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Expo vs React Native: Streamlined Development

Evan Bacon
Evan Bacon
Creator of Expo Router, manager of dev tools and the web platform at Expo.

Introduction to Expo SDK and React Native

When it comes to building cross-platform apps, React Native and Expo SDK offer a streamlined approach. The Expo SDK consists of npm packages that are versioned together, ensuring compatibility across iOS, Android, and web platforms. This integrated system simplifies the dependency management issues often faced in React Native development.

Expo Go, a reusable native runtime, allows developers to open their apps on iOS and Android instantly without native builds. This approach reduces complexity and speeds up the development process, making it as straightforward as web development.

Development Cycle and Fast Refresh

The development cycle with Expo and React Native is designed for efficiency. By running Expo Start, developers can see their app's bundler dev server URL in QR form, which can be scanned by a smartphone camera to open the app in Expo Go. This process resembles how a web browser interacts with a local dev server, enhancing the development experience.

React Native uses primitives like view, image, and text instead of traditional HTML elements. These primitives render to native views on each platform, maintaining a consistent appearance across devices. Fast refresh ensures that updates preserve the React component state, enabling quick iterations.

Publishing and Deployment with EAS

Deploying mobile apps has historically been complicated, but Expo Application Services (EAS) simplifies the process. EAS build automates native code signing and validation, minimizing the need for local resources. It allows iOS development on any device by handling builds in the cloud.

With EAS CLI, developers can submit their app to app stores with a single command, reducing the steps involved. This streamlining is akin to web development practices, enhancing accessibility for developers without macOS machines.

Over the Air Updates and App Store Restrictions

Expo's over-the-air updates allow instant updates to JavaScript and assets in the app. By using Expo Publish, updates are bundled and pushed to a hosting service, waiting for the user to open the app again. This approach mirrors web service worker caching policies.

While Expo enables rapid development, app store restrictions necessitate using the Apple App Store and Google Play Store for distribution. EAS build automates this process, ensuring compliance with platform requirements.

Custom Native Code and Development Clients

Although Expo provides extensive tools and APIs, there may be occasions when custom native code is necessary. Developers can create custom development clients, similar to Expo Go, with specific native features by using npm to install React Native modules and rebuilding the app.

Expo's auto-linking, config plugins, and Expo modules facilitate the integration of native code. These tools automate the linking and configuration processes, streamlining the development experience.

Managed Workflow vs. Bare Workflow

Expo offers two main workflows: Managed and Bare. The Managed Workflow reduces the need for direct interaction with native code, focusing on cross-platform configuration. The Bare Workflow provides full control over every project aspect, ideal for developers needing granular customization.

Managed Workflow projects utilize a config file, app.json, to manage iOS and Android folders. This setup simplifies upgrading by allowing developers to regenerate native projects based on the config file, similar to npm's package management system.

Streamlining React Native Development

Expo addresses common React Native challenges, such as native runtime creation, dependency management, and app deployment. By leveraging Expo Go, developers bypass the need for Xcode to display a basic app on a device. The Expo SDK ensures package compatibility, while one-command app deployment simplifies distribution.

Upgrading React Native applications is notoriously challenging. Expo's approach makes it comparable to upgrading any React project, reducing the complexity and frequency of native upgrades.

New Features and Future Developments

Expo continues to evolve, introducing support for monorepos and the Expo Modules system. These advancements allow developers to write native code in a Node module and link it directly to Managed Workflow projects, enhancing flexibility and scalability.

Expo Modules provide a simplified way to write native code, using Swift and Kotlin as first-class languages. This system offers a well-documented foundation for building fast, efficient modules, improving the overall development experience in React Native.

Conclusion

Expo and React Native present a robust framework for building cross-platform applications. With tools like Expo Go, EAS, and Expo Modules, developers can streamline their workflow, reduce complexity, and focus on delivering high-quality apps. By addressing common pain points in React Native development, Expo empowers developers to create innovative solutions efficiently.

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From Author:

App development is hard, React and Expo make it easy!

It's never been simpler to build and deploy powerful mobile apps with incredible features to both Android and iOS users all over the world.

