importance of modernizing app infrastructure to enhance business agility and user satisfaction, demonstrating how strategic technical expertise can transform legacy systems into robust, scalable solutions.

Thomino, the creator of Native Templates, shares insights into modern app development using tools like Expo, NativeWind, and Reanimated, which have simplified the design process significantly. Moving away from traditional design tools like Figma, Thomino prefers to design apps directly in code using Expo Go's live preview feature. He emphasizes the importance of creating reusable components that can be easily styled for various applications, facilitating a more efficient workflow. Key components include flexible headers, animated tab navigation, multi-step forms for onboarding, and reusable chip components for filters and forms. NativeWind enhances theming by allowing entire app themes to be toggled in one file, ensuring light and dark modes are integral to the design system. Thomino also highlights the use of Reanimated for building animated dark mode toggles and the speed of creating pre-built screen templates for common app features like Login and Settings, demonstrating how these tools enable the creation of visually appealing and functional apps.