Getting the most out of Expo Development Builds
summary
Expo Go now supports only the latest SDK (SDK 51+), so projects that need custom native modules move to development builds — debug apps that include the Expo dev client. Continuous native generation (CNG) generates iOS/Android projects from app config, and EAS cloud builds handle keystores, iOS provisioning, and produce installable artifacts with QR codes. Expo Orbit launches emulators and installs builds locally. EAS Update plus the GitHub action creates JS-only PR previews that install via QR, and the workflow demonstrably works end to end.
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chapters (13)
- 0:00Introduction to Expo
- 1:28Why development builds
- 7:03What is a development build
- 9:50Continuous native generation
- 10:56Building in the cloud with EAS
- 13:42Signing credentials with EAS
- 15:28Expo Orbit for builds
- 16:32Development workflow benefits
- 17:37Launching the development build
- 19:04Dev tools in development builds
- 20:09Dev tools plugins
- 21:36GitHub integration and PR previews
- 23:10Summary and resources
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