I have nearly finished making an app for tracking my nutrition – basically a better version of MyFitnessPal custom made to my own needs. I never intend on distributing it. I want a local build, with its own dedicated app icon on my home screen, not the tedium of opening Expo Go and tapping through to my build.

Is there a way to accomplish this without having to go through App Review? I'm afraid it will fail review because it's a blatant copycat, even though I only made it for personal use.

I'm trying to follow what I thought would be a straightforward local workflow:

1. Start the Expo dev server with expo start

2. Develop the app on the iOS simulator

3. Once ready, open the Xcode project, build, and run it on the simulator

Unfortunately, step 3 fails because the app expects the Expo dev server (Metro) to be running to fetch the JS bundle. This seems like a hard requirement.

I suppose you could manually tweak the Xcode project to load the bundle as a local resource, but that feels counterintuitive and messy.

Also, eas build --local still requires both Expo build tools and an Apple developer account, so it's not a pure local solution either.

Am I missing something obvious here, or is this just how it works with Expo right now? Any tips or clarification would be appreciated — thanks!

EDIT:

When I say step 3 fails, I meant that is running the expo dashboard which requires the dev server to run. I just want to run it without the server i.e. as the production build.

I've been working with Expo React Native for Android for quite a while but I'm very new to Expo React Native iOS. Like in Android when we generate .apk file it can be directly run on a physical device without submitting to Playstore. Can the same be done for iPhone?

In short: Can I install iOS app directly into iPhone without submitting to AppStore?

Hi everyone,
I'm working on building my own app using Expo in React Native. I successfully built the app for Android and installed it on my Android phone. Now, I want to do the same for my iOS app.

I built the iOS version using the Expo system, and I received a .tar.gz file. Inside it, there is a .app file. I tried uploading this file (for example, to Google Drive), downloading it onto my iOS device, and installing it. However, this approach doesn't work.

How can I properly install the app on my iOS device?

Additionally, I have purchased a developer account for my Apple account.

I’ve noticed a few of my friends are taking a different approach to building iOS apps, and I wanted to see how common this is. Currently, I’m learning SwiftUI to build a small app for myself. Since I only plan to target iOS, SwiftUI seemed like the natural choice.

However, a couple of my friends are using Expo and React Native for their projects—even though they have no plans to release their apps on Android. When I asked why, they said Expo is easier to work with and that building apps with SwiftUI is significantly more complex.

Can anyone with experience in both ecosystems weigh in on this? Is SwiftUI really that much harder? Should I consider switching to Expo and focus on learning TypeScript instead?

Hi, is there a way to deploy an app on a physical device without the need for a paid developer account or a mac? I do have an iPhone. Any help would be great. I just need to run my app on my apple device. Thank you.

Hi

I have a new Expo project and I have set up the iOS device to access the development build. So now I'm trying to create the iOS dev build using the command eas build --profile development --platform ios and I get the following error:

Build failed:

The "Run fastlane" step failed because of an error in the Xcode build process. We automatically detected following errors in your Xcode build logs:

- value of type 'ExpoReactDelegate' has no member 'reactNativeFactory' Refer to "Xcode Logs" below for additional, more detailed logs.

I asked ChatGPT and it gave me some suggestions (like updating the AppDelegate.swift file but I have no idea where that file is) but I'm not sure if they would be the right thing to do so that's why I'm asking here as well.

Thanks a lot

My app has a native component. It is running fine on Android and now I want to get it on iOS. I don't have any Apple hardware and my Android development is done on Windows. So I plan on getting an iPhone to test my app on. The other thing I'm gonna need is mac mini desktop which I'm still trying to make a decision on whether to buy or rent in the cloud.

My question is when exactly in the process am I gonna need to use macOS? I know I will need it to create an expo dev build for my app right? But once I have the dev build, can I serve it to iPhone from Windows? In other words, once expo generates the ios directory on macOS. Can I copy it over to Windows and continue there?

Also, I read that I will need a macOS to upload to the app store for purposes of app signing. If this is true, can Expo help me get away with that without having a macOS?

Hey guys, I am building an expense tracker app for myself with expo sdk50. Now is it possible to use the app without submitting the app to app store or for testflight. I do have apple developer account.

Hi! As title says, I'm trying to run my app on a connected iPhone. I'm able to run expo run:ios --device, but when I choose my device from the options, this error pops up:
› Your computer requires some additional setup before you can build onto physical iOS devices.

Learn more.

No code signing certificates are available to use.

I can't click on "Learn more". I'm able to run the app on the iOS simulator, so not sure what's wrong with it. What do I need to do to get the app to run on my phone? Thanks.

First, I just wanted to say a huge thank you to this amazing community as you all have been a tremendous resource in the development process of my first mobile app!

The app I made is called LiftJourn and it's a fitness tracking app with some AI features along with social features to interact with friends. As this is my first mobile app, I would like some advice on how to start getting more users. I started with the apple app store search ads, and plan on starting a tik tok account to showcase the app more.

Do y'all have any tips/guidance on what the best strategy is on acquiring more users? I’d also really appreciate any feedback on the app itself (features, design, etc.), I'm more than happy to answer any questions about the app as well!

I made a website for it here: https://www.liftjourn.com/

iOS store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/liftjourn/id6588801960?platform=iphone

Give me your pros & cons over the two solutions down in the comments please 🙏🏼

I just released my first (free!!) iOS app called PhysiqueOS, a fitness tracker for lifters who want more than just workout logging. It includes structured workout tracking, daily metric logging (sleep, weight, calories, energy, etc.), visual analytics, and AI-generated insights based on your data.

This thing took me like ~200 hours as its my first project. I’ve already found a bunch of small bugs now that it’s live, so I’m hoping to get more eyes on it and hear what could be better.

If you’re into performance-oriented apps or want to see how advanced analytics and AI can tie into a lifting tracker, I’d really appreciate your feedback:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/physiqueos/id6746656903

Hi, is there any configuration which I can do in expo to build the app for Iphones only not Ipads.

Hi everyone, I have a complicated case. I am trying to build my first Expo app (been an RN dev for a long time), however, I currently don't have a MAC so was hoping to use EAS to build iOS in the cloud and test in an iPhone using the Expo GO app. I am using Firebase in my app and their docs clearly state that I have to make a development build because the RN Firebase library is incompatible with Expo Go.

Is there a way for me to debug and develop the app for both platforms using EAS without needing a Macbook? If yes, what can I use besides Expo Go - which is not suitable for all apps?

I’m building a basic booking app with Expo targeting both Android and iOS. How far does the 30 builds/month free tier usually get you? Do dev builds count toward the limit, and any tips to conserve builds? I am actually noob when it comes to app dev coming from web.

I had some React (web) experience, and jumped directly into building the app with Expo React Native with Cursor. In two months, I managed to build in my free time an app with authentication (Supabase), notifications (Expo Notifications), subscriptions (RevenueCat), and connection to APIs (built with NodeJS on my server).

It is called Trend To Grow, and it focuses on giving content ideas to influencers, marketing teams, and content creators.

If you already know how to code, building React Native apps with Cursor is super straightforward. However, I feel you still need coding knowledge to be able to create a production-ready app. The biggest pain for me was handling the RevenueCat integration, and testing the local notifications.

Other parts like building the UI and Sign In With Apple were way easier to build than I anticipated.

Let me know if you have any questions! 😊

You can check it out here: https://apps.apple.com/es/app/trend-to-grow-ai-post-ideas/id6741577892?l=en-GB

Hello

I don't have experience with React and React Native. I will create simple app, connect with my REST API, access to Camera. In feature I will want to create also web app.

Should I use Expo or better create without Expo?