Expo SDK 50 — Expo Changelog

JAN 18, 2024

Today we're announcing the release of Expo SDK 50. SDK 50 includes React Native 0.73. Thank you to everyone who helped with beta testing.

Introducing Expo Dev Tools Plugins

This API provides a foundation for library authors and adventurous app developers to build browser-based plugins to debug and interact with aspects of their library/app. We built plugins for popular tools: Apollo Client, TanStack Query, TinyBase, React Native Async Storage, and React Navigation — available in the expo/dev-plugins repository.

New and improved SQLite and Camera APIs

expo-sqlite/next: a complete re-write of the SQLite library, modernizing the API and bringing it towards parity with web and Node.js equivalents. The API includes both sync and async methods, support for prepared statements, update callbacks, and the Blob data type. SQLite version updated to 3.42.0 on both platforms. A Knex dialect for expo-sqlite is also available.
expo-camera/next: updated to modern native platform best practices for accessing the device camera. For advanced use cases like frame processors, react-native-vision-camera is recommended.

import { CameraView } from 'expo-camera/next';

export default function Camera() {
  return (
    <CameraView
      style={{ flex: 1 }}
    />
  );
}

Introducing @expo/fingerprint

Answers the question: "How do I know if an app JavaScript bundle is compatible with a particular build of my app?"

The @expo/fingerprint CLI or API generates a fingerprint representing the unique native characteristics of a project. If the fingerprint changes, the JavaScript app targeting the older fingerprint may be incompatible.

Usage: npx @expo/fingerprint path/to/your/project

Expo Router v3

The next major release for universal file-based routing and advanced web support. Includes bugfixes, stability improvements, better documentation, web support, testing, and types. Now has experimental support for building universal server endpoints with API Routes.

EAS Build

Xcode 15.2 is now the default for macOS workers
JDK 17 and Ubuntu 20 are now the default for Linux workers
Node 18 is now the default (changed from Node 16 on November 27, 2023)
Improved warnings and errors with "build annotations"
Pre-warmed CocoaPods cache for faster builds
Expo Orbit v1 released: Makes it faster and easier to install and run builds from EAS
Added support for Bun, .nvmrc file reading for Node version, --profile flag for eas build:run, eas build:delete command, and improved fully customizable builds preview

EAS Update

New JavaScript API: useUpdates() hook in the expo-updates package for easy tracking and interaction with updates state

import { useUpdates } from 'expo-updates';

export default function App() {
  const {
    currentlyRunning,
    availableUpdate,
    isUpdateAvailable,
    isUpdatePending,
  } = useUpdates();
}

Dashboard UI features: Create/remove channels, republish updates, and remove them
Rollbacks: Instruct production apps to roll back to their embedded update on next check
Rollouts: Gradually roll out updates to a percentage of users to minimize production impact

Basic Expo Modules support for tvOS and macOS

The use_expo_modules! method now works on tvOS and macOS targets in the Podfile
Packages supporting tvOS: expo-application, expo-av, expo-constants, expo-device, expo-file-system, expo-font, expo-image, expo-keep-awake, expo-localization, expo-splash-screen, expo-updates, @expo/cli
Packages supporting macOS: expo-constants, expo-file-system, expo-keep-awake

First-class Expo support in Sentry

sentry-expo has been merged into @sentry/react-native@5.16.0, and sentry-expo is now deprecated. The integration with EAS Update is improved: eas update --branch <branch> && npx sentry-expo-upload-sourcemaps dist

Other Highlights

React Native 0.73 and React 18.2.0
expo-font config plugin now supports natively adding fonts to your app
expo-secure-store improvements: Synchronous getItem and setItem functions, unified Android/iOS behavior. Breaking change: fetching a non-existent value now always returns null
expo-dev-client defaults to loading the most recently opened project; configurable with "launchModeExperimental": "launcher"
Added npx expo run command: Prompts to select target platform if not specified
npx expo install --fix now upgrades the expo package to latest patch version
Native project update tool: Similar to React Native Upgrade Helper but for Expo Modules projects
Web bundle splitting with Metro, enabled by default
Improved error messages: Full stack traces for component errors, tree shaking of unused code, faster bundling
URL and URLSearchParams standards now built-in to the Expo core runtime
Improved isolated modules support: Can now use pnpm or npm --install-mode=isolated
Preview of experimental React Native JS debugger UI
@expo/webpack-config is deprecated in favor of Expo CLI's Metro web
CSS enabled by default with Metro web
tsconfigPaths enabled in @expo/metro-config by default for path aliases
Babel configuration changes: Removed unnecessary Hermes transforms, moved vector-icons alias to Metro resolver, added Reanimated plugin by default
Bundler no longer starts automatically from Xcode
npx expo prebuild no longer runs install on each run by default if no dependency changes

Notable Breaking Changes

Android SDK 34, AGP 8, and Java 17: Must install JDK 17 for local builds
Android minimum supported version bumped to Android 6 (API 23)
iOS minimum deployment target bumped to 13.4
Expo CLI and React Native now require Node 18+
Classic updates no longer supported: Use EAS Update instead
@expo/vector-icons updated to react-native-vector-icons@10.0.0: Adds FontAwesome6 support, changes to Ionicons and MaterialIcons (ios-/md- prefixes dropped)
expo-updates APIs mostly unavailable in Expo Go and expo-dev-client: These are designed for production builds
React Native 0.73 changed to Kotlin: MainApplication.java/MainActivity.java now MainApplication.kt/MainActivity.kt
ProgressBarAndroid and ProgressViewIOS removed from React Native
Refer to Expo Router v3 breaking changes if you use it

Expo Go: Dropped SDK 47 and 48

SDK 47 and 48 projects will no longer work in the latest version of Expo Go. Older versions of Expo Go can be installed for these SDKs.

A single SDK version per release of the Expo Go app: Looking ahead to SDK 51

Expo Go has historically supported multiple SDK versions in a single installation. Starting with SDK 51, each Expo Go release will support only a single SDK version. This change is motivated by the shift toward development builds as the primary development workflow. Expo CLI will continue to automatically install the appropriate Expo Go version for your project's SDK.

Known Issues

Snack support for SDK 50 is not yet available
Expo Go for iOS: Source maps not working correctly, JavaScript debugger doesn't connect (not present in development builds)

Upgrading your app

Update to the latest version of EAS CLI:

npm i -g eas-cli

Install the new version of the Expo package:

npm install expo@^50.0.0

Upgrade all dependencies to match SDK 50:

npx expo install --fix

Additional upgrade steps:

Verify and remove unnecessary resolutions/overrides in package.json
Run npx expo-doctor@latest to check for known issues
Check changelog for all breaking changes
Upgrade Xcode if needed (Xcode 15 required, 15.2 recommended)
If using Expo Router, check v3 breaking changes
If not using Continuous Native Generation:
- Run npx pod-install if you have an ios directory
- Apply changes from the Native project upgrade helper
- Or consider adopting prebuild
If maintaining Expo Modules:
- For Android: Update build.gradle for Gradle 8 changes
- For iOS: Update platform deployment target from '13.0' to '13.4'
If maintaining config plugins: Update for MainActivity/MainApplication Kotlin migration
If using Expo Go: Update from app stores
If using development builds with expo-dev-client: Create a new development build after upgrading
Join the SDK 50 launch live-stream on January 31st on YouTube