April 2026 Summaries

Janic Duplessis, head of consulting at App&Flow and a seasoned React Native contributor, shares insights into optimizing animations in React Native applications, particularly focusing on the challenges posed by the Reanimated library's reliance on the UI thread, which can lead to frame drops in busy apps. To address these issues, App&Flow developed react-native-ease, a declarative animation library that leverages platform APIs like Core Animation on iOS and ObjectAnimator on Android to run animations outside the app's thread, reducing UI thread overhead. The post details a comprehensive benchmark comparing four animation approaches—react-native-ease, Reanimated's worklet-based and CSS animation APIs, and RN Animated with useNativeDriver: true—across various devices and configurations, highlighting how react-native-ease significantly lowers per-frame UI thread costs by offloading animations to the OS render server. The findings underscore the importance of choosing the right animation library based on the specific needs of the app, particularly for long-running animations or those involving a high number of concurrent animations, while acknowledging the forthcoming improvements in React Native 0.85 with its Shared Animation Backend.

Beginning April 28, 2026, all apps submitted to App Store Connect must be developed using Xcode 26 or later with an SDK for iOS 26, iPadOS 26, tvOS 26, visionOS 26, or watchOS 26. Projects using Expo SDK 54 or 55 are already compliant, as the default EAS Build image for these SDKs employs Xcode 26. For those using SDK 53 or earlier, opting into Xcode 26 builds can be achieved by specifying "image": "latest" or "image": "macos-sequoia-15.6-xcode-26.2" in the eas.json file. However, compatibility with Xcode 26 may vary depending on the libraries used, and upgrading to at least SDK 54 is recommended to ensure alignment with the new requirements.

Said Kaban, CTO and Co-Founder of FERASET, recounts how the AI consumer app studio embraced Expo—a tool often seen merely as a prototyping platform—to rapidly develop successful mobile applications. Contrary to the prevailing belief in Turkey that Expo was limited to demos, FERASET recognized its potential to deliver production-ready apps quickly, drawing parallels to the rise of Next.js in the React ecosystem. This foresight allowed them to capitalize on the burgeoning AI boom with their app, Music AI, which achieved the #1 spot in the App Store globally. By leveraging Expo, they developed a suite of apps focusing on different user experiences, enhancing their efficiency with tools like expo-ai-kit for on-device AI tasks. Despite initial skepticism, Expo's managed workflow proved stable and scalable, enabling FERASET to grow their user base and app complexity without outgrowing the framework. Their journey underscores Expo's capability in facilitating rapid, scalable app development, positioning FERASET as a leader in the mobile AI space.

Upgrading React Native applications is often a complex and daunting task due to the need to address unfamiliar native code, crucial libraries, and breaking changes, which can lead to errors if not thoroughly tested. At Hipcamp, the challenge of upgrading to New Architecture and Expo 54 involved handling numerous outdated libraries and dependencies, but the process was streamlined by using an AI agent named Scout. This agent efficiently managed dependency research and version resolution, significantly reducing the time required from months to weeks. The upgrade was approached in phases, starting with building the agent, auditing dependencies, manual review, and finally, quality assurance and monitoring. By leveraging AI, engineers were freed to focus on complex problem-solving and product development, demonstrating that AI agents can enhance engineering workflows by automating tedious tasks rather than replacing human engineers.

Joining Expo as Chief Developer Evangelist while continuing as Executive Director of the React Foundation, the author expresses excitement about Expo's potential to streamline development processes by reducing complexity and enhancing developer velocity. Expo's ability to facilitate rapid iteration and cross-platform reach aligns with the author's vision of unleashing human potential to solve global problems. The convergence of AI and mobile development presents a unique opportunity, making Expo well-positioned for future advancements. The author is inspired by the technical conviction and ecosystem thinking demonstrated by Expo's team, particularly noting transformative interactions with key team members. In this role, the author aims to expand the Expo ecosystem by fostering connections with the broader React community and supporting AI-assisted development workflows, emphasizing that the true value of technology lies in empowering the people who create it.

Expo has secured a $45 million Series B funding round led by Georgian, along with other partners, to accelerate the development of its developer infrastructure platform. Although already profitable, Expo sought this investment to quickly meet the growing demands of users and to enhance its capabilities, particularly in integrating AI features. The funding will enable Expo to hire more engineers and expand its offerings, aiming to make app development accessible to a broader audience beyond traditional software developers. This initiative reflects Expo's commitment to simplifying and improving the app creation process, with open roles available for those interested in contributing to their mission.

EAS Update is a tool that enables developers to quickly deliver critical fixes to their users without disrupting the user experience, emphasizing the importance of efficient and lean update strategies for faster downloads and lower costs. This guide explains how to optimize updates by managing Monthly Active Users (MAUs) and bandwidth, with techniques like compressing images, using asset selection, and leveraging Hermes bytecode diffing to reduce download sizes. It also highlights the value of utilizing rollouts and over-the-air (OTA) updates for internal testing and previews, which enhances the speed and efficiency of the development and review process. Monitoring usage through Expo's dashboard and using the pricing calculator can help teams select the most suitable subscription plan, ensuring scalability and flexibility as the app grows. By maintaining lean updates and strategic rollouts, teams can enhance the user experience and derive greater value from their EAS Update plan.

Michał Pierzchała outlines a method for building a lightweight mobile QA agent for Expo apps using EAS Workflows and the agent-device tool, designed to automate UI verification for iOS and Android pull requests without requiring a large test framework. The approach leverages EAS Workflows' capabilities to handle mobile-specific continuous integration tasks, such as reusing builds and running custom jobs, to streamline the QA process. By utilizing a minimal template, developers can quickly set up a QA agent that inspects UI changes, takes screenshots, and posts a QA summary directly under pull requests on GitHub. The strategy emphasizes a split between deterministic tasks, like installing and launching apps, and variable, agent-driven tasks, such as UI inspection and reporting, to maintain reliability and flexibility. This setup enables fast iteration and scalability, allowing teams to expand coverage as needed while keeping the agent small and efficient.