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Expo – Open-source platform for making universal apps for Android, iOS, and web

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Re: Expo – Open-source platform for making universal apps for Android, iOS, and web

#31

Post by hbcondo714 »

Expo 49[1] was released earlier this month which includes network and VSCode debugging which will make life easier. Even though I registered my Expo 48 mobile app[2] with EAS and did Android + iOS builds, I never received an email about this upgrade...glad this is posted on HN!

[1] https://blog.expo.dev/expo-sdk-49-c6d398cdf740

[2] https://github.com/hbcondo/revenut-web

Re: Expo – Open-source platform for making universal apps for Android, iOS, and web

#33

Post by paradite »

I've been using Expo for past 2 years and I enjoyed the experience overall.

But make no mistakes that Expo is a SaaS with the ability to inspect some part of the codebase.

(I stand corrected here) ~Everything important for building and distribution process is moving to EAS, cloud-based service that is not open-source and cannot be self-hosted. So if want to build your app using your own VPS, you are out of luck (at least for Expo managed workflow).~

Again I'm happy with their service and probably would pay for it when the time comes, but the open-source part is not really the big selling point anymore.

Re: Expo – Open-source platform for making universal apps for Android, iOS, and web

#34

Post by pests »

wesvance wrote: post #14

I've used Expo going on 3 years now, their development team is incredible. There are very few reasons to use base react-native over Expo anymore; They make upgrades to new RN versions easier, can support any custom native libraries, have an awesome build service (EAS), support OTA updates, their docs are great... I could go on and on. If you're a RN dev and haven't tried out Expo in the past year I highly recommend g…

I haven't used react native in years. Expo at the time felt like a shitty add-on trying to capture some part of the app development process but I didn't feel it added anything.

Sounds like I s gotten a lot better and found an actual usecase. I'll have to check them out again.

Re: Expo – Open-source platform for making universal apps for Android, iOS, and web

#36

Post by vladev »

paradite wrote: post #33

I've been using Expo for past 2 years and I enjoyed the experience overall. But make no mistakes that Expo is a SaaS with the ability to inspect some part of the codebase. (I stand corrected here) ~Everything important for building and distribution process is moving to EAS, cloud-based service that is not open-source and cannot be self-hosted. So if want to build your app using your own VPS, you are out of luck (at l…

You can use the `--local` flag to build on your own computer/CI/VPS. `eas build --local -p ios --profile production` can locally build you an iOS bundle. Don't expect it to work out of the box, though. Your machine should have all the XCode tooling correctly installed and configured. Works for Android as well.

Re: Expo – Open-source platform for making universal apps for Android, iOS, and web

#37

Post by Cthulhu_ »

vladev wrote: post #36
paradite wrote: post #33

I've been using Expo for past 2 years and I enjoyed the experience overall. But make no mistakes that Expo is a SaaS with the ability to inspect some part of the codebase. (I stand corrected here) ~Everything important for building and distribution process is moving to EAS, cloud-based service that is not open-source and cannot be self-hosted. So if want to build your app using your own VPS, you are out of luck (at l…

You can use the `--local` flag to build on your own computer/CI/VPS. `eas build --local -p ios --profile production` can locally build you an iOS bundle. Don't expect it to work out of the box, though. Your machine should have all the XCode tooling correctly installed and configured. Works for Android as well.

> Your machine should have all the XCode tooling correctly installed and configured. Works for Android as well.

I mean that's the case for the 'regular' React Native workflow as well, and most mobile / crossplatform development. That said, yeah getting RN running is a bit more effort compared to Expo, but it allows for a bit more flexibility.

We decided against using Expo because we had a number of 3rd party dependencies (trackers, analytics, chat, sigh) that had native components; it can work with Expo, but the dependency has to implement support for it, and that was a bit all over the place.

Re: Expo – Open-source platform for making universal apps for Android, iOS, and web

#40

Post by Cthulhu_ »

RobotToaster wrote: post #35

Looks like it's mostly just a wrapper for a proprietary build SaaS

On the surface, yeah, but a bit deeper it allows a more web-style development flow; you as a developer only deal with the Javascript part, nothing about the native part. Expo is a runtime, whereas React Native / Metro is a full mobile app stack.

Likewise, with Expo it's easier to do code push, that is, just release a new JS bundle for over-the-air updates without going through the app store. Again, this is possible in RN as well, but it's a bit more involved.

Finally, Expo allows for easier (internal) demos; anyone with the Expo app installed can scan a QR code during your internal demo to install the app over the air, again without having to go through app stores. This can score you points depending on where you work.

Personally I'm still convinced 'real' native apps are better, but few companies want to invest in development & developers for that. My experience with React Native (not Expo) has been positive so far though, with very little issues between iOS and Android - actually, for me personally it's mainly been figuring out how to install custom fonts (custom fonts and Font Awesome for icons). I hope to not have to touch that again, lol.

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