In this episode, Jon Samp, head of product at Expo, shares his background in herpetology research and how he transitioned into programming. He discusses his experience developing the Codecademy app with Expo and the challenges he faced. John also talks about his other apps, including the Single Origin coffee timer and WordCheck for Scrabble. He emphasizes the ease of creating hobby apps with React Native and the importance of using native elements for good design. The conversation concludes with a discussion on EAS and how teams can work better together. Jon highlights the improvements being made to the onboarding experience and the Expo dashboard, and the focus on workflow improvements and release management. He also shares future plans for EAS, including enhancing team coordination and communication and improving device management and notifications.

Learn React Native - https://galaxies.dev

Jon Samp

• Jon Twitter: https://twitter.com/jonsamp
• Jon Website: https://jonsamp.dev

Links

• Expo EAS: https://expo.dev/eas

Takeaways

• React Native and Expo make it easy to develop hobby apps without a large team or production process.
• Using native elements and animations in React Native apps can enhance the user experience and make the app feel more polished.
• EAS (Expo Application Services) simplifies the development and deployment process for React Native apps.
• EAS allows for side-loading apps on iOS and Android, making it easy to distribute apps for development purposes.
• The easiest way to distribute iOS apps is to use EAS device calling create, which generates a QR code that can be scanned to install a provisioning profile.
• EAS supports updates and over-the-air updates, allowing for easy distribution of app updates to users.
• EAS provides a faster and more convenient way to build and distribute private applications compared to using Xcode and Android Studio.
• Future plans for EAS include improving the onboarding experience, enhancing team coordination and communication, and adding features for release management and workflow improvements.