May 2026 Summaries

Expo Router v56 represents a major update for the library, notably marked by its decision to fork parts of React Navigation for enhanced control and customization, particularly for file-based routing and server-side rendering. This change allows Expo Router to evolve independently while offering improvements such as streaming server-side rendering, Android toolbar support, and expanded Native Tabs API, aimed at achieving feature parity with iOS. The fork simplifies integration, improves compatibility, and reduces complexity by addressing dependency versioning issues. Users are encouraged to migrate using provided tools and guides, with the Expo team facilitating this transition and continuing to collaborate with the React Navigation team on a shared API for library authors. The release also includes enhancements for web capabilities with new SSR options and helper utilities, alongside features like Suspense customization and metadata generation, to improve user experiences and streamline development.

Expo SDK 56 introduces a significant enhancement to the Expo UI by integrating UI runtime worklets, facilitated by react-native-worklets, which allows event callbacks to operate synchronously on the UI thread. This development enables seamless control of UI state without reverting to the JS thread, exemplified by synchronous input masking in TextFields, where each keystroke immediately updates the shared text state, allowing for flicker-free formatting like credit card numbers directly on the UI thread. The integration of worklets provides a native-feeling user experience and presents a synchronous alternative to existing asynchronous methods, applicable to various use cases such as phone numbers and currency formatting. This enhancement is compatible with both SwiftUI and Jetpack Compose, and while TextInput is the first component to feature synchronous callbacks, more components are expected to follow in future updates.

Expo UI has reached a stable state with SDK 56, offering a unified framework for building native applications across iOS, Android, and web platforms using SwiftUI and Jetpack Compose. The update allows developers to utilize real platform-native components instead of JavaScript reimplementations, with universal components that can be imported from a single source, simplifying the development process. Key features include drop-in replacements for community packages, support for SwiftUI and Compose native primitives, and the ability to mix various UI toolkits within a single app, providing flexibility to create both native-feeling and custom-designed interfaces. Additionally, Expo UI is bundled into Expo Go, is included in the default create-expo-app template, and now supports platforms like Apple TV and Android TV, thanks to community collaboration, which played a significant role in shaping this release. This stable release encourages further development and iteration, promising a robust foundation for future enhancements.

Expo SDK 56 introduces compatibility with React Native 0.85 and React 19.2, along with support for Android API level 36 and Xcode 26.4, while maintaining compatibility with Android 7+ and iOS 16.4+. This release includes prebuilt XCFrameworks for iOS to enhance build speed and introduces Hermes bytecode diffing by default to optimize updates. The update process is supported by tools like Claude Code and Expo MCP, which assist in handling upgrades and troubleshooting. Developers are encouraged to transition from Expo Go to development builds for a more accurate reflection of production apps, as Expo Go's limitations might not fully represent an app's configuration. The SDK emphasizes the importance of upgrading to the New Architecture, as SDK 54 was the last to support the Old Architecture, with advice provided to manage the transition smoothly. The Expo team highlights the community's role in the upgrade process, urging users to leverage resources such as detailed documentation, troubleshooting guides, and collaborative platforms for support and feedback.

The article by Perttu Lähteenlahti, a developer advocate at RevenueCat, delves into the increasingly competitive mobile app market, highlighting insights from RevenueCat's State of Subscription Apps 2026 report. It emphasizes that success in app monetization is less about novel ideas and more about shipping quickly, continuous testing, and iterative monetization strategies. Lähteenlahti outlines a preferred tech stack for building profitable apps, including tools like Expo, Tanstack query, and RevenueCat for efficient development and monetization. He also offers strategic advice on app monetization, such as the importance of immediate user engagement, the effectiveness of hard paywalls, and the benefits of longer trial periods. The piece stresses the need for continuous iteration on onboarding and paywalls, and the value of engaging with users to improve app offerings. Additionally, it touches on the potential and challenges of AI-powered apps, noting their higher revenue potential but also faster churn rates, suggesting that retention should be prioritized over pricing.