We’ll discuss building and deploying mobile apps seamlessly from the cloud using EAS, creating powerful dev clients (like browsers but for mobile app development) for testing your app, pushing OTA updates instantly to users, and much more — no native experience required!

This talk has been presented at React Advanced 2021, check out the latest edition of this React Conference.

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FAQ

React Native is a framework that allows developers to build cross-platform mobile applications using React and JavaScript. It enables the same codebase to render on both iOS and Android platforms by using native views instead of web views.

The core differences are that React Native uses proper native views instead of drawing views to Skia like in Chrome. This allows for platform optimizations such as smooth scrolling, gestures, and complex animations. React Native also supports the use of multiple threads and custom native clients for extra functionality.

Some challenges include the need to create a native runtime to get started, managing dependencies which are harder than in web development, distributing the app via App Store or Google Play Store which involves complex code signing, and frequent and complex upgrades requiring familiarity with iOS and Android native development.

Expo simplifies React Native development by providing tools such as a reusable pre-built runtime, fast iteration speed, and integrated cloud services. It allows developers to create and run apps without native builds, manage dependencies easily, publish apps with a single command, and add native code or customize the client with minimal complexity.

Expo CLI is a modern Node.js Command Line Interface that helps developers interface with the bundler, start a development server, and perform various development tasks. Developers can install Expo CLI globally and create new projects with commands like 'expo init' and run them on iOS, Android, or web platforms using NPM scripts.

Expo Go allows developers to instantly open their app on iOS and Android without needing to make native builds. It includes most of the APIs needed for complex native apps built ahead of time, reducing the complexity and time required to launch a 'Hello World' app, making it as easy as web development.

Expo uses a tool called Expo Application Services (EAS) for deploying apps. EAS automates native code signing, validation, and submission to the App Store or Google Play Store. Developers can submit their app with a single command, simplifying the traditionally difficult and error-prone process of deploying mobile apps.

Over-the-air updates in Expo allow developers to update JavaScript and assets in their app instantly. By running 'expo publish,' the JS bundle is pushed to a hosting service, which the app's runtime checks for updates. The next time the user opens the app, the updated version is downloaded in the background and presented.

Expo has two main workflows: the Managed Workflow and the Bare Workflow. The Managed Workflow allows developers to avoid working directly with native code and maximizes cross-platform configuration. The Bare Workflow provides full control over every aspect of the project, requiring manual updates for native configurations.

The Expo SDK is a set of npm packages versioned together to ensure compatibility. It includes core primitives and community packages that support iOS, Android, and web platforms. The SDK simplifies dependency management and provides a reliable versioning system to solve common issues encountered in React Native development.

mobile appsreact nativereact native expo
Evan Bacon
Evan Bacon
27 min
22 Oct, 2021

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Video Summary and Transcription
Today's Talk discussed building cross-platform apps with React Native and Expo, addressing challenges such as setting up the native runtime and managing dependencies. Expo provides a pre-built runtime, native APIs, fast iteration speed, and integrated cloud services. EAS build simplifies app deployment by handling native code signing and validation. Over-the-air updates allow instant updates to JS and assets. Custom native code can be added using auto-linking and config plugins, and Expo supports both Managed and Bare workflows.
Available in Español: Desarrollo de aplicaciones ilimitadas con Expo y React Native

1. Introduction to React Native

Today we're talking about building cross-platform apps with React and Expo. React Native allows us to write code once and render to multiple platforms. It uses proper native views for improved performance and allows us to reuse code across platforms. However, there are some challenges, such as setting up the native runtime and managing dependencies. The app's runtime must also be distributed to app stores.

2. Introduction to Expo and React Native Development

In this part, we'll discuss the challenges of code signing and upgrading React Native applications. We'll also introduce Expo, a set of tools that solve these issues. Expo provides a pre-built runtime, native APIs, fast iteration speed, and integrated cloud services. We'll cover creating an app, the development cycle, publishing to the store, adding native code, and upgrading the app. To get started, install Expo CLI, create a new project, and use NPM scripts to start on iOS, Android, or web. React Native's development cycle is fast and enjoyable, and it uses primitives to render native views for each platform. Community packages provide additional features.
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