make sure in app.json

{
  "expo": {
    "name": "your app name",
    "description": "your app desc",
    ....,
    "ios": {
      "supportsTablet": true
    },
    
    "android": {
      "package": "com.yourcompany.yourappname"
    }
  }
}

then run expo build:android or expo ba

after that

run expo build:status you'll find, something like this, the Apk's is hosted on amazon aws

[exp] Android:
[exp] APK: https://HOST/yourapp.apk

Follow the below steps to create an apk using expo cli

Install expo CLI To check if you have expo CLI install run

expo -V

you need the eas build tools

npm install --global expo-cli eas-cli

First requirement for generating the apk file is creating an expo account. Create an account here

Login to expo CLI

• Open cmd

• Login to expo account using the command :

• expo login

By default the eas build tool will give you a playstore build file.

If you want a .apk file you need to create a eas.json file and add a buildType as apk

 {
  "build": {
    "preview": {
      "android": {
        "buildType": "apk"
      }
    },
    "preview2": {
      "android": {
        "gradleCommand": ":app:assembleRelease"
      }
    },
    "preview3": {
      "developmentClient": true
    },
    "production": {}
  }
}

You can check out more about the eas build tool here.

Build

Open cmd in your app directory.

Run the build command

eas build -p android --profile preview

Download apk

After the build is complete you can go to the builds section in your expo dashboard and download the apk.

https://expo.dev/accounts/username/projects/projectname/builds/0cecd3ee-41aa-4a5a-9cc7-6f7b3ea6fc52

I finally got it to work. The funny part is that I got the answer from the AI that is now banned here. But I just tested this solution on a real android device and it works. Anyway there are two changes needed:

1. REQUEST_INSTALL_PACKAGES must be added to app.json file.
2. Uri for intent must be a content uri so: localUri = await FileSystem.getContentUriAsync(localUri)