Expo has revolutionized the process of developing and launching React Native apps by significantly reducing setup time, allowing developers to create production-ready apps rapidly. However, this speed has shifted the challenge from app creation to app discovery, necessitating effective App Store Optimization (ASO) to ensure visibility among over two million competing apps. ASO, akin to SEO for app stores, involves optimizing app listings to rank higher in search results, as the majority of downloads still originate from search rather than ads or social media. Key ASO elements include strategically using keywords in the app title, subtitle, and screenshots, while also considering ratings, reviews, and localization. The ongoing nature of ASO requires continual updates to maintain visibility. To streamline this process, ASO Skills, an open-source AI tool, integrates directly into existing development environments, enabling automated audits and optimizations without the need for external dashboards. This tool aims to make the entire process of building, shipping, and optimizing an app seamless and efficient, aligning with Expo's goal of minimizing friction in app deployment and discovery.

A React developer transitioned into mobile app development by creating "Sun Buddy," a native iOS app designed to track sunlight exposure using Expo, Claude Code, and Expo Skills. Despite initial apprehensions about the complexities of native development, the developer found that many React skills were directly transferable, allowing them to quickly adapt to the new environment. Sun Buddy utilized native device capabilities such as location tracking, haptics, and notifications, demonstrating that even small apps can leverage these features to create a more immersive user experience. The developer's journey highlighted the importance of understanding native-specific aspects like permission prompts and build configurations, which were facilitated by Expo and Expo Skills, bridging the gap between React web development and native app creation. The experience underscored that while native development does present unique challenges, it is not an insurmountable task for those familiar with React, and leveraging tools like Expo can significantly ease the transition.

Expo is focused on optimizing build speeds to accommodate the diverse needs of developers, from students to enterprise teams, who require rapid feedback and swift deployment of apps. To address increasing demand and hardware constraints, Expo has expanded its fleet of Mac Minis and implemented several measures to enhance build performance, including compiler-level caching and prebuilt binaries for common packages. The introduction of EAS Update allows developers to update only JavaScript changes without full rebuilds, leveraging fingerprint-based workflows to determine when native code changes require a rebuild. Local builds are supported via the Expo CLI, which integrates with Android Studio and Xcode, enabling developers to perform native code debugging and testing even without a cloud connection. By allowing developers to focus on creating rather than managing infrastructure, Expo aims to facilitate seamless app development and iteration.

CineMe, developed by Kiril Kostev, is a mobile app that transforms a selfie into a cinematic AI-generated video in various genres like action and horror, designed for quick sharing on platforms like TikTok. The app's development was expedited using Expo, a React Native framework, enabling rapid iterations across iOS and Android without platform divergence, which was crucial given the tight timeline. The app employs an asynchronous pipeline where a Flask API handles image uploads and scene prompts before an AI model generates the video and returns it through a webhook. Users are kept informed of progress via client-side polling. Challenges included managing file uploads, implementing a robust async job pattern, ensuring reliable polling, and overcoming video playback issues. Despite missing the initial two-week target, CineMe was successfully launched in 36 days, demonstrating the value of rapid deployment and real-world user feedback for iterative improvement.

Pierre Cangemi, a React Native and TypeScript expert, shares insights from building Tendbble, a media-heavy social video app that competes with major platforms like Instagram and TikTok, with just two frontend developers. Despite initial doubts, the team successfully developed the app to deliver smooth performance on both iOS and Android by enforcing a rule that only one video can play at a time, reducing memory usage, and using tools such as Reanimated and Skia for seamless animations. They also tackled challenges like memory leaks from react-native-vision-camera, adapted performance budgets to different devices, and ensured offline functionality by managing cache persistence and addressing issues with expired media URLs. The experience highlighted the importance of managing native resources, optimizing platform-specific performance, and making strategic decisions beyond the capabilities of existing tools, demonstrating that a small team can create a polished product by leveraging the right technologies and focusing on critical development choices.