React Native Or Expo? Both.

Vante clarifies that “Expo or React Native?” usually means asking whether Expo should manage the app’s native layer. The managed workflow lets developers focus on JavaScript or TypeScript and simplifies React Native upgrades, while adding or changing native code requires leaving that workflow. Bare projects and ejected apps can still use Expo tools and services.

Snack offers an in-browser environment for experimenting with React Native, sharing examples, and previewing components. Expo’s web setup combines React Native Web with platform-specific configuration, and its adapters support tools such as Next.js, Gatsby, Electron, and Storybook. Vante describes the Expo SDK as cross-platform libraries for capabilities including camera, file system, and notifications; bare projects can use them by installing React Native Unimodules.

Expo Notifications provides a cross-platform API for local and remote notifications, with an Expo service that sends pushes through APNs and FCM. Expo Updates can deliver JavaScript and asset updates through release channels, with options for rollbacks, promotions, and update behavior. Teams with strict hosting requirements can host update bundles themselves, but must manage release operations such as channels and rollbacks.

Vante previews a build service intended to bring managed-workflow build automation to any React Native app, including credential handling and store builds. He also describes plans for easier internal testing and a development client built around an app’s own native runtime. A proposed workflow could publish previews for pull requests, while adding custom native libraries to managed apps was still being explored.

Vante frames Expo as a set of tools and services for building, shipping, and iterating on React Native apps. His closing point is that teams can use Expo services whether or not they choose the managed workflow.